Using Edit - Writing Tools - Character Map, I selected and successfully pasted two lines of characters into a document in Scrivener.
See screenshot below for both of these sets of characters.
Subsequently, I duplicated the document.
The first line of symbols displayed correctly, but the second line of symbols displayed as
PORQSTUV
The same thing happened when I tried to paste the second line of symbols into this L&L Forum message - hence me having to use the screenshot above to correctly show the second line of symbols.
If I want to successfully paste the second line into other Scrivener documents, I have to have the Character Map still open, and click âCopyâ and then paste it into Scrivener.
If I close the Character Map, I lose access to the symbols.
In addition to the above, when I close and re-open any Project that has this second line of symbols, the second line symbols are gone as display as PORQSTUV.
What is happening, and is there any solution to it?
Have you checked the font on the original line that works properly? My guess is that one of these lines is using WingDings or something along those lines, which maps keyboard letters to symbols. Itâs the old school approach, before Unicode became popular. With Unicode the symbol is its own character, not a symbol mapped to an alphabetical letter, and the text engine should in most cases automatically select a font that can display the symbol if necessary. With âPâ it has no idea you meant âcheckmarkâ.
Thatâs my guess anyway, though it is strange that if that is the case the font assignment essentially got lost when you duplicated the item in the binder. It might help to set the WingDing font on the textâperhaps something in how it is pasting isnât conveying the formatting fully.
I omitted to say that the second line of characters is from Wingdings (2, I think), and wondered if that might have something to do with it.
When you say, âIt might help to set the WindDing font on the textâ, what do you mean?
It is strange that it works initially, but then not subsequently, and that the correct Wingdings characters are lost upon closing the Project, as well as when duplicating documents, and copying the Wingdings characters.
I am unable to reproduce your issue.
I navigate away from the document and back. â no effect.
I close Scrivener and reload the project. â no effect.
You can see that the automatic title of my document is PORQSTUV.
But the font is not reset at any time.
If you navigate away and back to your document so that the symbols are showing as letters, is the font still Wingdings2 ?
Is Wingdings2 showing up in your font dropdown list in the format bar?
When Scrivener doesnât have a font available between two computers, it picks another one. Perhaps something a bit like this is happening, if the font is on your system, but somehow not available in Scrivener.
So perhaps (close Scrivener and) reinstall the font?
Windows settings:
Downloadable Windings2 so that you may reinstall it:
â Scan for viruses first, I have no idea if the source is trustable. â
Here are other alternatives:
Number 15 looks functional.
You could also try to âlockâ them in place using a character attribute style ?
I will now paste the Windings2 characters to the forumâŠ
PORQSTUV
So that doesnât work on the forumâs end. You can scratch that out of your âsymptomsâ list.
Else, @AmberV is right about them not having unicode references.
Your first line wasnât Wingdings⊠(or was it?) I donât know what it was, but if its symbols are listed as unicode, perhaps then stick to symbols that are, since those work for you, and Wingdings donât.
You can tell whether they are listed in unicode or not from the character map:
Within a font character set, they donât all have an associated keystroke (where I wrote ânothingâŠâ) ; but in a non-unicode set, none of them do.
Here is was a unicode character looks like in the bottom section of the character map:
I will work my way through them over the next day or so, and will come back here and let you know how I did.
One thing that did happen a few minutes ago was that I chose Wingdings 2, copied the second line (the PORQSTUV characters), and then chose Paste and Match Style, and the PORQSTUV changed to the correct, Wingdings 2 font/characters.
However, when I tried the exact same procedure three or four times after that, this failed on each of those three or four tries, and I just got the PORQSTUV characters again.
Can you please reformulate? â I canât make sense of it.
If you âchoseâ wingdings 2 and pasted it, how could they âchangeâ to what they already are/were?
The part after that I get : you pasted and matched a style (so, a font) other than. If the paragraph is set for TNR, for e.g., it wonât work.
Simple paste should work all the time.
I think you should create a brand new test project and see if it works. That would narrow down the potential cause.
OK,
I am going to attempt to re-explain what I said, and to answer your previous questions as well.
Going forward, I am going to suggest that if you have other (new) questions and suggestions, you carry on the numbering I have assigned to your previous questions (i.e., below, I have numbered the questions you asked and suggestions you made previously, because I think numbering questions makes answering clearer, because in my replies I can just refer to the number of the question asked).
I will also write my answers in italics, for even greater clarity.
If you navigate away and back to your document so that the symbols are showing as letters, is the font still Wingdings2 ? No. The font is the default font I have for my documents - Times New Roman
Is Wingdings2 showing up in your font dropdown list in the format bar? Yes
Your first line wasnât Wingdings⊠(or was it?) My first line was NOT Wingdings, but my second line was
I donât know what it was, but if its symbols are listed as unicode, perhaps then stick to symbols that are, since those work for you, and Wingdings donât. That would defeat the object of using Wingdings 2 - it provides me with the precise appearance of a character that I desire - and this should work
I think you should create a brand new test project and see if it works. That would narrow down the potential cause. I have tried that, and I am getting the same problem behaviour occurring
Can you please reformulate? â I canât make sense of it.
If you âchoseâ wingdings 2 and pasted it, how could they âchangeâ to what they already are/were? And I am confused by your question (!), so I will just try to explain what I did
a. After initially selecting and copying the second line (presumably non-unicode) characters from the Character Map, I copied those (correctly displayed second line) characters and tried to paste them to another newly created scene/document; I also tried to paste them within the same document
b. When I tried pasting the second line characters, the name of the font in the font box was âTimes New Romanâ
c. So, I hit âEnterâ (to go to a new line), chose âWingdings 2â in the font box/drop-down dialogue, and then went back to the Character Map, chose the second line characters again (selected and copied them), clicked on the line in which I had just selected âWingdings 2â and pasted (I actually went through this whole procedure many times, trying Paste and Paste and Match Style, just to see if that changed things).
On only two of these occasions did I get the correct second line characters to appear - all of the other times, the second line characters reverted to the PQRSTUV letters.
I am reluctant to start downloading other versions of the Wingdings 2 font/typeface, because I already have that font on my machine, and as you suggested, the source might contain a virus.
As I suggested above, if you have new suggestions or questions, please start the first new question/suggestion using number 8, and go from there - to refer to already discussed items, please use the appropriate number already used.
