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macropod · 02-02-2016, 10:58 PM

voyagerone: Here's an explanation of what's going on -
The affected characters are what are typically called ‘smart quotes’, created using the double-byte Unicode characters 2018 & 2019. When transmitted using protocols that only support 8-bit characters, these typically go through a process called 'UTF-8' (8 bit Unicode Transformation Format), but most 8-bit encoding used on the internet today is done according to the 'ISO-8859-1' standard. The â€™ and â€˜ strings you're seeing are the result of 'UTF-8' content being misinterpreted as 'ISO-8859-1' content. This generally only affects email content and, sometimes content processed on PCs after having originated on Macs.

Since you've not indicated any email/Mac involvement, I'd ordinarily have suggested reinstalling the printer driver, but you've already done that. That leaves three possible areas to explore:
1. A corrupt document;
2. A faulty Office installation;
3. A rogue third-party addin.

If it's only the one document that's affected, or all documents based on a particular template, a corrupt document or template is the most likely culprit. Corrupt documents/templates can often be 'repaired' by inserting a new, empty, paragraph at the very end, copying everything except that new paragraph to a new document based on the same template (headers & footers may need to be copied separately) or by creating a new template and pasting the content into that, closing the old document/template and saving the new one over it.

If the problem affects a varity of documents, you could try repairing the Office installation (via Start > Windows Control Panel > Programs > Programs & Features > Microsoft Office (version) > Change > Repair).

If neither of the above makes any difference, try starting Word in safe mode, by holding down the Ctrl key when starting Word. If the problem goes away in safe mode, the cause is most likely to be a rogue third-party addin. Restart Word, then disable all non-Microsoft addins. If the problem goes away with the addins disabled, you can re-enable them one at a time till you find the culprit.