Invalid Character Setting

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Me - 25 Apr 2004 07:18 GMT

When I enter any field with a formula (example subtracting
a number from NUMPAGES), the result of the formula is

!Invalid Character Setting

This happens one one machine only - the same document
gives correct result when opened from another machine.

Any ideas?

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Peter Jamieson - 25 Apr 2004 09:00 GMT

You could try the following - they are both to do with the settings for the
"decimal separator" in regional options, which could explain why only one
machine is going wrong:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;81059

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;284921

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Peter Jamieson - Word MVP
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org/

> When I enter any field with a formula (example subtracting
> a number from NUMPAGES), the result of the formula is
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Any ideas?

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- 25 Apr 2004 09:30 GMT

:-)

already tried that, no luck. Besides, it's happening with
page numbers, which are not decimals. Or will it have the
same effect?

>-----Original Message-----
>You could try the following - they are both to do with the settings for the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-

us;284921

>> When I enter any field with a formula (example subtracting
>> a number from NUMPAGES), the result of the formula is
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
>.

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Peter Jamieson - 26 Apr 2004 09:07 GMT

> already tried that, no luck.

Worth checking that /all/ the different settings including the "list
separator" were different?

> Besides, it's happening with
> page numbers, which are not decimals. Or will it have the
> same effect?

I can generate the error here even with

{ = 0 }

so the fact that Word does not need to display any of these characters is
apparently not relevant.

I don't have any further ideas on this one at the moment, other than that I
would verify that the problem is occurring with the simplest possible test
document (e.g. with just { = 0 } in it, or some such, and if not, check that
all the characters are what they seem to be & in the fonts you expect, that
there are no hidden characters such as no-width spaces, and that Word is not
"autocorrecting" something while you're not looking.

Signature

Peter Jamieson - Word MVP
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org/

> :-)
> already tried that, no luck. Besides, it's happening with
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> >
> >.

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 26 Apr 2004 10:42 GMT

Hi Peter (and "anonymous")

> I can generate the error here even with
>
> { = 0 }

Then I'd say this could be due to the nasty problems with
NumPages not updating as it ought.

Although I should add that when I put exactly this formula
into Word 2003 I don't see the error, I see "0"

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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:-)

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Peter Jamieson - 26 Apr 2004 13:54 GMT

Hi both,

Starting with the US regional options, if I change the list separator to "."
then try { = 0 } I get the error in Word 2003.

Signature

Peter Jamieson - Word MVP
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org/

> Hi Peter (and "anonymous")
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail
> :-)

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 26 Apr 2004 16:14 GMT

Hi Peter,

> Starting with the US regional options, if I change the list separator to "."
> then try { = 0 } I get the error in Word 2003.

Got it. Don't know why anyone would use a period as a list separator, but...
I'd say Word can't resolve the conflict between decimal and list separator
being the same?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

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Peter Jamieson - 26 Apr 2004 18:26 GMT

> Got it. Don't know why anyone would use a period as a list separator, but...

> Got it. Don't know why anyone would use a period as a list separator, but...
> I'd say Word can't resolve the conflict between decimal and list separator
> being the same?

I don't know either, but I would guess that the problem described in the KB
articles has more to do with
a. conflict between the various different separators as defined in regional
settings
b. and/or conflict between those separators and the ones assumed by Word -
in which case the standard settings for some non-US regions may cause the
problem. There is (or was - haven't checked specifically in Word 2003)
definitely some hard-coding in Word concerning regional options somewhere in
this area, as Word is definitely not completely locale-neutral when it comes
to applying numeric formatting defined in \# switches.

Signature

Peter Jamieson - Word MVP
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org/

> Hi Peter,
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
> reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

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