Church is clean, house is dirty, and I feel better. Guess a little hard work is good for a cold. I have been struggling all afternoon with fonts!! Well, font. Next time I decide to play and experiment I will choose a font I never use! I do use Amazone quite a bit and I was determined to get it back so I could see it again in my card programs. I must confess I deviated some from your instructions, G, and figured I was in worse shape than ever. I deleted the shortcut and dragged the font from Xtra fonts to Windows fonts. Looked good and showed up in my card programs---until I moved the Xtra font folder to My Documents. Then neither font folder displayed Amazone. I got sidetracked for a while cleaning up My Documents by deleting some older stuff and putting other things in folders. But it seemed unless I moved Xtra fonts folder to the desktop it would not display. Finally I grabbed Amazone out of the Xtra fonts folder, dragged it to the desktop, opened windows fonts and Moved the font there. It then showed up in my programs. But the font was still on my desktop after the right click, move to Windows font folder so I dragged that one back into the Xtra fonts folder. It worked---for just a little while. Then it was back as before and not showing up in the card programs. I was totally discouraged to think I had it working and then it wasn't. I rebooted to see if that would help and it did. As of now I have Amazone functioning with the Xtra font folder residing in My Documents Download folder. I created two new folders there--one for in use fonts and one for those that I had previously copied from Windows (the loose ones). So I am making progress. Lots more to do! I have several more shortcut fonts in the Windows fonts folder and I need to take a rest and gather up my courage before I delete those. Actually I need to locate the originals first. I don't know where they are! Sandy Original Message ----- From: "GMan" <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx> To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 2:51 PM Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Fonts Tutorial > Hi Sandi (& anyone else following this thread), > Moving the Xtra folder means breaking every shortcut that points to > files within it. Of course, the same thing applies any time you move ANY > folder (which is why it's a terrible idea to just delete a program you no > longer want). The font that is complaining when you try to change its > name > is doing so because it's currently installed through that shortcut. If > you > change the name of the original, the shortcut will stop working. So, just > delete the shortcut. You'll be replacing it anyway later in this reply. > After deleting it, go ahead and rename the original. Just be sure to do > it > BEFORE you create new shortcuts in the Windows Font folder. lol > > > Do you have a folder somewhere (perhaps in My Documents) to hold things > that you download? If you do, that location is a much better choice than > inside your Windows folder. For one thing, it'll be with other stuff that > you're more likely to burn to CD/DVD as a backup. In addition, it'll be > outside of the OS area where it will be more prone to being lost if/when > the > time comes to reformat/reinstall Windows. > > No matter where you choose to move it, those shortcuts will need to be > fixed. I've also noticed that the shortcuts inside the Windows Fonts > folder > are exactly the same size as the fonts themselves and there's nothing in > their Property sheets that shows the path back to the original font (the > one > safely tucked away in the Xtra folder). While it looks like the shortcut > actually installed the font instead of waiting for it to be called, I'm > not > going to deal with that aspect right now. I am, however, going to outline > an approach for making it easier to repair the broken shortcuts that occur > whenever you Move the Xtra folder (and you may find it necessary to Move > it > again sometime in the future). > > > Before creating shortcuts in the Windows Fonts folder, be sure that you > first put your Xtra folder exactly where you want to store it long-term. > For most folks, this will be nestled somewhere within your My Documents > folder. Personally, I have so many multimedia files (sounds, images, > fonts, > cursors, icons, themes, etc.) that I have a separate partition I created > just for them. > > Once the main Xtra folder is in place, create a subfolder inside it and > call it something like "Currently Used" or "Current" or "In Use". Then, > Move all of the fonts that you want to 'shortcut' into your Windows Font > folder into this subfolder. Now, you'll have all of them in one place > without all of the others in the way. When you need to 'fix' the > shortcuts > in the Windows Font folder, just go into the Windows Font folder and > delete > all of the shortcuts you find (they should all have an arrow in the lower > left corner of the font's icon). Once they are gone, highlight all of the > fonts in your new "In Use" subfolder and use your right mouse button to > drag > them to your Windows Fonts folder. When you get there, let go of the > right > mouse button and select 'Create Shortcut' fromt he menu. It's that > simple. > > Using the same idea, I will also suggest Moving your spare copy of the > original system fonts into their own subfolder. In my own Xtra fonts > folder > (which I simply call Fonts), I have several subfolders that I use to help > me > keep the whole deal better organized. Note that I use ALL CAPS whenever > I'm > dealing with a folder used for storage. My layout is below. > > + FONTS (nothing in here but subfolders) > > + !INCOMING (all new fonts go here. I'll organize later) > + EXTRACTION (Zipped fontpacks are uncompressed here) > > + FONTS (here are all of the fonts I've collected since time began) > + WINGDINGS (fonts that contain characters instead of letters) > > + IN USE (fonts that have shortcuts in the Windows Fonts folder) > > + SYSTEM (copies of all of the original Windows fonts) > > Once everything is set and populated exactly how you want it, you > should > also burn the contents to CD/DVD for safekeeping. Then, as new added > files > dictate, you should periodically reburn the contents so that your backup > includes files you've added since the last burn. If the idea of going > through multiple optical disks just to have a safety net rubs you the > wrong > way, consider using an external USB hard drive instead. Backing up will > be > much faster and you won't be creating so much landfill material since the > external drive doesn't need to be tossed out every time you back up your > stuff. However you do it, the idea is to have your important stuff in at > least two separate places so that if one bites the bullet, your stuff is > safe. Note that I'm talking about saving the stuff you create/accumulate > that would be hard or impossible to replace. > > Peace, > GMan > > "The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask!" > --------------------------------------------------------------- Please remember to trim your replies (including this sentence and everything below it) and adjust the subject line as necessary. 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