If you are like me, your computer has probably acquired a large number of fonts over the years. Every time you install certain kinds of programs, you are likely to add some more fonts to the collection and a fair number are included with the operating system. If you don’t have enough, there are lots of free fonts available.
This accumulation of fonts can cause your computer to slow down during the startup process when Windows reads the font information. This appears to be less of a problem with Windows XP, but it is still a good idea to manage your fonts. The optimal number is to keep your collection below 400 fonts.
Fonts are normally kept in the Fonts folder, which you can access from the Control Panel, in Classic View, or as a selection on the left menu if you go to “Appearance and Themes” on the Control Panel.
Note that the icons are different. The “TT” indicates a TrueType font, “O” is an OpenType font, and the capital “A” signifies that the font is a system font. In addition, you may se a small letter “a” which is for Adobe PostScript Type 1 fonts.
Another difference about this folder is the set of 4 buttons on the right side of the taskbar. The leftmost button will display the fonts folder as shown above, the default view. The second button lists the fonts in several columns. The third will display fonts similar to the font that you select, ranked from most similar to least.
The final button displays the fonts in a detailed format showing both the font name and the file name, with the extension, as well as the file size.
This view is very useful if you decide you want to move or delete fonts. Fonts with the extension FON are system fonts and should not be moved or deleted. All other fonts are fair game. Of course, if you remove them from the fonts folder, you won’t be able use them. Wrong! Moving fonts that you don’t use much is possible and you will still be able to use them later if you decide you like a font. Just remember that you can’t move or delete fonts with the file extension of “ fon” as those are the system fonts that Windows uses in the displays on your screen. Later you can go back and reinstall the font
One other trick is to go to the folder where you put the excess fonts and double-click on a font that you want to use. In the Window that opens, you will see examples of the font. Minimize the window, but leave it open. Windows applications will be able to use the font so long as you have the open font file in the taskbar.
By the way, if you are anywhere near as old as I am, you probably grew up typing term papers, letters to home, resumes and other documents on a typewriter—you remember those—the cordless word processor that made a lot of noise. On typewriters, you had two ways to emphasize text—all capital letters or underlined letters. That was fine then, but now on your computer you have many ways to place emphasis on the letters and words that you type. You can change font size, change typefaces, and use bold or italics. You can use color as well if your output is to a color printer. So lose the all caps and underlines. Experiment with fonts and size changes to make your immortal prose stand out.
One other advantage of avoiding all caps is that your text is easier to read when you use a mix of upper and lower case letters. Your brain does an amazing job of discerning what letters are when it has enough clues, even if the whole letter is not formed. If you take a sentence typed in upper and lower case and fill in all the openings in the letters, it will still be readable because your brain can figure the letters from their shapes even when filled in. If you do the same thing to a sentence written with all capitalized letters, filling in the gaps in letters, your brain has a much harder time, actually it’s almost impossible, to distinguish the letters.
Windows has an accessory called “Character Map.” You access it from the program menu, Accessories, System Tools in Windows XP.
What you see is a chart of all the characters in a particular font. Not all characters in a font are accessible from the keyboard directly. The font shown is particularly difficult because it consists of various symbols and small bullets that you could only figure out by hitting all the keys on the keyboard.
Once in in the Character Map, you can choose the character you want by selecting it, hit the copy button and go back to your document. Position the cursor and type Ctrl-V to insert the character (you can use Edit, Paste as well or right-click and use the context menu). Also note that there is a Keystroke code in the lower right corner of the dialog box. You can also insert the character by holding down the alt key and, using the numeric keypad, type the numbers shown (no plus sign). Once the character is in the document, you can change the font size just as you would with any other character. Not all characters have a keystroke code.
By the way, Times Roman contains Latin characters, accented characters, Cyrillic characters and more. Explore a little. Wingdings are fun also because there are so many symbols, bullets, etc. that you can use without having to create a graphic.
