-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Fonts Tutorial
- From: "Sandi Beach" <sandib2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:55:00 -0500
I just finished removing all of the shortcuts from my Windows Fonts Folder.
Re-checked not once but three times and caught some I had missed. Knew I
would. Now I am ready to rest a bit and await your next post.
In the meantime I did a Google search and came up with yet another list of
"essential Windows Fonts". This list included "any font with a red A for
its icon." and "Any font that begins with the letters MS". This information
was found in the first hit on Google and is from
"graphicssoft.about.com-----"
The fonts I had already moved to Xtra fonts folder (now in My Documents,
Downloads) had many that became just a number so if I had moved them en
masse they would have been difficult to identify.
If "making mistakes and fixing the mess" is the absolute best way to learn,
I am doing a bang up job of it!
Sandi
----- Original Message -----
From: "GMan" <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 2:10 AM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Fonts Tutorial
> Sandi,
> You'd get your info from someone else. lol
>
> The old lists most likely both pertain to older operating systems.
> Fixedsys, MSDOS, and System are all fonts that are used for Win9x/ME OS's
> since they had a true DOS underlayment (NT based OS's only emulate DOS
> when
> you call for a Command Prompt window).
>
> I'll go through my Fonts folder and type out the names of the ones
> shown
> (to eliminate those numbered ones) so you'll know for sure. I have yet to
> add any fonts from any source to this newer install, so the list will only
> include the ones supplied by WinXP upon installation. I'll suggest that
> you
> save the post for future reference. :O)
>
> Like I said in my last post, delete ALL of the shortcuts in your
> Windows
> Font folder and start over. There's absolutely no sense in leaving
> something that could confuse the situation and deleting shortcuts won't
> hurt
> a thing. It's deleting the originals that you have to avoid.
>
> Once the shortcuts are gone, wait for my post of the original fonts
> before proceeding. I'll include a short tutorial on how to make the rest
> of
> it much easier that how you've been doing it. The rest of this reply
> should
> be added to what I've already discussed, but not acted on until I send in
> the next post to this thread.
>
>
> There are several different types of fonts. Describing them fully
> would
> be well beyond the scope of this post (and more than most folks could
> probably tolerate), so here's a link with a well worded full description
> of
> the different types.
> http://anakin.ncst.ernet.in/~aparna/consolidated/x1057.html
>
> The READ ONLY files were most likely set like that intentionally by the
> app that put them there in order to discourage you from removing them. It
> seems to be working, too. hehe. Right click in a blank area of the Fonts
> folder and select View > Details from the resulting context menu. Then,
> look to the column titles for one called Attributes. It tells you what
> attributes have been set for each font. If you click on it, the window
> will
> reorder the list so that all of the READ ONLY files are together on a row.
> Then you can more easily scroll down (or up) to them and select the bunch
> of
> them at once (click the top one, scroll down as necessary to see the last
> one, hold down the SHIFT key while you select that last one). Once
> they're
> all selected, right click on one of them and select Properties from the
> menu. Uncheck the READ ONLY box and click on Apply. It may ask you to
> confirm your choice. Select Yes to that.
>
> Finally, as long as it's not a font needed by Windows, it won't
> permanently hurt anything to Move it out of there and into your Xtra
> folder.
> If it turns out that one of the apps you use actually needs it in order to
> function, you can move it to your 'In Use' folder and create a shortcut
> for
> it in Windows/Fonts then.
>
> I thought of a small modification to my last suggested order for
> getting
> this the way you want it. The results are below.
>
> Before you start any fo the following, your font storage area (the one
> away from the Windows folder and preferably on a different partition or
> drive) should be set up like this. The actual names of these folders is
> up
> to you, but the meanings should be cleared up by the instructions
> following
> it.
>
> +My Documents
> + FONTS
> + IN USE
> + ORIGINAL
> + XTRA
>
> 1. Delete every shortcut you find in the Windows Fonts folder. No
> Exceptions! This will eliminate the possibility of any remaining broken
> ones and anything that could complicate the rest of this procedure. Any
> that you really want will be recreated shortly.
>
> 2. Using Windows Explorer (along with the instructions and list of
> original fonts in my next post), Move ALL of your non-original Windows
> fonts
> from the Windows/Fonts folder to the My Documents/FONTS/XTRA folder. This
> will leave the Windows/Fonts folder with nothing in it except for the
> original fonts. The original Windows fonts should then be Copied (not
> moved) from the Windows/Fonts folder directly to the "Original" folder so
> as
> to leave the originals in the Windows Font folder. Finally, run a search
> over your entire collection of hard drives & partitions for any other
> stray
> fonts that may be lurking in program folders or elsewhere. Since those
> programs probably need the fonts left right where they are, Copy them from
> the Search results window into your XTRA folder (CTRL+A will select them
> all
> in that window). If you get a warning that a font already exists while
> copying them there, select No to replacing it.
>
> 3. At this point, every font everywhere in your computer should be in
> either your 'XTRA' or 'ORIGINAL' folder. The original Windows fonts are
> also in the Windows/Font folder and any that you found in other locations
> will still also be in those other locations. So, it's now time to start
> going through the entire XTRA folder to choose which of the fonts in the
> XTRA folder are good enough to be chosen for an "IN USE" upgrade. To do
> this right, you'll need to install and use a Font Manager type program.
> Several have already been suggested and this is the perfect time to give
> each of them a spin. Install one of them and use it to go through all of
> the fonts that start with a number (if there aren't enough of those,
> continue through til the end of the A's). Any fonts that you really like
> should be immediately Moved into your IN USE folder. When you're done
> with
> the numbered files (and perhaps the A's), install another manager and use
> that for the next batch. Rinse & Repeat as necessary to get through all
> of
> the managers you choose to test out. Using these apps for a relatively
> small group of fonts should give you some idea of which one is best for
> your
> needs. Once you've chosen your favorite manager app, uninstall the rest
> and
> get to work going through the remaining fonts in the XTRA folder. When
> you're finished, move on to step 4 below.
>
> 4. Select (CTRL+A) all of the files that made it into the IN USE
> folder,
> Right drag them to the Windows Fonts folder and select Create Shortcut
> from
> the menu. Note that from now on, all of your "In Use" fonts MUST remain
> where they are or you will break these shortcuts. That includes the fact
> that you will not be able to move the folder anywhere other than where it
> is
> right now.
>
> 5. If at any time in the future you choose to move or remove a font
> from
> your IN USE folder, you will also need to delete its shortcut from the
> Windows Font folder. If you choose to add a font to the IN USE folder,
> you
> will have to create a shortcut to it in the Windows Font folder before you
> can use it like the others.
>
> I hope that this post is able to fully clarify all of the semi-random
> thoughts I've given up to this point. I know all too well that my posts
> can
> sometimes feel like they're leading you folks in circles, but that doesn't
> make it any easier for me to type out things that I normally do on
> autopilot. Still, making mistakes & fixing the mess has always been the
> absolute BEST way to learn anything worth knowing. Besides, if this stuff
> was easy, everybody wou ..., oh wait. Everybody IS diong it. ;O}
>
> Have fun!
>
> Peace,
> GMan
>
> "The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask!"
>
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