Insert and format symbols

Insert the trademark symbol next to the product name on the title page, replace all straight quotes with smart quotes throughout the brief, insert an em dash where lists need emphasis, and ensure mathematical symbols like ≤ render correctly. Check the PDF export so the symbols do not shift, then save the file as Brief_FINAL.pdf and the editable copy as Brief_FINAL.docx.

Before I send the brief to the court, make the typography obvious to a careful reviewer. Scan the document for nonstandard symbols and inconsistent quote and dash usage, standardize to smart quotes and spaced en dashes for ranges, flag places where special characters might not embed in PDF (like nonstandard bullets or foreign diacritics), and provide a short list of lines I should proofread by eye.

I exported the brief to PDF and a few trademark and mathematical symbols render as empty boxes on the partner’s laptop. I don’t know whether fonts or encoding caused this and I’m worried the court will see broken characters. Tell me the most likely cause, the fastest checks to confirm it, and the single fix that will make the PDF display correctly on other machines.

Every filing we export ends up with a few characters that fail to embed and display as boxes for opposing counsel. It costs time to run every PDF on multiple machines. What default font and export settings should we standardize, what preflight check to run before any court filing, and one habit to teach junior writers that prevents these symbol problems?