How do I change the appearance of Office 2007?

[Kathleen]

Help! I can not read the ClearType that is used in Outlook 2007, it hurts my
eyes. I am on email all day long and this is just not acceptable. How do I
change it back to look like Outlook 2003? I am running Windows XP and a duel
CRT setup.

Kathleen

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

In Outlook 2007: Tools, Options, Mail Format, Editor Options, Deselect
"Always use ClearType".
Does that fix the issue for you?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
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
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Kathleen]

no sorry, doesn't help. I read a thread about the font... I even tried
deleting the SegoeUI font which sort of made things even worse.

In Outlook 2007: Tools, Options, Mail Format, Editor Options, Deselect
"Always use ClearType".
Does that fix the issue for you?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
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
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

Help! I can not read the ClearType that is used in Outlook 2007, it hurts my
eyes. I am on email all day long and this is just not acceptable. How do I
change it back to look like Outlook 2003? I am running Windows XP and a duel
CRT setup.

Kathleen

 

[XS11E]

Help! I can not read the ClearType that is used in Outlook 2007,
it hurts my eyes. I am on email all day long and this is just not
acceptable. How do I change it back to look like Outlook 2003? I
am running Windows XP and a duel CRT setup.

I wish I could help. You and I both have the same problem, I had to
remove Office 2007 and put Office XP back on my XP machine in order to
prevent eye strain. All of Vista bothers my eyes and even though I've
changed settings back to Classic I still have to reboot into XP after a
short while to save my remaining eyesight.

I sure hope you find a solution, believe me, I'm following this thread
closely!

 

[Jill]

I am also following this thread... running Office 2007 and Vista...

 

[XS11E]

I am also following this thread... running Office 2007 and
Vista...

I'm very glad it's not just me having problems, I was about to run to
the eye doc! A few things that help:

1. I use Xnews for a news reader and it allows me to set black type on
a gray background, that helps in newsgroups.

2. I experimented with some very faintly tinted lenses (I wear glasses)
and that really helped. If there's no resolution (and I'm pretty sure
there won't be) this may be something to discuss with your eye care
people.

Oh, by the way, try a faint violet or gray tint in the lenses, it's
suppose to help kill eyestrain from fluorescent lights but it seems to
work with my flat screen monitor also.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

You cannot change the font Segoe UI. If the font is the problem, then
there isn't anything you can do.
The thing you have to know about ClearType (technology to make fonts
look better on LCDs) is that ClearType is controlled by Windows. The
Office setting I pointed you to will override the Windows XP setting and
activate ClearType no matter what. To deactivate ClearType, you need to
switch off that setting and switch off ClearType itself in Windows.
To do that, go into Control Panel, Display. Select the Appearance tab
and click on Effects. Under "Use the following method to smooth edges of
screen fonts", select Standard (you can also try unchecking this
completely).
You might have to reopen your Office apps or reboot your computer for
this setting to take effect.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
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
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

no sorry, doesn't help. I read a thread about the font... I even tried
deleting the SegoeUI font which sort of made things even worse.

In Outlook 2007: Tools, Options, Mail Format, Editor Options, Deselect
"Always use ClearType".
Does that fix the issue for you?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
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
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

Help! I can not read the ClearType that is used in Outlook 2007, it hurts my
eyes. I am on email all day long and this is just not acceptable. How do I
change it back to look like Outlook 2003? I am running Windows XP and a duel
CRT setup.

Kathleen

 

[Kathleen]

I did find that if I seriously tweaked every font and UI option I could find
in Outlook (I changed every font preference in Outlook to Tahoma which is the
2003 font), deleted the SegoeUI font completely from my system, changed the
"office theme" to silver so that it was close to the classic gray, then
rebooted, Outlook was more palatable to the eyes.

Short of uninstalling and reinstalling 2003, I think that may be the best I
can do until someone comes up with a utility or upgrade to "fix" the UI. I
understand that they tried to optimize for people on laptops by using the
cleartype feature, but it's really bad for CRT and Graphics work, especially
if you need to get a super clean screenshot for production work.

Kathleen

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Deleting Segoe UI is not a permanent solution. Office will eventually
restore the font.
They were not trying to optimize for laptop users only. They were also
optimizing it for everyone using LCD monitors.
You'll be hard pressed btw to find a desk at Microsoft where there is
actually still a CRT on the desk instead of one or more LCDs...

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
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
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Kathleen]

great... then I'll just keep deleting it.

Also, I'm sooo glad to hear that most people working at Microsoft don't use
CRT monitors, but in the real world we still have them and it would be
wonderful if they took that into consideration when they optimize a product's
onscreen look.

Deleting Segoe UI is not a permanent solution. Office will eventually
restore the font.
They were not trying to optimize for laptop users only. They were also
optimizing it for everyone using LCD monitors.
You'll be hard pressed btw to find a desk at Microsoft where there is
actually still a CRT on the desk instead of one or more LCDs...

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
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
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

I did find that if I seriously tweaked every font and UI option I could find
in Outlook (I changed every font preference in Outlook to Tahoma which is the
2003 font), deleted the SegoeUI font completely from my system, changed the
"office theme" to silver so that it was close to the classic gray, then
rebooted, Outlook was more palatable to the eyes.

Short of uninstalling and reinstalling 2003, I think that may be the best I
can do until someone comes up with a utility or upgrade to "fix" the UI. I
understand that they tried to optimize for people on laptops by using the
cleartype feature, but it's really bad for CRT and Graphics work, especially
if you need to get a super clean screenshot for production work.

Kathleen

 

[XS11E]

great... then I'll just keep deleting it.

Also, I'm sooo glad to hear that most people working at Microsoft
don't use CRT monitors, but in the real world we still have them
and it would be wonderful if they took that into consideration
when they optimize a product's onscreen look.

I'd like to add that I use an LCD monitor and have major problems with
eyestrain.

 

[Tom Miller]

I did find that if I seriously tweaked every font and UI option I could

find
in Outlook (I changed every font preference in Outlook to Tahoma which is
the
2003 font), deleted the SegoeUI font completely from my system, changed
the
"office theme" to silver so that it was close to the classic gray, then
rebooted, Outlook was more palatable to the eyes.

Short of uninstalling and reinstalling 2003, I think that may be the best
I
can do until someone comes up with a utility or upgrade to "fix" the UI. I
understand that they tried to optimize for people on laptops by using the
cleartype feature, but it's really bad for CRT and Graphics work,
especially
if you need to get a super clean screenshot for production work.

Kathleen

Did you read the message about going into windows and reseting various
things like "not using" true type? If you change windows defaults it might
help. I don't know about vista but in Xp/win2000 you can click on the
desktop, goto the appearance tab and disable the "true type" stuff so its in
"standard mode".

In My Computer, properties you can go to the Advanced Tab and under the
performance button you can turn off a lot of the special effects/smoothing
effects. Try setting everything for "maximum" performance and see if that
helps....