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I am using Excel 16.46 on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and here is what I am experiencing.

  1. Using macOS's character viewer — command+control+space — I've entered the “ballot box with check” Unicode character (☑︎) into an Excel cell. I get aa; when I do it again, I get two blank squares instead of the intended symbol.

  2. When I click away — deactivating the cell — the two squares becomes the “Man in Tuxedo” emoji:

  3. If I reeenter the cell, I see the checkmark and an additional box.

What is going? Why does the checkbox become “Man in a Tuxedo” Emoji?

  1. enter image description here
  2. enter image description here
  3. enter image description here

Update I tested other characters. I found

  1. other odd pairings and
  2. it doesn't happen if the Combining Enclosed Square is included in the cell

I randomly entered unicode characters:

☐└◻︎⃞■□▩✓√▫️▧☒⏍▣⥟➢➡︎☞➨➬➸⤅⤏⤁⤀☜⤃☒▫︎‣▷▶︎❄︎❀✸✡︎✭✾✔︎❍▷▼✂︎☑︎☕︎✌︎✍︎☄︎⚲⚢⚣⚤⚯⚮⚭⚬⚩

and everything rendered correctly (or as an empty box). If I deleted the Combining Enclosed Square, it did not, and many other unrelated emojis emerged:

enter image description here

Unrelated
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  • Very odd. Might be worth it to know what version of macOS you are on and what version of Excel you are using. That Emoji was only introduced in 2020; maybe some odd OS conflict that was resolved in a patch upgrade of macOS or Excel? Here is what a [Unicode inspector](https://apps.timwhitlock.info/unicode/inspect?s=) shows as code and hex for that character. – Giacomo1968 Mar 10 '21 at 03:07
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    Thanks for the edits and sharing the unicode inspector – I hadn't seen that before. Unfortunately it was impossible to paste in the Man in Tuxedo because the checkbox is copied instead ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also, added in that I'm using Excel 16.46 and macOS Catalina 10.15.7 – Unrelated Mar 10 '21 at 05:04
  • Perhaps try different fonts? Perhaps the font you are using isn't standard? I think Excel allows per character font formatting in one cell but when you edit it the formula bar its all displayed in one font (or something like that). Does the same happen with a webdings / wingdings font? Worst case, use an image of a checkmark or use an actual checkbox object. Not sure about MAC, but in windows excel in the developer tab, you have form controls and activeX controls. Use forms controls so that you don't have to save as xlsm (just be careful not to add code to the form control) – ExcelEverything Mar 10 '21 at 08:25
  • @Mobus I found that it renders as desired `☑︎` in Apple Symbols, but not in any other default fonts – it seems if the font doesn't have the character defined, Office replaces the unicode with the emoji. And for some reason, it links the ballot box unicode with . So strange! – Unrelated Mar 10 '21 at 08:35
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    Ironically, your file will probably not work well for a windows user if you use apple symbols. I highly suspect language / region issues at play here, complicated by the windows/mac issue. You'd think unicode is... UNIVERSAL CODE – ExcelEverything Mar 10 '21 at 08:57
  • Okay, can't totally reproduce this yet but: when I enter a long string of random unicode chars, ☑︎ DOES render correctly, _regardless of font_ – but if I delete some of the characters, the checkbox again renders as tux man, AND the Star of David renders as a shirt, a snowflake as a snowflake emoji, a checkmark as a can of soup, scissors as peanuts – Unrelated Mar 10 '21 at 09:04
  • the "additional box" is actually the U+FE0E [variant selector](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variation_Selectors_(Unicode_block)) – phuclv Mar 19 '21 at 10:10

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