Word changes font on some language specific characters while writing

Question

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

* open blank document in Word (or new e-mail message in Outlook)

* enter "This is a sentence with some non-std characters; æ, å and ü are fun"

* observe text formatting

EXPECTED RESULT

* all entered in default font (Calibri)

ACTUAL RESULT

* all text *but* the special characters are entered in Calibri. The others are formatted with Times New Roman

MORE INFO

Æ, ø and å are normal/frequently-used glyphs in Norwegian and have direct/single-key entry on a Norwegian keyboard layout.

For some strange reason, they suddenly appear in Times New Roman!

This is a relatively recent change in behavior—was definitely not like this from the start (Win10 & Office 2016). It could be (but I won't swear it is) related to Win10 anniversary update.

I'm running Win10-64, English OS language, Norwegian locale & regional settings on a Lenovo X1 Yoga.

Office 2016 (MSO 16.0.7127.1026) 32-bit.

Answer 1

UPDATE: I have a solution (though no explanation) :)

This was caused by some bug in the default Normal.dotm (and NormalEmail.dotm for Outlook). I deleted them, Word created new versions, and the problem is gone!

Found this because some eager digging, trying different templates where I could not reproduce the issue. Even simplified back to creating a new document with the "Single spaced (blank)" template that is almost an exact copy of Normal.dotm (just with less spacing in the "Normal" paragraph style. This lead me to believe the issue was with Normal.dotm. After disabling it (renaming to ".dotm_"), Word re-created the file, and now the problem is gone!

Would someone at Microsoft be interested in looking at my original Normal.dotm to try to debug?

I have kept the file and I'm able to reproduce the issue using that template.

Best regards,

Henrik

Answer 2

UserVoice is not an appropriate recommendation in this situation; it is for suggesting improvements to the product, not for reporting bugs.

Answer 3

We suggest that you submit your experience as a feedback. You can submit a feedback for Microsoft Word here: Word for Windows (Desktop Application).

Regards.

Answer 4

Hi,

thanks for your time. I have the exact same issue. I enter the text directly via the keyboard. I also tried Insert->Symbol. Same issue.

Answer 5

Thanks for the reply Suzanne!

I observe this both when composing brand new mails, and when replying to existing threads. 

And yes - this happens with the default Calibri font. The glyphs are not that awkward - standard letters in Norwegian alphabet, and included in ASCII (no Unicode double-byte-fancyness, hehe)

Think it might be related to the selected/detected writing language (eg; not tied to the keyboard layout selected in Windows, but more the autodetected autocorrect language in Word). I use English as a default writing language in Word (most e-mails typed in English). However - when I reply to a Norwegian co-worker, I usually have to "live" with a few strange autocorrects (most noticeably, the Norwegian preposition "i" is autocorrected to capital "I") for about a sentence or two before Word/Outlook understands I am tapping away in Norwegian.

The changing of font from Calibri to TNR on æ/ø/å did not happen before, regardless of Word's writing/correction language. And my hypothesis is that this is a bug introduced with or near (with an Office update around the same time?) the Windows anniversary update. 

Br

Henrik