PRB: Special Characters Missing from Compiled Help File

• Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows version 3.1
• Microsoft Win32 SDK, versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0

SYMPTOMS

In version 2.0 of Microsoft Word for Windows, the RTF (rich-text format) source file for a Microsoft Windows Help file contains curly (smart) single or double quotation marks, bullets, or em or en dash characters. However, even though the specified font contains these special characters, they are missing when the compiled file is viewed in Help.

CAUSE

Word for Windows stores special RTF tokens for these characters, which the Microsoft Windows Help Compiler cannot process.

RESOLUTION

In order to avoid these problems do one of the following:

   Format the character to use the Symbol font (without using
   Insert.Symbol).

   -or-

   Select the desired font (not Symbol) and choose the Symbol option from
   the Insert menu. Then choose Normal Text in the Symbols From list box.
   This will format the special character in the desired font.

   -or-

   Use a bitmap to represent the character or symbol. Use the "bmc"
   statement to include the bitmap into the text as a character. For more
   information on the bmc statement, see page 29 of the "Programming Tools"
   manual provided with version 3.1 of the Microsoft Windows SDK.