Why are my Bulleted Lists showing as Question Marks on Pages?

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Level 1

4 points

Why are my Bulleted Lists showing as Question Marks on Pages?

I just this morning (12/10/24) copied a file from a google drive into pages. My bulleted lists were solid question marks in boxes. I could get the text by manipulation the paragraph style, but the box for the bullet character remained. I couldn't use the bulleted list formatting option. Had to fake it with some asterisks.

This is on a brand new MacBook pro that I restored from time machine from my 2014 MacBook.

Since the posts I found were all moderately old and the fix looks like a pain, I wanted to ask if there's a simpler fix.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Dec 10, 2024 04:27 AM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

122,118 points

Dec 10, 2024 06:28 AM in response to hdulcimer

I just opened a Google Docs document on Google Drive and added some bullets to it. I then copied/pasted that bulleted content from that open document (in Firefox 133.0.3) into Pages v14.2 on Sequoia v15.1.1. The bullets transitioned into Pages correctly.

It sounds to me that your content had a font used for bullets that may fit into one or both of the following categories:

The font used for the bullet is not physically installed on macOS. Pages should have opened a warning panel to that effect and did not perform automatic font substitution.
The encoding of that bullet font on Google Drive was incompatible with what Pages could handle.

I don't use a local Google Drive application, but if yours is not current, you might consider updating it and see if that resolves the wonky bullet treatment.

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Answer 2

hdulcimer Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2024 08:00 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks! I jiggled the fonts in the google doc -- there was some weirdness with the bullets: in one list I could select them independently of the text; in the other, I couldn't. In one case there was no font shown; in the other Arial. But eventually I got both lists into Helvetica Nueve in the google doc, and when I copied and pasted those, I got the text and bullets in pages. Note that Arial is on my Mac and shows in pages.

I'm not totally clear on why Arial didn't translate, but the problem is solved for now.

I am a fan of google drive, but sometimes I have to use it.

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

122,118 points

Dec 10, 2024 11:22 AM in response to hdulcimer

You are welcome and glad you got this sorted.

The Arial font implemented on Google Docs may not be the same as the one installed in macOS. Enter the bullet gremlin…

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Why are my Bulleted Lists showing as Question Marks on Pages?

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