Finally come the effects, which have little to do with the typeface. These affects are applied by Word to add emphasis or just look cool. See the later section “Text Effects Strange and Wonderful.”
Text on a line can be manipulated to change the way it looks. For example, tracking can be adjusted to scrunch up characters on a line of text. Kerning can be applied to bring letters closer together. Later sections in this chapter describe the details.
❯❯ Fonts are installed into Windows, not Word. You must access the Control Panel (even in Windows 10) and choose the Appearance and Personalization category. Click the Fonts heading to view installed fonts.
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❯❯ Proportionally spaced typefaces are easier to read.
❯❯ Computers traditionally use monospace fonts for programming and other historically text-only documents. The benefit is that the text’s characters line up evenly into columns.
❯❯ The old typewriters produced monospace text. The two styles, elite and pica, refer to text approximately 10 points and 12 points tall, respectively. The term pica is also a unit of measurement, equal to 1⁄6 of an inch – which is 12 points.
❯❯ Beyond proportional and monospace and serif and sans serif, typefaces can be scripted, foreign, decorative, ornamental, or a plethora of variations.
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❯❯ Other typeface weights, not shown in Figure 1-3, include Book, Roman, and Heavy. Still other variations might be available, depending on how the font is designed and named.
❯❯ Italic and oblique text are two different types of slant. Italic is often a specific design, whereas oblique is simply a subtle slant to the standard typeface.
❯❯ Just as you should choose a heavy typeface instead of applying the bold text format, if an italic or oblique typeface is available, use it instead of applying the italic text format. See the next section.
The general rule for text design is to use sans serif fonts for titles and headings and use serif fonts for document text. Like all rules, this one is broken frequently and deliberately. Even in Word, the default document theme uses sans serif Calibri as both the body text and headings typeface.
If you have trouble choosing fonts, take advantage of the Design tab’s document themes in Word. Follow these steps:
1. Click the Design tab.
2. In the Document Formatting group, select a theme.
Each theme combines typeface elements with colors and other tidbits to help your document maintain its overall appearance.
As you point the mouse at various themes, the document’s text updates to reflect the theme’s attributes.
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❯❯ A scripted typeface looks handwritten, and you might feel it adds a personal touch. For a short note, an invitation, or a thank-you card, that typeface works well. For a long document, however, a scripted typeface hinders readability.
❯❯ Choosing a new document theme is optional. You can always create your own document styles to set heading and body typefaces.
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Beyond typeface and other typographical nonsense, a few digital standards rule the world of computer fonts. You may have heard the names: TrueType and OpenType.
TrueType is a digital font standard created by Apple and Microsoft. It was designed to compete with Adobe’s PostScript fonts, which rendered better on the computer screen back in the early 1990s. OpenType is the successor to TrueType, which was developed in the late 1990s.
To determine which font is which, open the Font dialog box. Choose a font, and its type is confirmed below the Preview window.
Other fonts are stirred into the mix and flagged as non-TrueType in Word. These fonts may not look as good as TrueType/OpenType fonts. You may also find that some of Word’s advanced text-effect commands don’t apply to non-TrueType/OpenType fonts.
Font Control
In Word, the term font is used over typeface, which is inaccurate but acceptable. Don’t let the nomenclature get in the way. The purpose of the Font command is to select the type of text used in your documents.
The first place you most likely go to control text in your document is the Font group on the Ribbon’s Home tab. It hosts commands for basic typeface selection and manipulation, as illustrated in Figure 1-4.
FIGURE 1-4: The Font group.
The two key items in the Font group set the typeface and text size. Other common attribute commands are available, such as Bold and Italic, as well as commands for text effects, text color, capitalization, and highlighting.
❯❯ Text formatting commands in the Font group are applied to any new text you type or to selected text.
❯❯ Many of the commands shown in the Font group are echoed on the Mini Toolbar, which appears when you select or right-click text.
❯❯ Capitalization and highlighting commands are not text formats or attributes. They manipulate the way text looks but don’t affect the typeface.
❯❯ The Clear All Formatting command resets all font attributes and modifications back to the underlying style. So, if the style is Calibri 11-point text, click the Clear All Formatting button to restore selected text to that style.
❯❯ The keyboard shortcut for the Clear All Formatting command is Ctrl+spacebar.
For detailed control over the text format, use the Font dialog box. It offers far more controls than are found on the Ribbon. Follow these steps to summon the Font dialog box:
1. Click the Home tab.
2. In the Font group, click the dialog box launcher.
The Font dialog box is shown in Figure 1-5.
FIGURE 1-5: The Font dialog box.
And now, the shortcut key: Press Ctrl+D to quickly summon the Font dialog box.
The Font tab in the Font dialog box (on the left in Figure 1-5) is the traditional, go-to place for standard text-attribute application and formatting fun. More interesting and unusual text-manipulation commands are found on the Advanced tab (on the right in Figure 1-5). Even more text effects are available when you click on the Text Effects button, illustrated in the figure. These options are discussed in the later section “Text