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Critical Bug: Word for Mac Fails to Render Sinhala Script (Dotted Circles, Broken Combining Marks).

Anonymous
2025-04-22T11:44:15+00:00

Subject:
Critical Bug: Word for Mac Fails to Render Sinhala Script (Dotted Circles, Broken Combining Marks)

Body:
Microsoft Word for Mac (2024) still uses a deprecated text engine that cannot properly render complex scripts like Sinhala, despite macOS’s native support for Unicode and OpenType features.

Specific Failure:

  • Typing Sinhala characters (e.g., "පෝ") displays dotted circles (◌) instead of properly combined glyphs.
  • Fonts like Sinhala Sangam MN (which work flawlessly in Pages/TextEdit) fail catastrophically in Word.
  • The UseCoreText Terminal flag (a known workaround) is ignored or overridden by Word’s legacy DirectWrite-style rendering.

Demanded Fixes:

  1. Full Core Text integration for complex scripts (like Apple Pages).
  2. Respect OpenType features (e.g., glyph combining) in Sinhala, Tamil, Arabic, etc.
  3. Stop forcing Windows-centric text rendering on macOS.

Impact:
This bug actively discriminates against non-Latin script users, making Word unusable for education/government work in Sri Lanka and other regions.

Workarounds Failed:

  • Font substitution
  • Zero Width Joiners
  • Cache resets
  • Manual font editing

Escalate this to the Mac Office engineering team immediately. I will not accept "this is by design" as a response—this is a 20-year-old technical debt that Microsoft refuses to address.

Every other app on my Mac (including free tools like TextEdit) handles Sinhala perfectly. Why does my $100/year subscription software fail at basic text rendering? This is embarrassing for Microsoft

I would upload a picture of the problem but THAT DOES NOT WORK AS WELL.
by that I mean the file uploader is broken.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | MacOS

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435.7K Reputation points
2025-04-22T16:37:24+00:00

You've stated you point very well but there is nobody here who can control what Microsoft does or does not include in their software. This is a peer-to-peer Community manned by paid agents & volunteer users. All we can do is support what Microsoft delivers. Neither can we escalate concerns in any way other than that which is available to all users...

If you want to voice your concerns to Microsoft or submit feature requests the Feedback option in the Help menu of each program is provided for that purpose. The Feedback Portal also can be addressed directly by using the respective link for each program: Feedback Portal. Include a link to this thread if you wish.

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435.7K Reputation points
    2025-05-02T15:22:52+00:00

    Just to clarify further — those who respond here are not Microsoft employees. The forum is manned by volunteer users like myself as well as paid outsourced agents. The channel for submitting comments is the Feedback feature provided in the Help menu of each program.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-01T15:16:44+00:00

    Thank you for your response. I appreciate the clarification about the limitations of this forum.

    However, the fact that even Microsoft’s own support agents acknowledge they cannot escalate critical script-rendering issues speaks volumes about the company’s neglect of non-Latin language users.

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