Font pick list

Charlie · External Since: May 06, 2006 Posts: 4

Is there a better way than this?

I select some text in Word 2003.
I bring up the font pick list of several hundred installed fonts.
I type in say a "my-font-choice" and the list now has fonts that start with
"my-font-choice".
I chose "my-font-choice".
My selected text changes to "my-font-choice".
Good, so far.
But I decide to try a different font, whose name is "my-font-choice-version
B".
I display the font pick list again, and "my-font-choice" shows in the top
part of the pick list.
To get to "my-font-choice-version B", I have two possible ways.
I can scroll down through a couple hundred listed fonts. OR
I can type in the name up until the first distinctive character, the third
"-", and version B will become available.

Both of these ways are cumbersome, long, and not user-friendly.

Is there a better way? Got to be, but I can't find one. Perhaps some easy
way to get rid of the top just-used part of the font pick list?

Your ideas are appreciated. Thanks.

Charlie

Suzanne S. Barnhill · External Since: Sep 26, 2003 Posts: 23321

I agree it's cumbersome, but I don't know of any way around it. Sorry.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Charlie" <czingerl.RemoveThis@stny.rr.com> wrote in message
news:4641eda0$0$1369$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> Is there a better way than this?
>
> I select some text in Word 2003.
> I bring up the font pick list of several hundred installed fonts.
> I type in say a "my-font-choice" and the list now has fonts that start
with
> "my-font-choice".
> I chose "my-font-choice".
> My selected text changes to "my-font-choice".
> Good, so far.
> But I decide to try a different font, whose name is
"my-font-choice-version
> B".
> I display the font pick list again, and "my-font-choice" shows in the top
> part of the pick list.
> To get to "my-font-choice-version B", I have two possible ways.
> I can scroll down through a couple hundred listed fonts. OR
> I can type in the name up until the first distinctive character, the third
> "-", and version B will become available.
>
> Both of these ways are cumbersome, long, and not user-friendly.
>
> Is there a better way? Got to be, but I can't find one. Perhaps some easy
> way to get rid of the top just-used part of the font pick list?
>
> Your ideas are appreciated. Thanks.
>
> Charlie
>
>

Character · External Since: Sep 26, 2006 Posts: 35

Charlie wrote:

> Is there a better way than this?
>
> I select some text in Word 2003.
> I bring up the font pick list of several hundred installed fonts.
> I type in say a "my-font-choice" and the list now has fonts that start with
> "my-font-choice".
> I chose "my-font-choice".
> My selected text changes to "my-font-choice".
> Good, so far.
> But I decide to try a different font, whose name is "my-font-choice-version
> B".
> I display the font pick list again, and "my-font-choice" shows in the top
> part of the pick list.
> To get to "my-font-choice-version B", I have two possible ways.
> I can scroll down through a couple hundred listed fonts. OR
> I can type in the name up until the first distinctive character, the third
> "-", and version B will become available.
>
> Both of these ways are cumbersome, long, and not user-friendly.
>
> Is there a better way? Got to be, but I can't find one. Perhaps some easy
> way to get rid of the top just-used part of the font pick list?
>
> Your ideas are appreciated. Thanks.

Yep, it's a pain all right. And the MRUF (most-recently-used-fonts)
list isn't even kept in the registry, where you have half

I find scrolling with the keyboard very fast and easy, with better
tactile control than scrolling with the scroll bar.

To get to "my-font-choice-version B", I just type in an "m" - or an
"n" if I know it's near the end of the m's, then use the arrow keys to
move to the one I want. If there's an "m" already in the
most-recently-used fonts list, then you can enter another character or
two and hope there's a font with those first two or three characters!

Specifically:

Click on the down arrow next to open up the drop-down list.
(optional) Enter a single letter to get near where you're going
Use the page up/down and/or the up/down arrows to navigate to the
font you want.

I have about 500 installed fonts (way too many, but that's a topic for
a different discussion), and it takes two seconds to scroll the entire
list with the Page-Down key, 12 seconds with a down-arrow key.
Average time to get to a desired font is 3-4 seconds.

- Character