# Ligatures / Contextual Alternatives Inconsistency between Programs **URL:** \ **Category:** Glyphs\ **Created:** [April 20, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339 "2017-04-20T22:08:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ngreenway](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@ngreenway](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/ngreenway)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/1 "2017-04-20T22:08:05Z")
First post, so apologies if I forget any necessary information. I am currently developing a font that relies heavily on Ligatures and Contextual Alternatives (the font is based on Tengwar, or the elvish language used in the Lord of the Rings). Both ligatures and CAs work PERFECTLY in Adobe Illustrator and Microsoft PowerPoint. The ligatures work fine in Photoshop, but the CAs rarely work (I have a file open right now where, typing the same thing, it works on one instance and doesn’t work on the other)(And yes, both the Ligatures and CA options are active). Lastly, nothing works in Microsoft Word (even after turning on the Ligatures / CAs). What can I try? Or, what more information can I provide? Thank you for your help! ---
**Author:** ![GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/georgseifert/32/259_2.png) [@GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/GeorgSeifert)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/2 "2017-04-20T22:14:27Z")
Word is very picky with the Languagesystems. make sure those are set. ---
**Author:** ![ngreenway](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@ngreenway](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/ngreenway)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/3 "2017-04-20T22:17:57Z")
Can you elaborate on what you mean by setting the Language Systems? Is that something I change in Glyphs or Word? ---
**Author:** ![GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/georgseifert/32/259_2.png) [@GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/GeorgSeifert)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 10:27pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/4 "2017-04-20T22:27:38Z")
This has to be set in Glyphs. It will be automatically generated if you press the update button in font info \> features. ---
**Author:** ![ngreenway](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@ngreenway](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/ngreenway)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 10:32pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/5 "2017-04-20T22:32:40Z")
Thank you! I will look into this! Is there a specific languagesystem I should try first that best cooperates with Word? ---
**Author:** ![mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/mekkablue/32/23_2.png) [@mekkablue](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/mekkablue)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/6 "2017-04-20T23:11:17Z")
> [@ngreenway](#): > > Both ligatures and CAs work PERFECTLY in Adobe Illustrator and Microsoft PowerPoint. PowerPoint? Are you sure? How did you get features to work in that app? ---
**Author:** ![ngreenway](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@ngreenway](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/ngreenway)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 2:10am UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/7 "2017-04-21T02:10:54Z")
I don’t know what black magic it is; I just tested it out and it works perfectly (on my copy. I had a friend test it on his computer and it had the same functionality as Word). Settings-wise, I changed nothing. ---
**Author:** ![savannah815](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@savannah815](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/savannah815)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/8 "2026-10-18T22:51:39Z")
Hi, did you ever figure out how to solve this? I’m also working on a Tengwar font that’s working fine in most programs, but none of my features will work in Word at all. I’m using a custom glyphdata.xml so that could be throwing it off, but even when I tried without it I had the same problem. When I have my Languagesystems prefix on generate automatically it generates a line reading “languagesystem teng dflt;” but also brings up a “Use of unregistered script tag “teng”” warning. Is there any way to set Tengwar to a languagesystem that Word will recognize, or any other workaround for this? ---
**Author:** ![GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/georgseifert/32/259_2.png) [@GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/GeorgSeifert)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 5:55am UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/9 "2026-10-19T05:55:30Z")
Do you happen to have a Tengwar font that does work in Word? Inspect that or point me to it. ---
**Author:** ![savannah815](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@savannah815](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/savannah815)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 8:37pm UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/10 "2026-10-19T20:37:20Z")
Nope, none of them work in Word—that’s part of the reason I wanted to make my own, but it might be a Word issue without a workaround. Weirdly, I can get mine to display correctly in the little preview window when you go to font options (I was checking to make sure all my ligatures and contextual alternates were turned on) but in the actual Word doc it won’t even connect the diacritics to their marks correctly. ---
**Author:** ![GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/user_avatar/forum.glyphsapp.com/georgseifert/32/259_2.png) [@GeorgSeifert](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/u/GeorgSeifert)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 8:38am UTC](https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/ligatures-contextual-alternatives-inconsistency-between-programs/6339/11 "2026-10-20T08:38:29Z")
I just checked some of the Tengwar fonts that I could find on the internet. And they all use PUA codes. And it seems that there are incompatible encodings. So what is not working for you in Word?