possible to set tracking in Word?

[teeb]

I wondered if it's possible to fine-tune the spacing between letters
(tracking) in Word or whether there's any way to make letters (or
spaces) skinnier or wider by setting a horizontal percentage?
teeb

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I wondered if it's possible to fine-tune the spacing between letters

(tracking) in Word or whether there's any way to make letters (or
spaces) skinnier or wider by setting a horizontal percentage?
teeb

Spacing between letters is commonly called kerning, I thought?

In Format | Font, there is a character spacing tab that will let you apply
it to selected text--you can condense or expand by a certain degree. Same
dialog, you can also ask Word to automatically kern (adjust character
spacing) for fonts over a certain point size.

Satisfaction with the results from either method is likely to vary widely
and to depend on the font and size of the text you are trying to
fine-tune--professional type-setters would scorn it while you may be
perfectly happy.

I don't think you can make letters skinny or wide unless you use WordArt,
which would let you stretch letters--but WordArt is a graphic, that's not
really text.

What type of doc are you trying to make? I notice you also asked about
graphics in another thread. I gotta say, for something like a newsletter
with headlines and text wrapped around graphics, you may be happier using
Apple's Pages, which does simple page layout rather less aggravatingly than
Word. Depends on what you need to do with the doc, of course.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Gang-

Thought I'd jump in for a bit, if you don't mind.

First point is that the spacing in a doc using scalable fonts is already
'fine tuned' by the designer. Not that you don't have every right to make
adjustments if necessary. Don't be misled by what you see on screen,
however, because a display is _not_ as accurate as your printer. The job
will usually look better on paper, and as long as you are dealing with well
designed fonts you'll get spacing comparable to what you would find in any
typeset quality document.

If you do need to make adjustments, there is a distinction between the size
of spaces and spacing between actual characters.

For space sizing the best results are obtained by going to
Insert>Symbol--Special Characters and using 'em' or 'en' spaces. Each have
keyboard equivalents that are rather easy to remember if you need to use
them frequently.

Spacing between characters can be adjusted in 2 ways in Word:

1- Tracking (which Word refers to as 'Character Spacing' -
Format>Font--Character Spacing--Spacing) is used by selecting a passage -
such as a title or headline - and using Expanded or Condensed by points in
increments as small as .01 pt. and equally affects the spacing of all the
selected text.

2- Kerning technically applies only to the spacing between specific _pairs_
of characters, not an entire text string, and is applied by placing the
insertion point between the two characters, going through the same dialog
box and checking the box. You can select a passage, but only certain
pairings of characters will be affected. Kerning values are built into the
font design, so you have no further control other than the smallest font
size at which automatic kerning will be used. The size you can pick may vary
from one font to another, depending how how the font was designed. It is
generally suggested that kerning _not_ be used on anything smaller than 8
pt. type.

Horizontal scaling is not a feature that Word has to offer other than
comparable capability using WordArt.

Regards |:>)

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks for the tracking/kerning explanation, CyberTaz. Very helpful to me
(I happened to go back and see that teeb had come from using Quark, at which
point I figured I probably had it wrong

Kerning[...]is applied by placing the
insertion point between the two characters, going through the same dialog
box and checking the box.

I had no idea....

You can select a passage, but only certain
pairings of characters will be affected. Kerning values are built into the
font design, so you have no further control other than the smallest font
size at which automatic kerning will be used.

Out of curiosity, I'm a little confused about control here--so I could turn
kerning on for between a Q and an O, but not control how much it kerns? But
if I tried to turn on kerning between a forbidden pair, nothing would
happen?

Does the font size thing still apply even if I put the cursor between two
characters and turn on kerning manually?

Daiya

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Daiya-

Word doesn't give you the flexibility that Quark or InDesign do. I believe
Word uses Metric kerning, which you can either turn On or Off for any or all
of a document. It adjusts the spacing between specific character pairs based
on algorithms written into the font design.

In your QO example you can turn kerning on, but not only can you not control
how much, you cannot control _if_ it will have any effect. It depends on
whether the font has kerning designed into it for that particular character
pair. So you're pretty much on the mark with your interpretation.

Kern pairs contain information about the spacing of specific pairs of
letters. Some of these are: LA, P., To, Tr, Ta, Tu, Te, Ty, Wa, WA, We, Wo,
Ya, and Yo. If you want to see a pretty good example in Word, using Times
New Roman 12 pt., type in the word Turn. Press enter a time or two, go to
the Font Formatting dialog box & turn on kerning, then type the word again
and notice the very slight, but noticeable difference in how the right serif
of the T 'overhangs' the left serif of the u, whereas in the un-kerned text
it doesn't.

There is also Optical Kerning, which is automatic, as well, but Word doesn't
support it. Programs like Quark further support Manual kerning which not
only allows the user to directly adjust spacing between _any_ two
characters, but also gives access to tables of kerning values for each font
and permits adjusting the values to something other than what the font
designer has them set to.

As far as

Does the font size thing still apply even if I put the cursor between two
characters and turn on kerning manually?

Based on the above, let's throw out the word "manually", because (in Word)
all you can do is "manually" turn on Automatic Metric kerning. If you have
it set 'for sizes 12 point and above' it will not affect type smaller than
12 point even if you turn kerning on for the entire doc.

Regards |:>)

Thanks for the tracking/kerning explanation, CyberTaz. Very helpful to me
(I happened to go back and see that teeb had come from using Quark, at which
point I figured I probably had it wrong

Kerning[...]is applied by placing the
insertion point between the two characters, going through the same dialog
box and checking the box.

I had no idea....

You can select a passage, but only certain
pairings of characters will be affected. Kerning values are built into the
font design, so you have no further control other than the smallest font
size at which automatic kerning will be used.

Out of curiosity, I'm a little confused about control here--so I could turn
kerning on for between a Q and an O, but not control how much it kerns? But
if I tried to turn on kerning between a forbidden pair, nothing would
happen?

Does the font size thing still apply even if I put the cursor between two
characters and turn on kerning manually?

Daiya