Word 2001 fonts display wrong in Normal view

[Jessica]

But they look ok in print layout view, print preview, and printed
pages. I read something about this a while ago, but can't find
where--is this a bug? If so, is it correctable? The user experiencing
this is already super finicky about how things appear on his screen, so
he is very much annoyed by this issue. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I think Normal View has a "draft font" setting in Preferences, View tab.
That hides all fanciness for the sake of speed. Make sure it isn't checked.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Jessica:

Tell the user concerned that he (it's gotta be a 'he', a girl wouldn't...)
has a choice between SPEED and BEAUTY.

The Normal view is where most documentation professionals spend most of
their time: it's specifically enhanced to improve speed, stability and
useability. It's "You Can Actually See What You Are Doing" rather than
WYSIWYG

To improve speed, various power-saving techniques are in force, including
loading only two fonts: serif and sans-serif. Everything else is simply an
approximation produced by varying the outlines of either of the two fonts
loaded (which, I believe, are Arial and Times New Roman).

In Normal View, the display is designed for speed and readability. It is
not accurate, and was never intended to be. For example, it uses generic
measurements of the screen area, instead of reading the printer driver and
using the printer's metrics to layout the document. It saves a lot of power
that way, at the expense of accuracy.

Explain to the user that if he doesn't like Normal view, he should edit in
Print Layout View. Yes, it will be slower in long documents. Yes, it will
crash more often. Yes, he will get more document corruptions because he
can't see what he's doing properly when he's editing. And yes, various
things are more difficult to do because you cannot see what you are doing.
But it does look nicer

Cheers

But they look ok in print layout view, print preview, and printed
pages. I read something about this a while ago, but can't find
where--is this a bug? If so, is it correctable? The user experiencing
this is already super finicky about how things appear on his screen, so
he is very much annoyed by this issue. Any help greatly appreciated.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Explain to the user that if he doesn't like Normal view, he should edit in
Print Layout View.

John means Page Layout View. (It's called Print Layout View in Word
Windows.)

Yes, it will be slower in long documents. Yes, it will
crash more often. Yes, he will get more document corruptions because he
can't see what he's doing properly when he's editing. And yes, various
things are more difficult to do because you cannot see what you are doing.
But it does look nicer

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Tim Murray]

To improve speed, various power-saving techniques are in force, including
loading only two fonts: serif and sans-serif. Everything else is simply an
approximation produced by varying the outlines of either of the two fonts
loaded (which, I believe, are Arial and Times New Roman).

Are you positive? I've done plenty of Normal-view work using oddball fonts
(Gill Sans, Optima, Univers, Galliard, Bembo, etc.) and I know their shapes
very well and have done my share of zooming in, and I have always seen the
shapes appear as they should, and this goes for Mac and Windows. In fact, I
can even tell at a glance when Helvetica versus Arial is used or when Times
versus Times New Roman is used.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Tim:

No, I am not positive. My understanding is that they are doing this less
and less with every release of Word.

It used to be that in Normal View, only two font outlines were ever used.
Now, I think it's only for Type-1 fonts.

But I have no way of knowing this.

As far as I know, Normal View makes several other changes to the rendering,
kerning and tracking and various metrics. It's quite a list, and I never
did know it all

Cheers

Are you positive? I've done plenty of Normal-view work using oddball fonts
(Gill Sans, Optima, Univers, Galliard, Bembo, etc.) and I know their shapes
very well and have done my share of zooming in, and I have always seen the
shapes appear as they should, and this goes for Mac and Windows. In fact, I
can even tell at a glance when Helvetica versus Arial is used or when Times
versus Times New Roman is used.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

John meant to use the term the OP used, so as not to confuse her

John means Page Layout View. (It's called Print Layout View in Word
Windows.)

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Jessica]

I'm not *that* easily confused, though no one would have any way of
knowing that. Anyway, I fixed the problem by deleting his Microsoft
prefs--he told me he did that, but must have made a mistake somehow, or
didn't delete the relevant preference, or something. In any case, his
normal view now looks normal again (although he was slightly miffed
that he had to turn off all his toolbars again--and then asked me how
to do certain things that are most easily done by clicking toolbar
buttons--argh!)