Font Dialog Box

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Ctrl+D brings up the Font dialog box, from which you can format all aspects of the font of the text that is currently selected.

For fancy formatting, check out the effects that are provided under the Text Effects tab of this dialog. I don’t recommend using any of those features in a serious document, such as a manual or a proposal to a client.

Tip 11: Set the Default Font for All New Documents

This is a commonly asked question and the answer is simple. Open any document or just a new, blank document. Hit Format → Font and set your desired font and size. Hit the Default button at the bottom left of the Font dialog.

If you want to make font changes while making other changes to your normal.dot, then you’ll need to open normal.dot, hit Ctrl+A and THEN change the font.

Figure 6-2 shows the Font dialog box.

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Figure 6-2: Font Dialog Box

Tip 12: Cautions for Using Font Formatting

Hidden Text: Be careful when choosing Hidden as your text format. Showing or hiding text that has been formatted to be hidden is an option on each user’s PC. Hidden text is great if you intend to write instructions for persons “in-house,” but you won’t want to use it for documents that are sent externally.

Unusual Fonts: If you use unusual fonts, you may find that when you send a document to someone else, it will look different. Why? Because that font may not be available on their PC.

Symbols: Watch those symbols and bullets. Be sure you use common fonts for them as well. While it might be a smiley face on your PC, it could turn into an email icon on someone else’s.

Avoid WordPerfect Fonts: Many people convert their documents from WordPerfect files that generally use default fonts of Univers and CGTimes. These are not Windows fonts. While they may be installed on your system because you have or once had WordPerfect installed, they may not be on all systems. If you convert WordPerfect files to Word, you’ll want to also Ctrl+A and change the fonts to Windows fonts. To my knowledge, the closest to Univers is Arial and the closest to CGTimes is Times New Roman.

For information on Character styles, see the section on Styles on page 9-1.

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