Missing Font error - how to fix?

This script would not compile for me. (Panther)

Kurt

This script would not compile for me. (Panther)

Are you sure the script lines were pasted correctly, and that part of a line didn't move to the next line?

If you email me (check my profile) I can email you a compiled copy to test with.

I have written the script on Tiger. So it's possible it may not work on Panther. But if you can tell me about the error (error msg, line, etc) I may be able to fix it.

Dale

The paste looks exactly the same.

In the line:

"Choose a font" with prompt ¬

the quote was highlighted and the error message appeared:

Expected “given”, “with”, “without”, other parameter name, etc. but found “.

Kurt

It just occurred to me that I created the body of this document by copying it from a MS Word document that was created on Windows (aargghhh.) I'm sure the author did not intentionally include the WingDings font (I don't think he knows how to do that) but that may not explain it. The other document that I had WingDings in was also created in a similar fashion.

But that does not explain how the font is there but not there ... I may have copied some text into the header ... it's been a while. Is there anyway that I can modify the script to check there?

Seems like Dale's script would have caught the font if it was pasted into the body. I suggested it was a list style because webdings contains bullet characters. A Microsoft doc may have used webdings to make its bullets.


Depending on how much formatting you have already done you could click on some text and press ⌘ + A to select all text. Then change the font. If you do not mess with the size of the font than the whole doc will be converted to the font you wish and sizes will vary throughout. This might clear out any stray font codes in the body of the doc.

There is value to having standard Microsoft fonts on your machine. I use Pages to open many of my buddies Word docs, sent through e-mail or on disks. The docs pop open with no font errors and are formatted very closely to how they created them.

Kurt

Well I do have WingDings on my system but I persevered in this thread because I wanted to understand where the problem existed .. I have a better understanding now. Thanks.

The Wingdings you have is probably not the same Wingdings as is imbedded by Word. I've had similar situations with other fonts & Word documents. Even all of the fonts installed by various versions of Office for the Mac aren't the same as the Windows versions. The same situation can happen with Mac fonts with the same names but from different font foundries.

If this is something you come across often & are willing to try a workaround, there are a couple of possibilities.

1. When pasting text copied from Word into a Pages document, choose "Paste and Match Style." In my brief experiment, this removed all of the list styles.

2. Open the Word file in TextEdit & save as RTF which can then be opened with Pages. This retained more formatting as far as bold text & indents, but did not preserve the bullets.

3. I pasted the copied text into an AppleWorks 6 document which retained the formatting & lists (in the Microsoft style of using tabs between the bullet or number & the text). This AppleWorks 6 file opened is Pages in the same condition.

I think I've found the cause of the problem. AppleScript's 'choose from list' command was changed in Tiger - the 'with title' parameter was added. My script uses 'with title' so Tiger-less Macs should not be able to compile it.

Here's the script without the 'with title' parameter.

<pre>
tell application "Pages"
tell front document
-- Find all the fonts in the document.
set distinctFonts to {}
set manyFonts to font name of every word of body text
repeat with aFont in manyFonts
set foundFont to false
if distinctFonts contains aFont then set foundFont to true
if foundFont is false then set distinctFonts to distinctFonts & aFont
end repeat
-- Ask the user to choose one font.
set fontToReplace to (choose from list distinctFonts ¬
with prompt ¬
"This is the font which will be replaced in the front Pages document." default items ¬
{item 1 of distinctFonts} ¬
multiple selections allowed false ¬
without empty selection allowed)
-- Copy name of selected font to the clipboard, activate Pages, and tell the user we're done.
if fontToReplace is not false then
set the clipboard to fontToReplace as string
display dialog "The font name has been copied to the clipboard so you can paste it into a script."
tell application "Pages" to activate
end if
end tell
end tell
</pre>

I may have confused you by my response. I had known all along that I could move the WingDings font from my Office folder into the Mac fonts folder. I chose not to do it because I wanted to understand why Pages kept asking for a font that I was not using.
Once I decided it wasn't worth the effort I just copied the WingDings font into the Apple folder and my error message ceased.

I understand that. I think you missed that the Wingdings from the Mac version of Office may not be the same version as the PC version imbedded in the file (third sentence in my previous post). It doesn't matter that they are both from Microsoft, they're different & Pages "knows" that. You'd have to get a copy of the font from a PC. Fortunately, OS X can use PC fonts.

Thanks for the clarification and I'll keep that in mind in case I ever want to use the Windows version. But in my case I don't care what version of WingDings I have ... all I wanted to do is get Pages to stop nagging me ... WingDings is not needed by my document.

Thanks for the clarification and I'll keep that in mind in case I ever want to use the Windows version. But in my case I don't care what version of WingDings I have ... all I wanted to do is get Pages to stop nagging me ... WingDings is not needed by my document.

Here's the script without the 'with title' parameter.

Works perfectly!

Cool stuff, Dale!! How do you learn more about writing Applescript? I am a big fan of macros in Appleworks (the OS 9 version) and Open Office. I love the one-click multiple actions type stuff.

Wonder where the original poster went? He is missing a lot of great info.

Kurt

How do you learn more about writing Applescript?

There aren't many web resources for learning AppleScript if you're new to programming. MacCentral's AppleScript Primer was/is one of the best:

<http://maccentral.macworld.com/features/applescriptprimer00/>

NB Start from the bottom.

But there are quite a few good books available that are in my opinion the best starting point:

AppleScript: The Missing Manual

AppleScript

Dale

Other references of value:
Apple's (free) language guide

And probably the best current reference,
Matt Neuberg's AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, from O'Reilly.

Titanium PowerBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)