Incorrect apostrophe character in MS Word 2011 on Mac

I'm using Word for Mac 2011. When using the default font - Cambria - extra spaces appear when I type an apostrophe followed by another character. See the screenshot at:

As you can see in the screenshot, the font for the apostrophe character (which includes a big space after it) isn't actually Cambria; instead, it's

ＭＳ 明朝 (Body Asian)

It seems that Cambria automatically uses this font for apostrophes, and that the apostrophe character for this font includes the extra space.

How should I go about fixing this so that apostrophes appear correctly? I'm guessing it might be some kind of font conflict, but I'm not sure: and I don't know how to fix font conflicts, in any case.

(Originally posted at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16873412/incorrect-apostrophe-character-in-ms-word-2011-on-mac)

Solution 1:

After updating OS X to 10.9 and opening Word for the first time since the update I encountered the same problem. I spent half a day testing all the suggestions put forward here and in other forums responding to the same query (including checking autoformat preferences/searching for font duplicates/verifying fonts/testing in new mac user account/repairing permissions etc.) with no luck.

Finally, I deleted the Cambria font from the Font Book and reinstalled again. I reopened Word and tested and the problem seems to have disappeared.

I'm using OS X 10.9 and Word for Mac 2011, v14.3.8.

Solution 2:

Normally you would not expect this kind of thing (font substitution) to happen unless your default font had no character for the Unicode curly apostrophe. Is it possible you have an old, non-Unicode (e.g. Postscript) version of your font installed that is being used by mistake?

PS I have found a reference to this same problem in the MS Forums from 2011. Perhaps it will help:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2011-macword/normal-template-is-using-asian-font-for/d79e850a-8df0-4540-bc93-cf3901b7cd99?msgId=54e54894-ebbb-4764-845d-35785d362b40

Solution 3:

Is your OSX Language & Text setting set to something other than English? (I'm guessing that it IS set to English, based on your screenshot.)

It's possible that Word's default language is not set to English (US) (or your English-speaking country of choice). Ensure that it is set to the correct language by opening any document in Word, then go to Tools/Language, select English (US) (or whichever English variant is appropriate), then click the "Default" button and verify the change to the Normal.dot template. Then, create a new document and type text that includes an apostrophe, and report back on the result.

Reference: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/extra-space-after-apostrophe/13edb10b-6a5f-464e-8f33-0b41c63c4680