osx - Why am I getting this weird character in PowerPoint on OS X?
2014-07
conorgriffin
I'm getting this odd character on OS X in PowerPoint. It seems to be replacing '>' and other mathematical operators. I'm guessing it's a missing font...
Jukka K. Korpela
What you see is a glyph from the Last Resort font. This glyph stands generically for a Private Use code point. No characters are assigned to such code points in the Unicode Standard. Instead, there are allocated for use by private agreements between consenting parties. They have no meaning outside such agreements.
So it’s not just a matter of fonts, it’s about character data. The data might have been copied from somewhere, from a context where a font containing glyphs in Private Use codepoints is used. To make the data displayed the intended way, you would need to find and install that specific font. To make the data robust and portable, you would need to find a way to identify the intended characters as Unicode characters (they are probably defined in Unicode) and convert the data accordingly (and use some font that contains glyphs for the characters at their assigned code points).
devuxer
I'm not sure what part of my system is responsible for this, but when using PowerPoint, I have problems when trying to resize drawing objects. I'll be dragging the handle and suddenly, the object will deselect and whatever is behind the object will select and start moving around. Next thing I know, the keyboard won't type anymore, and the only way to fix it is to unplug the USB and plug it back in.
In case it's hardware related, I'm using an IMB Thinkpad T60P in a docking station. My keyboard is a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro. My OS is Windows XP SP3.
I've never noticed this happening in anything besides PowerPoint, and I don't know anyone else who has this problem (even people with similar setups).
Any ideas what it could be?
Edit
Well, it looks like I only get the problem if I plug the mouse into my docking station's USB. If I plug directly into the laptop's USB, everything works fine. And, again, this problem is only with PowerPoint. I tried playing with some drawing objects in Word and had no issue no matter where my mouse was plugged in.
I should also mention I tried a different mouse (a standard Microsoft corded mouse instead of my Logitech trackball), but that made no difference. So, I don't think it's anything specific with the trackball or the trackball's driver.
I tried searching Google but came up empty, so I'm guessing this problem is something unique to my setup.
If you have any thoughts or ideas to try, I'd love to hear them.
devuxer
Well, it looks like it's something to do with my docking station. If I plug my mouse directly into my laptop (rather than into the dock's USB), I don't have any problem.