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macOS Sonoma and issues with MS Word 365 for Mac

Since I downloaded macOS Sonoma, MS Word on Mac does not print solid black bullet points taken from the Symbols Font file. I have replicated the issue on my wifes MBP and it works fine prior to installing Sonoma but having downloaded it, solid black bullet points are printed as white boxes. They look fine on the screen but when you print or convert to pdf they show as black boxes (suggesting that the character can not be found).


If you want to try and replicate this, insert round black bullet points in to a word document and then go to print preview, print the document or convert to a pdf to see that the round black bullet points (taken from the Symbols Font file) do not come out as bullet points (as seen on screen) but as black square boxes.

MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

Posted on Sep 29, 2023 2:35 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 18, 2023 12:47 AM

Hello,

Me too, I have the same issue.

I cross checked on Microsoft users website. The issue is also related.

...I really appreciate Apple products. But at work we use Word/Excel/PowerPoint.

Hope Apple and Microsoft will fix this rapidly.

In the end, the end users are annoyed by this lack of collaboration between Apple and Microsoft.

Running Word/Excel/PowerPoint should be exactly the same on both platforms (MacOS and Windows).

Rgds,

sergioSCHWEIZ

31 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 18, 2023 12:47 AM in response to RichardGoold

Hello,

Me too, I have the same issue.

I cross checked on Microsoft users website. The issue is also related.

...I really appreciate Apple products. But at work we use Word/Excel/PowerPoint.

Hope Apple and Microsoft will fix this rapidly.

In the end, the end users are annoyed by this lack of collaboration between Apple and Microsoft.

Running Word/Excel/PowerPoint should be exactly the same on both platforms (MacOS and Windows).

Rgds,

sergioSCHWEIZ

Oct 21, 2023 4:05 AM in response to Nan_DV

I found a workaround! If you select all of your bulleted sections, go up to the bullets section on the Home ribbon, then select Define New Bullet, go to Bullet, select Arial, then select the bullet symbol in that Font section, and OK, that does preserve your bullet points when you save as a PDF. You may need to adjust the size to 14pt. in Arial to get the same size bullet as before. 

Oct 10, 2023 9:55 AM in response to Richard in NYC

Like Richard in NYC and RichardGoold, I used the same workaround: Send your Word file to any computer that doesn't use Sonoma 14.0.


So I sent my Word document with all the bullets (and there were lots because it was a business report) via email to my HP PC, which is on the same home network as my Mac. It runs Windows 11 V22H2.


I downloaded the document to the PC and printed it out. Bullets were intact. I used the PC to email the file to the people waiting for it.


[Edited by Moderator]

Oct 11, 2023 10:29 AM in response to RichardGoold

Word 16.78 now correctly saves default Symbol bullets to PDF and Word .docx documents. The PDF prints to my AirPrint configured laser printer from either Apple's Preview, or the Terminal lp command with solid round bullets and the Word .docx, when printed to the same printer from Word, has empty square bullets.


Opening the .docx in Pages v13.2, Word, or the Finder's Quick Look shows solid round bullets, and printing from Pages produces proper bullets on the laser printer.


So Word 16.78 is still having issues sending Symbol fonts to my laser printer from an open Word .docx document.


Tested: macOS Sonoma 14.0

Oct 11, 2023 11:58 AM in response to VikingOSX

Hi VikingOSX,


Thank you for your attention to this issue. I wish I understood what a "Terminal lp command" was so I could duplicate what you did, but I'm just not that tech-savvy.


I do understand that while you got solid round bullets to print to your AirPrint laser printer in one case, Word 16.78 still has problems printing those in other cases.


I do have Word 16.78 on my Mac (running Sonoma 14.0). I have not idea how to find the Word version on my PC (with an Office 365 subscription). The Product Information menu simply says Version 2309, last updated Oct. 10 2023.


In any case, I still see open squares in Word's Print Preview on my Mac when they should be solid bullets. Same for previews of PDFs. But if I email the same document to myself, download it to my PC's desktop, reopen it in Word and print it from the PC to my HP printer, the solid bullets reappear.

Oct 12, 2023 10:35 PM in response to RichardGoold

I’ve noticed that only happens when insert solid black Bullets, because I’ve changed it for solid black boxes, And white bullets (pretty similar in size to the black solid bullet points) and it let me print it with no issues. Looks like only Black solid bullets have that issues in Word 16.78


Anyone else have tried with another symbols? Or another options?


Update: I’ve Changed the bullet form “Symbols” to “Wingdings” font and it Works. Looks like the issue is Just with that “Symbols” black solid bullets.

Oct 24, 2023 5:26 AM in response to Fiona6

Microsoft uses different version numbering schemes for their applications on Mac and Windows. That can be confusing. What you can do to circumvent the current messed up bullet printing is to click the Bullets tool on the Ribbon bar and Define New Bullet… Choose a new Font — some have used Arial, and I believe that Bookshelf Symbol 7 will also suffice. Then use the custom bullet.

Nov 5, 2023 1:54 PM in response to RichardGoold

Since upgrading to Sonoma 14.1, I have issues with microsoft office 365 in word. In a document, when I click my mouse the document scrolls all the way up to the top. I also have issues with a blue border that pops up on the screen. When I use my space bar, the document will not insert a space. This is very frustrating and time consuming when typing notes for graduate school. I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

Apr 2, 2024 1:12 PM in response to RichardGoold

I have found a fix for this as i am using a Macbook Pro 2009 running Ventura With OCLP.


First remove all microsoft office apps

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-for-mac-eefa1199-5b58-43af-8a3d-b73dc1a8cae3


Download Microsoft Office 2019 and install it


Now go to microsoft website and download the 16.43 update for word, excel, powerpoint

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac


Make sure to disable automatic updates for microsoft office, any newer version will break office

macOS Sonoma and issues with MS Word 365 for Mac

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