MS Word online bullet points not displaying properly
I've been using Word online for a while but I can't get the bullet points to display properly in FIrefox. They do show properly in Chromium browser though. I've followed the steps in this solution from askubuntu: https://askubuntu.com/questions/983191/how-can-i-fix-missing-bullet-point-characters-in-word-online however it didn't work in my case. Any help is appreciated, thank you.
Attached you will see a couple of screenshots of both Firefox and Chromium, I'd like to find a solution for firefox instead of having to switch to Chromium.
slacker616 trɔe
All Replies (10)
Hi, your running a Beta so anything can and will happen.
No information provided on your extensions your using now system security.
The key to below is TEST on the Word online where you had the issue.
Try Firefox Safe Mode to TEST & see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).
If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:
- Click the menu button
, click Help 
and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:
- On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
- On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
- On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
(you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.
To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.
When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.
It seems Firefox is not substituting a Linux font for the Windows "Symbol" font (or whatever font the document specifies).
To get more insight on the missing font, could you try "inspecting" it? Right-click the bullet, if you can, otherwise right-click the text next to it, and choose Inspect Element. That should open the Page Inspector tool in the lower part of the tab.
In the inspector, Firefox should highlight that line or element in the HTML code "tree". You can hover different elements until you find the bullet and then click that.
On the right side, Firefox typically shows "Rules" but you can show "Fonts" instead. If you don't see the Fonts heading after Rules, Computed, Layout... there's a little triangle to access the additional panels.
So now, finally, Firefox should list the fonts used by the highlighted element. What do you see?
jscher2000 said
It seems Firefox is not substituting a Linux font for the Windows "Symbol" font (or whatever font the document specifies). To get more insight on the missing font, could you try "inspecting" it? Right-click the bullet, if you can, otherwise right-click the text next to it, and choose Inspect Element. That should open the Page Inspector tool in the lower part of the tab. In the inspector, Firefox should highlight that line or element in the HTML code "tree". You can hover different elements until you find the bullet and then click that. On the right side, Firefox typically shows "Rules" but you can show "Fonts" instead. If you don't see the Fonts heading after Rules, Computed, Layout... there's a little triangle to access the additional panels. So now, finally, Firefox should list the fonts used by the highlighted element. What do you see?
I'm showing the Symbol, Symbol_MSFontService and sans-serif as the font-family used in the element, however firefox shows Dejavu Sans in the fonts tab when using the element inspector.
See if while in the tab running MS Word Online if changing the Font in the Preferences menu (screenshot attached) fixes the issue. If so, this is a verifiable font auto-detect/render bug.
The F000-F8ff is part of the PUA (Private Use Area) Unicode range. Using code points in this range can show all kinds of symbols depending on what font covers this range. There is usually a downloaded font specified in these case.
It is best to always use the Unicode representation of characters to avoid font problems, because in that case any font that supports those symbols can be used. It works on all platforms if you have a font installed that covers this Unicode range.
slacker616 said
I'm showing the Symbol, Symbol_MSFontService and sans-serif as the font-family used in the element, however firefox shows Dejavu Sans in the fonts tab when using the element inspector.
The "MSFontService" part prompted me to search for another Linux's user from a month ago: Office 365 document theme (unsolved). I need to do something about my memory...
After hacking away at a sample Word document, I don't see a simple way to substitute a different font for those Symbol characters so they display properly when Microsoft's Symbol font is not present locally.
I wonder what Chromium is using? I doubt they licensed Microsoft's Symbol font, but perhaps they bundle a good substitute.
Corey 'linuxmodder' Sheldon said
See if while in the tab running MS Word Online if changing the Font in the Preferences menu (screenshot attached) fixes the issue. If so, this is a verifiable font auto-detect/render bug.
I tried changing the default font several times and did not see any changes, also reloaded the Word document and no luck either. As for chromium, it seems to be using the same set of fonts somehow.
slacker616 trɔe
Does Chromium's "Computed" panel show a font substitution?
