If it isn't, then you will need to either reformat your text, or you will need to install the desired font. Check the name of the font used in the document, and then use the Windows Control Panel to see if that particular font is installed on the machine. These are pretty standard on most systems.)Īnother option is that the font you want to use has been removed from your system. (Try a font such as Arial or Times New Roman. You can check this out by looking at what style is used for the problem paragraphs, and then modify those styles so they use a font that will display as you desire. Of course, this leads to the second possibility: That the font used for a style is no longer valid.

This changes the font back to whatever font is defined for the underlying style assigned to the paragraphs. The way around this problem is to again select the entire document and then hold down the Ctrl key as you press the Spacebar. One possibility is that the document was selected ( Ctrl+A) and then the font changed to one that can't display the characters in use. If the document was readable one minute and then unreadable the next, it means that something changed in regards to the font in use. The key is understanding what it means when characters turn into small squares-that Word is using a font for which character information is not available. There could be any number of causes for this problem.

It seems that as she was working on the document, the whole first page suddenly turned into squares and now she doesn't know how to get the words back. Cheers.Ingrid wrote with a problem she was having with a document. As I said, it's hardly a matter of life or death, just something I've been wondering about. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer with this. But on the off chance it's simpler than I assume, I thought I'd check in ask. Is there any way to get this function for Word 97? An upgrade, download, etc? I'm assuming not, I'm guessing it would require just getting a more updated version of the program. You don't get to see what the font looks like until you actually start typing in the document, after changing the font. One nice function of that program is that one of the menus is 'Font' and you can pull it down and a list of fonts available, how they look, etc.Īt home I use Word 97 for the PC and the program doesn't have that function. I use Word 98 for the Mac at my place of business. I feel sort of dumb for wasting this forum's time with questions like the one I'm about to ask, so please let me apologize in advance.

Fonts for word 97