Or maybe the question is more are “Wingdings 2” font ok for ebook readers? I’m not sure which one (reader or epub) is stripping out the font.
I’m using shift+r for a box with a check mark in it. But that renders as just a box on the reader.
Is it best to expect everything will be Times New Roman only (Amazon, iBookstore, Nook, Kobo)?
The font has to be on the reader device to work. If you are using it for a special bullet or something, you may be able to find a substitute in the character map that works on a variety of e-reader models. It’s usually best to stay simple though, else you risk some display problems on less popular devices and e-reader software.
Right. But what does a Windings 2 checkbox translate into for simple?
I’ve seen open circle bullets on Kindles. I thought maybe that and a closed circle could replace unchecked and checked. But I don’t know if that works in all the formats above. How can I be sure what will work or is the lowest common denominator?
Try the Unicode box-with-check character. Use Edit/Special Characters... to open the character map and in the search box, type in ‘check’. You should see it in the search results. Double-click to insert one and then run some tests to see if it shows up. It worked for me on the Kindles.
Yes - that works great on Kindle. Without having all of these devices, is there some way to test them? Maybe something similar to the Kindle Previewer, which lets you test 3 versions of the Kindle from your computer.
For example, I don’t have a Nook or Kobo.
I can’t help you on the Kobo, but I heard that B&N has a Nook emulator/previewer that you can install like Kindle Previewer, but I’ve never found it and I suspect they may have just rolled it all into their web previewer (which isn’t terribly accurate, I’ve heard, but should suffice for checking if their built-in fonts can display the characters). I unfortunately do not have my Nook with me at the moment, so I can’t run a test for you. Otherwise just testing in as many Mac applications as you can is good too. Calibre and Adobe Digital Editions (which uses the same basic engine that Nook uses, I believe) are good.
The absolutely safest route you could take would be to use a little picture of a checkbox wherever you need one. This would be a pain to do by hand, but using Scrivener’s Replacements compile option pane you could use a shorthand (even potentially your current ‘@’ character) to convert them to image placeholder codes. So for example if you dropped a picture of your checkmark into the Binder and called it ‘Checkmark’, you could search for @ (or whatever the underlying character is beneath the wingding font, that’s what it is on my keyboard) and replace with <$img:Checkmark>.
The downside to using graphics is that they will not scale with the text size set by each individual reader. So if someone has poor vision and is using large print to read, the checkmarks will not scale with the font and remain comparatively small. Likewise someone reading in a small font would see larger than ordinary checkboxes. So while pictures should work everywhere—they also present a less flexible layout in a realm where flexibility is important. I’d stick with the Unicode if you can.