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Is It Possible to Have Too Many Fonts?

       Mary Hansen wrote that an MSWorks error message said she had too many fonts on her computer, and asked how to delete any unnecessary ones. Well, I agree that we could dispense with about 90% of of our fonts. To see what a particular font looks like go to Start>Control Panel, choose Fonts and then double-click a font.

       Instead of actually deleting any fonts, I recommend moving them into a separate folder, thus making it possible to restore any that might someday be needed.

       Right-click your Desktop, choose New Folder, and name it something like "Surplus Alphabets." Then drag unwanted fonts into this folder from the "Fonts" folder. Note that the dragged fonts are copied rather than moved, meaning they will need to be DELETED from the Fonts folder. Conversely, however, dragging a font from "Alphabets" back into the Fonts folder will physically move it.

       When naming the surplus folder avoid the words "font" or "fonts" because doing so messes up some versions of Windows, since Fonts is a "reserved system folder" name.

       Do NOT delete any fonts with a red "A" or anything else in their icons that is red. These are "system" fonts. Their removal can play havoc with Windows.

       You should definitely keep on hand the most popular fonts used on the Internet and by the average user, such as
    Arial (ABC abc 123),

    Verdana (ABC abc 123),

    Georgia (ABC abc 123),

    Comic Sans MS (ABC abc 123),

    Times New Roman (ABC abc 123),
    and
    Courier New (ABC abc 123)
     Courier New is the PC equivalent of the mono-spaced alphabet used on typewriters for many decades. (Does anyone remember typewriters?) It comes in handy for arranging data in columns that are established by using your spacebar to go from one column to the next.

       Times New Roman is the default font in most word processors and in many email programs. My favorite for just plain legibility is Verdana.

Fancy Fonts in Email

       Bear in mind that fancy fonts will NOT be properly displayed in outgoing emails unless recipients have the identical fonts on their computers. Otherwise, the fancy fonts will change to a recipient's default; usually Times New Roman.

Changing the Default Font in Certain Programs

       You can choose a different default font in some programs. In Word-2007 under Home click Font, make your choice and then click the Default button. In other versions of Word click Format>Font, choose your favorite, click Default and click OK.

      In Outlook Express and Windows Mail click Tools>Options>Compose and choose a font.

      In Notepad click on Format>Font.

      In Outlook-2003 go to Tools>Options>Mail Format>Stationery & Fonts>Font.

      In Outlook-2007 go to Tools>Options>Signatures & Stationery>Font.

       Most word processing programs will let you choose sizes beyond the standard choices. For instance you can choose 13 points by clicking on any standard size (say 12 points), mouse-selecting it, and then typing 13 over it. Some will even let you type in sizes such as 13.5.

       A nifty "Font Explorer" program that lets you quickly display fonts in many sizes can be freely downloaded at www.karenware.com.

      Information on downloading and emailing fonts can be found here.

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