On the Move to InDesign: Adding Dingbats

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I usually write these tips to show you something terrific that InDesign can do. This tip is to help you avoid a problem that InDesign 2 has created. Type a lowercase letter “n” and then a tab and then some text. Now, let’s pretend you want that letter “n” to be the equivalent Zapf Dingbat character (a filled-in square). For the past fifteen years in desktop publishing you would select the “n” and apply the Zapf Dingbat typeface.

If you do that in InDesign 2, you will get a pink space indicating a missing font or non-supported letter. The reason for this is that Adobe is adhering to strict unicode character mapping. The square box in Zapf Dingbats is not the same character as the letter “n” in the original font.

So, how do you change the letter “n” to the proper Zapf Dingbat character? One way is to select the letter “n”, then apply the Zapf Dingbat font, and then type in the letter “n” again. Cumbersome, but it works. Or, Adobe has created a secret keystroke. Hold Cmd-Opt/Ctrl-Alt” as you apply the font and you will override the unicode mapping.

Ah, terrific, you say. Problem solved! Well, not really. Let’s say you create a character style that applies the Zapf Dingbat font; reduces the point size; and adds a baseline shift. (This creates a very nice, small, square bullet.) Sadly, if you try to apply the typeface using a character style, you still get the pink space. And you can’t use the secret keystroke to override the behavior. You have to apply the style sheet and then retype the letter “n” to get the correct character.

But it gets even worse. For years I have used Find/Change to change “n^t” into a Zapf Dingbat or character style. But that doesn’t work in InDesign 2. What you have to do is type “n^t” in the Find what field. Then, on the document page, create the proper character in Zapf Dingbats. Next, copy it, and then paste it into the Change to field. This will give you the proper unicode value of <EO6E>. Then you can add the “^t” and do the Find/Change to the character style as shown in figure 1.


Figure 1: Use the unicode values to apply a Zapf Dingbat to text in Find/Change.

What bothers me about all this is that Adobe has turned on a switch to support unicode that will help enormously for those who need to convert type from Roman language fonts to other languages such as Greek. But for most people like me, this causes more problems than it solves.

Read more On the Move to InDesign tips here.

Read more by Sandee Cohen.

Sandee Cohen is a New York City-based instructor and corporate trainer in a wide variety of graphic programs, especially the Adobe products, including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat. She has been an instructor for New School University, Cooper Union, Pratt, and School of Visual Arts. She is a frequent speaker for various events. She has also been a speaker for Seybold Seminars, Macworld Expo, and PhotoPlus conferences. She is the author of many versions of the Visual Quickstart Guides for InDesign.
  • anonymous says:

    The “Insert glyph” pallet availabe from the Type menu solves much of this very easily. Much like the “Insert character” feature from ID 1.5, “Insert glyph” interacts with the user much better, allowing you to go back and forth between it and your document. You can view all the characters of any font and insert them any where you put a curser in your document. You don’t even have to remember the key commands. Sandee Cohen makes it sound harder than it really is.

  • anonymous says:

    The glyph palette is great, but if you are used to typing a letter then changing that selection to Zapf Dingbats, InDesign showing a red box makes you think that Zapf Dingbats isn’t installed. Then it makes you think, does InDesign need Zapf inside its own Font folder?!? Thanks for the solution to this teaser, Sandee!

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