Word 2010 Font Problem: different fonts showing up on screen

Anonymous
2010-06-09T21:52:26+00:00

I upgraded from Office 2007 to 2010 two weeks ago. Whenever I open up documents in Print Layout View that were created under earlier versions of Word (2000, 2003, 2007), Word replaces several of the fonts with something that looks like Arial bold.Sometimes it changes just the title fonts, sometime the entire body font--it's not always the same phenomenon in each document. 

The Font window on the Home tab still shows the name of the original font being used in the document, but the screen does not show that font--it just shows whatever it replaces the font with. Repeat: even though the screen in showing a different font, the Font window on the Tab Screen shows the name of the font the document should be showing.

When I change to Draft View, the fonts all display properly, but I need the correct fonts in the Print Layout to show because the bogus font that Word substitutes throws off the accuracy of what I'm looking at.

Is anyone else having this problem?

Jeff

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2010-06-24T19:57:39+00:00

I solved this problem by saving the troublesome file in what 2010 calls "compatability mode>"

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Anonymous
2010-06-28T15:17:36+00:00

Eutactic, I finally tried this solution. I really was not comfortable deleting everything under \Office, but after backing up the registry, I gave it a try. So far it seems to have worked. I will be finishing an important project during the week, so I will have daily opportunities to see how this holds up.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Jeff

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Anonymous
2010-06-16T09:05:01+00:00

I believe I have solved this problem by simply backing up and deleting all the registry values in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office. Obviously this is an extreme approach that wiped my preferences, but it appears to have done the trick.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-08-27T13:29:38+00:00

    I too have this problem and would like to add if helpful:

    I can no longer change a font to an open type font, it just reverts to the default (cambria) font.

    I cannot change the default font to an open type font.

    My fonts in the drop down list now have what looks like a zero or "italicized O" to the left of them.  I did not notice this before.  None of the other microsoft programs have this (excel, publisher, or power point); but Outlook does (I assume as it uses Word).  The other programs have the usual double "t".

    What's changed since I noticed the problem:  I installed a trial version of Publisher.  I installed Microsoft Web Expression 4.  I do not have Adobe CS or InDesign installed, but I do have Adobe Photoshop 8 installed; however, I did not experience the problem until I intalled either "publisher" or "web expressions".  I have also kept up-to-date with my security updates and will try uninstalling some of them and let you know.

    I am using Word 2010 on a Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Service pack 1.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-08-26T01:26:02+00:00

    In Microsoft Word 2007 (which I use at work) and 2010 at home, I opened the folder containing my default Normal.dotm template but I did NOT double click on it.

    1. I right clicked the Normal.dotm file icon
    2. I selected Open in the drop-down menu
    3. This opened the Normal.dotm template instead of creating a blank Word document.
    4. I clicked the Page Layout tab
    5. In Word 2010, Themes appeared at the left edge of the ribbon
    6. I clicked the down arrow next to Fonts in the Themes area to open a drop-down list
    7. The first time I did this, I clicked Create New Theme Fonts
    8. I chose Heading and Body Text fonts which I know will work in Office 2010 -- they may not match the Adobe fonts I will use in InDesign but they work in Office 2010.
    9. I saved the new theme with the name"Compatible" (could have used another name)
    10. I closed the dialog box
    11. I saved Normal.dotm and exited Word

    Next, I opened one of the Word documents I wanted to edit before importing to InDesign.

    1. I made sure to save it as a Word docx.file (at work, in Word 2007, made sure to clear the check box next to Maintain Compatibility with Office 2003 and earlier documents)
    2. I clicked the Page Layout tab
    3. In Word 2010, Themes appeared at the left edge of the ribbon
    4. I clicked the down arrow next to Fonts in the Themes area to open a drop-down list
    5. I selected the new Compatibile theme created earlier
    6. I changed the style formatting for headings and body text to use these compatible fonts.

    So far, since doing this  knock wood, I have not had the dreaded Arial incident occur.

    If I want the Adobe fonts (OpenType or PostScript) to appear in my InDesign file, I let InDesign take care of that little chore either when it imports the Word file or by editing styles in InDesign to be sure it uses the fonts I want.

    Only issue I have had is that at home I use InDesign CS5.5 and at work I use InDesign CS4, and CS4 does not seem to do well placing .docx files saved in Word 2010. So for export to InDesign at work, I resave Word files as Word 2003 documents (.doc)

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