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      What is a graphical issue, how do I find it in the report and how do I fix it?

      Last reviewed: 23/9-2024

      Graphical issues occur when there is an unreadable character in your report when converting to iXBRL. In short, this is a consequence of certain features and options used during the design face that used to work perfectly fine for a PDF report but fail during the conversion to HTML that takes place in the ESEF report construction. There can be several factors to why these occur but  in this article we will mention how to locate them using the ParsePort Platform so it can be analyzed in detail in the source file (InDesign) .


      These non-readable graphical elements are simply displayed as a square “” in the data extracted to the technical aspect of the final report .  


      One of the most common features that trigger this issue are the Ligatures: A ligature is a feature of typography where two separate letters are merged into a single shape. For example: In the word “profit” the “fi” may be made into a ligature as shown in the image below. It means that the extraction of this text will fail to recognize the two letters but a single character that will be displayed by an unicode.


      Visually looks fine but technically it challenges the result and affects the experience of the technical reader.

      How to find them in the report:

      Since the graphical issues in your report will trigger a warning in your validation (which depends on your auditor and OAM to deem it as a blocker or not) there is a simple way to locate them using browser’s available functions. See below a step by step guide:

      1. Upload your Excel template and report to the ParsePort platform and convert

      2.  On the validation page, go to “Import Errors” and copy the name of the element that appears in the “FactContainsUnreadableCharacters” message.

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      3. Navigate to the viewer tab, open the sidebar, insert the text into the Taxonomy Explorer, scroll to the highlighted element and select it. The viewer will take you directly to the tagged element in the report.

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      4. Select the Facts & Elements tab on the sidebar and select HTML under Value.

      5. In the window that appears, look for the squared character ““, which represents a unicode.

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      6. Copy the squared character, close that pop-up window,  your browser’s search function (for Windows:”ctrl+f”) and paste the squared character. Now all unicodes in your report will be highlighted.

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      How to solve the issue:

      A graphical issues may be caused by several reasons. Here are the most common solutions:If you use InDesign click here for a guide on how to avoid them


      For further assistance, contact our support team at support@parseport.com.