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Word font automatically switches to Chinese (e.g. SimSun) upon inserting advanced punctuation characters

Anonymous
2024-01-22T07:22:57+00:00

I work with a number of people based in China, so I'm not sure if that is why, but I have sometimes found when editing their Word documents that the font automatically switches to 'Chinese' (e.g. SimSun or MS Mincho) when I insert advanced punctuation characters. For example, I might insert an en-dash (–) to amend some hyphens, or I might insert a prime (′).

("Sometimes" = circa 25% of the documents, and then it might be say 20–80% of the text within an affected document.)

(By the way, it is not only me: the latest document exhibits the same issue from primes inserted by the original authors in China.)

Note that I am careful to insert these characters as plain text. For example:

  1. use the numeric keypad (e.g. type 8210 on numeric keypad while holding Alt to get en-dash);
  2. use Word shortcut/hotkey (e.g. type - on numeric keypad while holding Ctrl); or
  3. get desired character from Character Map (in an arbitrary font that contains the character), copy, paste into Notepad (to strip font), copy from Notepad, paste into Word.

To be clear, it is only the font of the inserted (i.e. newly typed) character that is affected. Surrounding (unedited) text is unaffected.

In one case, consecutive sentences within the same paragraph were treated differently. I have anonymised the content in what follows.

In one sentence (Maecenas 18-21 urna.), replacing the hyphen with an en-dash never affected the font (Times New Roman).

In the other sentence (Fusce 20-25 imperdiet 60-80.) replacing the hyphen with an en-dash sometimes didn't affect the font, and sometimes it did. Specifically:

  • No effect if the hyphen was deleted first, and then the en-dash was typed in.
  • No effect if the en-dash was inserted in front of the hyphen.
  • Font switched to MS Mincho (method 1) or SimSun (method 2) if EITHER the en-dash was inserted after the hyphen OR the hyphen was selected and then overwritten. [But method 1 (Alt+8242) causes font-switching to SimSun instead when inserting a prime (′) in those two ways.]
  • No effect if method 3 is used for insertion of an en-dash after the hyphen or overwriting it. But method 3 still causes font-switching (to SimSun) when inserting a prime (′) anywhere in that same sample text.

I have examined the XML of the Word document, and the only difference I can notice is that in the first sentence "18-21" is treated as a single XML element, whilst in the second sentence each of the ranges ("20-25" and "60-80") are split into multiple XML elements.

(I shall paste the full content of document.xml in a follow-up post, to keep this initial post more concise.)

Earlier I had speculated that it might be due to a Style definition, but the above is not really pointing clearly to a Style problem.

I'm interested to know whether others have encountered this. And whether there are some other tips or tricks to avoid the font switching!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-01-22T09:17:37+00:00

    Another method

    1. Insert the troublesome character somewhere into that Word document (or even into a different Word document) where the font switching doesn't occur (using method 1 or 2 or 3). [Let's assume its pasted into a location formatted as being the Normal Style.] Then copy the character within Word (thus , and next paste it into the desired location (where otherwise font switching would have occurred by methods 1–3) [in the same Style]. In case the definitions of the Styles don't quite match, then copy formatting from immediately adjacent text to adjust the formatting of the pasted character.

    By this 4th method there appears to be no font switching in the sample document.

    Although in the past I have noticed such tricks seeming to have worked, and so the editing document has been saved, only to find a font switch for the character when the file was closed and reopened!

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-22T07:32:35+00:00

    Following is the complete content of document.xml for the test document described in the original post.

    It was obtained by extracting the components of the DOCX file using 7-Zip, and then navigating to the "word" folder of what gets extracted.

    I then view it in Internet Explorer (the application may be superseded, but I find it handy for viewing XML), as pasted below.

    I have added emphasis to the parts relating to the numeric ranges in the sample text. 

    
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="true"?>

-<w:document mc:Ignorable="w14 w15 wp14" xmlns:wps="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingShape" xmlns:wne="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2006/wordml" xmlns:wpi="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingInk" xmlns:wpg="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingGroup" xmlns:w15="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2012/wordml" xmlns:w14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordml" xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main" xmlns:w10="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:wp="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/wordprocessingDrawing" xmlns:wp14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingDrawing" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:m="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/math" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:wpc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordprocessingCanvas">

-<w:body>

-<w:p w:rsidP="00302DBE" w:rsidRDefault="00302DBE" w:rsidRPr="00302DBE" w:rsidR="00302DBE">

-<w:pPr>

<w:spacing w:lineRule="auto" w:line="480"/>

<w:ind w:firstLine="480" w:firstLineChars="200"/>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

</w:pPr>

-<w:r w:rsidRPr="00302DBE">

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

<w:t xml:space="preserve">Maecenas </w:t>

</w:r>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

**<w:t>18-21</w:t>**

</w:r>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman" w:hint="eastAsia"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

<w:t xml:space="preserve"> </w:t>

</w:r>

<w:proofErr w:type="spellStart"/>

-<w:r w:rsidRPr="00302DBE">

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

<w:t>urna</w:t>

</w:r>

<w:proofErr w:type="spellEnd"/>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman" w:hint="eastAsia"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

<w:t xml:space="preserve">. </w:t>

</w:r>

<w:proofErr w:type="spellStart"/>

-<w:r w:rsidRPr="00302DBE">

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

<w:t>Fusce</w:t>

</w:r>

<w:proofErr w:type="spellEnd"/>

-<w:r w:rsidRPr="00302DBE">

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

<w:t xml:space="preserve"> </w:t>

</w:r>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

**<w:t>20</w:t>**

</w:r>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman" w:hint="eastAsia"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

**<w:t>-</w:t>**

</w:r>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

**<w:t xml:space="preserve">25 </w:t>**

</w:r>

<w:bookmarkStart w:name="\_GoBack" w:id="0"/>

<w:bookmarkEnd w:id="0"/>

<w:proofErr w:type="spellStart"/>

-<w:r w:rsidRPr="00302DBE">

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

<w:t>imperdiet</w:t>

</w:r>

<w:proofErr w:type="spellEnd"/>

-<w:r w:rsidRPr="00302DBE">

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

<w:t xml:space="preserve"> </w:t>

</w:r>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

**<w:t>60</w:t>**

</w:r>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman" w:hint="eastAsia"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

**<w:t>-</w:t>**

</w:r>

-<w:r>

-<w:rPr>

<w:rFonts w:cs="Times New Roman" w:hAnsi="Times New Roman" w:eastAsia="SimSun" w:ascii="Times New Roman"/>

<w:sz w:val="24"/>

</w:rPr>

**<w:t xml:space="preserve">80. </w:t>**

</w:r>

</w:p>

-<w:sectPr w:rsidRPr="00302DBE" w:rsidR="00302DBE">

<w:pgSz w:w="12240" w:h="15840"/>

<w:pgMar w:gutter="0" w:footer="720" w:header="720" w:left="1800" w:bottom="1440" w:right="1800" w:top="1440"/>

<w:cols w:space="425"/>

<w:docGrid w:type="lines" w:linePitch="312"/>

</w:sectPr>

</w:body>

</w:document>

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