Seeing Small Rectangles when Inserting Symbols

Normally, when you choose Symbol from the Insert menu, Word shows you a dialog box that contains the different symbols available in a variety of fonts on your system. You can then choose from the symbols and insert them in your document.

If you display the Symbol dialog box and see nothing but small rectangles instead of the expected symbols, then there may be a problem with your system. Most likely this is the result of your video driver and Word not working together as they should. You can check if this is the problem by getting out of Word and switching to the Standard VGA or Super VGA driver. (Not the specialized driver designed for your video card, but the generic ones provided by Microsoft.) If the problem goes away, you know it is related to your video driver. You should then contact your video card manufacturer to make sure you have the most up-to-date video driver available.