WD2000: "Unknown Character" Error Message or Result of Zero When Field Contains E or N Character (316270)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Word 2000
This article was previously published under Q316270

SYMPTOMS

A numeric field or numeric form field in Word 2000 may yield a result of 0 (zero) or evaluate to the following error message:
Error! Unknown character in picture string.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs if the field contains a numeric format string that contains the letters "E" or "N," as in the following example:

{=123 \# "#.00 EUR"}

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

276367 OFF2000: How to Obtain the Latest Office 2000 Service Pack

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel. 
   Date         Time   Version  Size       File name     
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   23-APR-2002  17:24  n/a      1,945,936  Mso9.msp
   23-APR-2002  20:14  n/a      4.036.272  Mso9_admin.msp
   23-APR-2002  14:02  n/a      3.929.640  WInword.msp
   23-APR-2002  15:22  n/a      4.674.720  Winword_admin.msp
After the hotfix is installed, the following files will have the listed attributes or later: 
   Date         Time   Version     Size        File name     
   -------------------------------------------------------
   22-APR-2002  18:13  9.0.0.6418  8,814,644   Winword.exe
   22-APR-2002  22:54  9.0.0.6418  5,599,281   Mso9.dll

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, enclose the string that contains the letters in single quotation marks, as follows:

{=123 \# "#.00 'EUR'"}

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Office 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP-3).
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:9/27/2005
Keywords:kbHotfixServer kbQFE kbbug kberrmsg kbfix kbOffice2000preSP3fix KB316270
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