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Excuse me if this is too simple a question, but I can't find the answwer in the online manual or in this forum. I'm trying to use the Zapf Dingbats font, which I have installed. In the Font Family box, the name of this font is displayed in red, & I can't use the font. I guess that the display is in red to notify me that I can't use it, but why would that be? It's available for me to use in other applications, & I seem to recall even using it in Nisus Pro before. How do I use this font? Thanks.[/quote]

The red coloring indicates that the font does not contain the characters it is applied to. Certain dingbat/symbol fonts (including Zapf Dingbats) make proper use of Unicode and use separate characters for each symbol they contain. Previously fonts would co-opt regular characters for this purpose, which was undesirable because the meaning of your text was then entangled with the fonts available. Adobe has a PDF which explains the logic.

So, at the end of the day, you'll want to make use of the system character palette (via the menu Edit > Special Characters) or one of the more exotic keyboard layouts (like Unicode hex input). Apple has detailed instructions on how to accomplish this.

Thanks, Martin, that answered my question!

Hi Martin,
I did not understand your reply to the question about fonts showing up in red. I just upgraded to Nisus writer pro and one of the fonts I use most often in Nisus Writer express is now in red! Arghhhhh! javascript:emoticon(':?')

it is Palatino. I tried opening a new document and just typing lower case "abcd" and it came up red when I tried to change from my default to Palatino. I know the font is installed, It appears in my other word processors.

Help -- it is the font I have as the text body of my letterhead and envelopes!

the font substituted by Nisus Pro was Lucida Grande -- not even close-
Palatino is a font with serifs and the strokes of the letters vary, Lucida Grande is a lot like Helvitica, a font with no serif and uniform stroke.

How do I install it? do I have to buy it?

I might just go back to Nisus Express 2.?? and give up the other features, it is that important to me.

Peace

Hi -

must be something else: "abcd" does work definitely with Palatino. Are there any Symbol like characters involved? I would guess...
Can you just copy and send the text concerned, please.

HE

pastorabbott wrote:it is Palatino. I tried opening a new document and just typing lower case "abcd" and it came up red when I tried to change from my default to Palatino. I know the font is installed, It appears in my other word processors.

Palatino definitely contains lowercase "a" through "z". It may be that your fonts have become corrupted- I suggest you use FontBook to validate your fonts.

Remember, the red coloring does not indicate the font is not installed. It merely indicates that the font reports that it does not contain the characters it is applied to (eg: it does not know how to display them).

Sorry, tried validating in FontBook and it says Palatino is OK or do I have to validate all fonts?

What next? -- it even looks like the alternate font - no serifs - in the font list in my Nisus tool drawer.

Peace,
Pastorabbott

Please send in a feedback report with a copy of the document using the menu Help > Send Feedback. Hopefully that will yield some clues.

Well -

using Apple's Character Palette to inspect the system font Palatino makes me wonder: just have a look at glyph numbers 440 throu 450 for a start.

And no Unicode hyphen +2010 around - depending on how you enter the different soft/non breaking/hyphen-minus/hyphen/minus stuff chances are you end up RED when turning to Palatino.

But without an authentical piece of text from Jim I can guess only on my side...

HE