Are font families in the font menu possible?

[h.reininger]

I know this has been discussed before. But I don't recall a clear
solution/answer, other than, sorry, no.

Is OFFICE really be the ONLY applications suite which doesn't display
fonts grouped in their families? As I am a designer with a large amount
of fonts around - I find it a real pain to find the right font in Word!

 

[matt neuburg]

I know this has been discussed before. But I don't recall a clear
solution/answer, other than, sorry, no.

Is OFFICE really be the ONLY applications suite which doesn't display
fonts grouped in their families? As I am a designer with a large amount
of fonts around - I find it a real pain to find the right font in Word!

See if You Control: Fonts might be helpful. m.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I know this has been discussed before. But I don't recall a clear

solution/answer, other than, sorry, no.

Is OFFICE really be the ONLY applications suite which doesn't display
fonts grouped in their families? As I am a designer with a large amount
of fonts around - I find it a real pain to find the right font in Word!

Sorry, no. Although, Office (at least Word) does work with font menu
utilities such as YouControl:Fonts, which also picks up collections from the
Font Book (e.g., a collection called "Word fonts" could be at the very top,
assuming a lot of your design fonts you don't use in Word). So a font menu
utility would be an option, and cheaper than font management software which
I think would also provide a menu and has fixit capabilities (I'm not
necessarily recommending YouControl:Fonts, though I'm happy with it, as I've
not tested anything else and not used it especially thoroughly--most stuff
has a trial period--I was assuming there must be alternatives but a quick
google search didn't see many, perhaps it was the wrong term).

Though if you are a designer with a lot of fonts, it is probably worth
investing in font management software?

Options within Word:

If you know what font you are looking for, cmd-d to launch the Format | Font
menu, start typing the name, use the arrow to select the exact one, can be
quite quick and is regular practice for a number of people on this board.

You can't customize the Font menu, but you can build a custom menu of select
fonts on a toolbar, though not wysiwg--again, if you know what fonts you
will be looking for regularly.

Before installing YC:Fonts and trying to remember to use it, I disabled an
entire font because I decided I'd rather never use it than see 16 versions
of it in my font menu.

What I personally would like would be a way to tell Word to load only a
certain group of fonts, but I don't understand OS X or the program enough to
know whether that's possible, and again, YC:Fonts kinda removed the need.

 

[Elliott Roper]

I know this has been discussed before. But I don't recall a clear
solution/answer, other than, sorry, no.

Is OFFICE really be the ONLY applications suite which doesn't display
fonts grouped in their families? As I am a designer with a large amount
of fonts around - I find it a real pain to find the right font in Word!

Nope, it is all one list.
I'd recommend two tricks
1 Font Book - make a collection in Fontbook for everyday Word fonts and
turn the others off. Word respects Font Book collections.

2 If you must keep a gazillion fonts active (and you know that choosing
exactly the right font for use in Word's typography is like putting
lipstick on a pig) then make use of your keyboard. In system
preferences->keyboard and mouse->keyboard shortcuts, enable full
keyboard access, then note what keystroke gives you move focus to the
menu bar (I changed mine to ctrl-M and I can't remember what it is
supposed to be by default)
Now, back in word, once you have selected the text for which you are
about to change the font, hit ^M fo space and the first few letters of
the font you want. (Tiger) In Panther you can't type the names of the
menu heading so you have to type the right arrow key seven times and
you don't need the space - the font pulldown will already be exposed.

3. You need to admit you are in a state of sin even thinking of setting
fonts manually. As a designer you KNOW that's what styles are for.

4. You are nuts to keep a huge pile of fonts active. It slows
everything down and gives Word a cold as soon as something goes
pear-shaped in the cache or you trick yourself into installing a
duplicate.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

You can use Font Book to *disable* fonts and they will no longer show in
Word's (or any app's) font menu. You have to relaunch Word before you'll
see the result.

Beth

 

[h.reininger]

Thanks all, this is a great and helpful discussion!

I just checked, at the moment there are 523 fonts active as it is too
complicated to constantly keep switching font sets around.

I recently moved to Font Agent Pro (arriving from Suitcase, via
FontReserve) for managing and fixing my fonts. I had a real bad
experience with FontBook early on in Tiger and haven't touched it
since.

Does anyone of you know, why MS decided NOT to group fonts into
families?

Cheers from Vienna, Austria!

 

[h.reininger]

I just sent a reply, but it hasn't appeared yet. So, in case it does,
here is an addendum:

Out of the 520 fonts I have 62 activated at startup, the rest is
auto-activated by font Agent Pro as needed. By the way, this
auto-activation is way slower than with FontReserve, sometimes it takes
20 to 30 seconds to get beyond the spinning beach-ball.

If my previous post should be lost in cyberspace, here is my question:

Why, do you think, has MS decided to NOT group the fonts into families?

Thanks, Herbert

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Yeah, but I don't want to disable them for other apps. I guess that's what
expensive font management software does.

 

[Scott Melendez]

I have this same question, among the other font woes with Office 2004.

I am not a professional designer, but I also like to keep lots of fonts open
for ease of use. I have tried FontCard (from Unsanity), which actually
groups the fonts by family in the Font menu ­ however, it does not work in
Office¹s floating palettes. I also have tried You Control: Fonts, which
doesn¹t group them in the Font menu, but provides a system-wide access to
fonts.

As for FontAgent Pro: upgrade to 3.02. It is VERY fast, and much optimized
for Tiger. I only wish they had application-specific sets.

 

[Jeffrey Weston [MSFT]]

Thanks for posting on the Newsgroup!

This indeed is a topic we've heard from other people on and we are listening
to the feedback for possible inclusion in a future release.

Thanks
--
Jeffrey Weston
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.