Computer help forum: Why do some of my programs show squares instead of letters?

Ed is on the right track

by Jimmy Greystone - 1/9/13 5:01 AM

In Reply to: What are the programs ... by Edward ODaniel

Ed is on the right track. This is a font or encoding issue. If you try opening a PDF file in Notepad, for example, you'll get a lot of strange characters that were never intended for printing. Same as if you try opening a Word document in a program that doesn't know how to properly interpret what it finds.

So either you're trying to open a file with the wrong program, or the font you're using simply doesn't have the character in the actual file, so you get a kind of default placeholder.

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title bar menu options show squares

by OVTEchVAL - 1/9/13 8:46 AM

In Reply to: What are the programs ... by Edward ODaniel

The OS is Win7

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The title bar displays squares

by OVTEchVAL - 1/9/13 9:43 PM

In Reply to: What are the programs ... by Edward ODaniel

My operating system is Win7

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If the problem is in the title bar ...

by Edward ODaniel - 1/10/13 9:26 PM

In Reply to: The title bar displays squares by OVTEchVAL

it is likely that you have either deleted a system font or it is corrupt.

If it is just the font this link might be helpful -
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/29244/customize-the-title-bar-and-other-system-fonts-in-windows-7/

It could also be corrupt system fonts or it could be application specific. You mentioned that this is happening in two programs and I asked you for their titles. I asked because it is also possible that the problem is language specific.

It could also be a theme you downloaded and are using or a host of other things. If it is fairly recent try using system restore to restore the system to a point just before the problem.

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