Microsoft KB Archive/296597

= FIX: The Windows Help viewer does not display the automatic formatting symbols correctly =

Article ID: 296597

Article Last Modified on 7/26/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q296597





SYMPTOMS
When you view a Windows Help (WinHelp) file on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 2000, some of the characters are not displayed correctly. The characters appear as a thick vertical line.



CAUSE
This behavior occurs if the rich text format (RTF) file that is used to create the WinHelp file contains the following RTF codes:
 * \rdblquote
 * \ldblquote
 * \endash
 * \emdash

The WinHelp viewer in Windows 2000 cannot correctly interpret these codes. Microsoft Word uses these codes for the following automatic formatting options:
 * &quot;Straight quotes&quot; with “smart quotes”
 * Symbol characters (--) with symbols (-)



RESOLUTION
To resolve the problem, turn off the relevant automatic formatting options in Word, remove the codes from the .rtf file, and then recompile the WinHelp project.

To turn off the automatic formatting options in Microsoft Word 97, follow these steps in Word:

Note A document must be open.
 * 1) On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect. The AutoCorrect dialog box appears.
 * 2) Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, and then clear the following check boxes:
 * 3) * &quot;Straight quotes&quot; with “smart quotes”
 * 4) * Symbol characters (--) with symbols (-)
 * 5) Click OK.

Note Turning off these options does not affect the existing RTF text.

To remove the RTF codes from the .rtf file by using Word 97, follow these steps:  On the Edit menu, click Replace. The Find and Replace dialog box appears. If the advanced find options are not displayed in the Find and Replace dialog box, click More. Click in the Find what box, click Special, and then click En Dash. Type - (a dash character) in the Replace with box. Click Replace All. You see a Microsoft Office Word dialog box with text that is similar to the following:

Word has completed its search of the document and has made 3 replacements.

 In the Microsoft Office Word dialog box, click OK.</li> Click in the Find what box, click Special, and then click Em Dash.</li> Type - (a dash character) in the Replace with box.</li> Click Replace All. You see a Microsoft Office Word dialog box with text that is similar to the following:

Word has completed its search of the document and has made 3 replacements.

</li> In the Microsoft Office Word dialog box, click OK.</li> Press the NUM LOCK key to turn on the numeric keypad.</li> On the Edit menu, click Replace.</li> Click in the Find what box.</li> Hold down the ALT key, use the numeric keypad to type 0147, and then release the ALT key. This is the keyboard shortcut for the left double quotation mark (\ldblquote).</li> Type &quot; (a double quotation mark) in the Replace with box.</li> Click Replace All. You see a Microsoft Office Word dialog box with text that is similar to the following:

Word has completed its search of the document and has made 3 replacements.

</li> In the Microsoft Office Word dialog box, click OK.</li> Click in the Find what box.</li> Hold down the ALT key, use the numeric keypad to type 0148, and then release the ALT key. This is the keyboard shortcut for the smart double closing quotation mark (\rdblquote).</li> Type &quot; in the Replace with box.</li> Click Replace All. You see a Microsoft Office Word dialog box with text that is similar to the following:

Word has completed its search of the document and has made 3 replacements.

</li> <li>In the Microsoft Office Word dialog box, click OK.</li> <li>Save the .rtf file.</li> <li>Recompile the Help project.</li></ol>

<div class="status_section">

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed in the &quot;Applies to&quot; section. This bug was corrected in Microsoft Windows XP and later.

<div class="moreinformation_section">

MORE INFORMATION
Word 2000 does not use the \ldblquote and \rdblquote RTF codes for the smart quotes option. If you use Word 2000 to open, to edit, and to save a Word 97 .rtf file that contains these two RTF codes, these two RTF codes are automatically converted to the corresponding character codes.

Keywords: kbtshoot kbbug kbfix kbhelpfile KB296597

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