Why do special characters display differently?

May 6, 200916 yr

I am confused by what I'm seeing on different PCs for exactly the same character codes. The attached PNG file shows a composite of screen captures from three different PCs running the same application.

The character block was created by typing in "abc" followed by Alt+0001, Alt+0149 and Alt+0001

The second line is the dot cut and pasted in ... followed by cutting/pasting the "abc".

The third line is the dot pasted in, followed by typing "abc".

Here's what I've confirmed so far:

> The display field is defined as simple Text, with no extra processing

> Exactly the same runtime build is installed on all three PCs

> Each PC is running XP Service Pack 3

> The True Type font file (Franklin Gothic Medium) is the same on each PC: 133K 8/4/2004 7:00AM

> Synchronize Input Method is OFF

> Use Font Locking is ON

How can the same special character display so differently? And what can cause the size to be radically different when pasting with Paste Formatted Text?

Thanks in advance for any help.