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"Times" and "Times New Roman" will not display Unicode in Office 2011

Anonymous
2012-02-16T08:26:44+00:00

I am writing a paper that uses Japanese, Chinese, and other Unicode symbols throughout, but the "Times" or "Times New Roman" font does not display them in Office 2011. It displays boxes.

-Office 2011 is the only program I've used, there's no conversion

-When I use Arial Unicode font, it works fine, but I'm required to use Times or Times New Roman for this paper

-If I use a Japanese serif font, the Chinese characters do not display, and vice versa.

-When I copy the "boxes" into Simple Text, Google Docs, and iWork, it displays perfectly in "Times" and "Times New Roman."

I have a hard time believing that Microsoft Office fonts don't support Unicode, so is there something I'm missing?

Thanks for any help!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Answer accepted by question author

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435.6K Reputation points
2012-02-16T12:45:21+00:00

It isn't so much a matter of 'something missing' as it may be a matter of having 'too much' :-) Word 2011 supports Unicode but it is highly sensitive to conflicting fonts. Try the procedure here to see if it helps:  **Font Weeding.**

Also, confirm that you have the most current updates for both OS X & Office 2011.

Repair disk permissions & restart your Mac after completing the above.

Regards,

Bob J.

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Answer accepted by question author

Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-08-11T12:44:43+00:00

Font management is a function of Mac OS and there are 3rd party font management applications , as well. Office only does what it can with the fonts provided by the OS. If a font is corrupt, bad, or unsupported Office can't do anything about it.

To fix font problems you have to use a font management tool. Apple provides Font Book application, which has been very good at detecting and removing problem fonts. The short instructions are to open Font Book application, select all fonts, use the Validate feature, and deal with any fonts that are flagged one-by-one. In the case of a duplicate font, delete the older version (usually has fewer glyphs as I said earlier), and delete any fonts that have other problems. Then restart your Mac, empty the trash, and Office will rebuild its font cache when you open an Office application. 

Don't want to use Font Book?  Here's a review of 25 font management tools:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/09/05/25-font-management-tools-reviewed/

Microsoft Office is not a font management tool. Granted, it does a lot, but it leaves font management up to you and Mac OS.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-02-16T16:08:36+00:00

    Actually, I already use that Input Source.  Thanks for replying, though!

    Just a reminder, for fonts titled "unicode" like "Arial Unicode" - unicode displays perfectly.  Times New Roman doesn't display it, it acts as if I'm using a third-party font without many characters.

    When I turn on "Japanese" the font switches to "Hiragino Mincho" which may actually BE "Times New Roman" for Japanese.  But when I switch back to English, "Hiragino Mincho" remains, and it is not Times (there's a pretty significant difference).

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-16T15:42:19+00:00

    Just to try:

    create a duplicate file and save as a different name. Close.

    Now go to system preferences and turn on English Unicode. Next tick the box to show the icon in main menu bar. now switch to American Flag with u in subscript.

    Now open your new document after choosing English Uincode. See what happens.  Unless Unicode is turned on usually the Unicode characters will not be used.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-16T15:33:26+00:00

    Hello Bob,

    Thanks for taking the time to reply.

    Unfortunately, there were no conflicting fonts in the font book.

    I also repaired disk permissions anyway, but it still didn't do the trick.

    I'm basically just assigning a Times New Roman looking font native to Japanese and Chinese.  That fixes it for now.

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