I had Office 2007 beta on XP Pro. I didn't like Office 2007 because I
detest gigantic icons so although I kept it for a long time, I seldom
used
it but it did honor my Verdana font and the sizes I have chosen for
menu,
file, etc. At least it did for Word and that was the only part of
Office
2007 I used much (and I thought Word 2002 far superior because it
doesn't
have gigantic icons and has neat drop down menus instead of making me
constantly switch screens back and forth). The GUI for Word 2007 is
awful
but it did use Verdana. Verdana is the font I use for everything. I
can't
read any other fonts easily.
Are you running high contrast mode?
I promise that the UI of Office 2007 certainly uses Segoe UI on XP and
Vista. I don't know how you could have ended up using Verdana quite
honestly. The Segoe font might have just looked like Verdana to you?
(It
did evolve during the beta, so the final font is different from the
ones
in the beta).
So, is this rigidity only for Vista? Are you saying if I got Vista I
could
not use Verdana as the UI font of my choice? I will not be able to get
Vista
if that is the case. This is an Accessibility issue if you are right!
Maybe I am misunderstanding because I cannot imagine Microsoft
stopping
those of us with nonperfect eyesight from using the system font and
font
size of our choice just because we get Vista! Surely you are not
saying
that
one cannot change system fonts and font sizes in Vista in Display
Properties/Appearance/Advanced. How could that be? Windows Classic
Style
is
still available isn't it? (Who would use anything else? I hate XP
style
and
will hate Vista style I'm sure also. I want Classic style only). Are
you
also saying that in Vista you cannot go into Display Properties and
change
the DPI?
I am not saying anything about Vista. All I am saying is that Office
2007
uses Segoe UI. I haven't bothered upgrading to Vista yet, so I don't
know
whether Windows Classic Style is still there. I wouldn't be surprised
though, if it isn't.
Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 RTM Issues:
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer
OneNote 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
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No, I am not using High Contrast Mode. I use Display
Properties/Appearance/Advanced and the items in the drop down list
such
as Menu, Message Box, Selected Items, Active Title Bar, etc. I set
those
to Verdana and specific size Verdana font for each that is readable,
and
for many of them like the address bar, I used Bolded otherwise even
with
a larger font I can't read it without straining.
I like to use 98SE Desktop themes on XP and I have to overide the fonts
and
font sizes for every theme.
I also beta tested IE7 and the reason I did was because Microsoft had
promised that it would give us Text Zoom like Firefox and Opera and
SeaMonkey have had for a long time. Microsoft's idea of Text Zoom was
nothing like what I have in Firefox, Seamonkey and Opera. But in these
other
browsers, Text Zoom is somewhat passe anyhow because these browsers now
give
us the ability to set a minimum default font size so I no longer need
Text
Zoom.
I was so disappointed because their disregard for accessibility issues in
IE7 made it so that I couldn't use IE7 any better than I can IE6. My
other
browsers allow me to set a default minimum font size. Then, for
instance,
text in a text reply box on a forum is the same size as the text in the
forum messages. With IE, even IE7 with Text Zoom (which isn't really Text
Zoom as it is in Opera and Firefox), the text in a forum reply box is
tiny.
I can read it, but I spend 10 hours a day on the computer and I would
have
terrible headaches, burning eyes, etc. if I had to strain all day to read
what I was typing in the text box. That is just one example of how IE7
did
not deliver the promise that Microsoft gave us. I complained right away
after I got the beta and Microsoft told me they would fix it...but they
did
not grasp the problem! They asked me which web sites had this problem!
Geez....it is all websites that have forum reply boxes have the problem
because it is an IE problem! It is not just text in text boxes either.
IE
displays a web site with a variety of text sizes on the site and so Text
Zoom enlarges the text but the smallest text is still not enlarged enough
unless other text is gigantic. IE needs to allow the user to set a
default
minimum text size as other browsers do so that all text on the web page
is
the same readable size. This is a much better way to do it as then there
is
no gigantic text on the page which happens in IE. And no matter what the
text zoom in IE nothing changes the size of the text in a text reply box
unless the rest of the page is such gigantic text that you can't read
anything else except the text reply box.
I kept the IE7 beta about three months and I couldn't use it so I went
back
to IE6 and thanked my lucky stars that Firefox and Opera care about those
of
us with less than perfect eyesight.
The irony to me with Office in particular is that I have no difficulty
making out small icons and I far prefer very small ones. I just can't
read
small text on a flat panel digital LCD at 1280x1024. Even using Windows
DPI
at 120 is not enough. I cannot use IE to read a web page (much less type
in
a forum reply box) at 96 DPI even with IE set on "largest" for text. I
can
set IE on "medium" or "large", depending on the web page, when using 120
DPI
and that is ok but IE doesn't enlarge all the text on the page big enough
(without enlarging other text too much) because I can't set a default
minimum text size. Why Microsoft cannot understand such a simple concept
(especially when all they need do is go look at their rival browsers) is
mind boggling.
I'll shut up now. I got off onto IE7 and this is a forum for Office.
