Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows XP in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Wake Up with Windows XP
  • Hour 1. Taking a Bird's-Eye Look at Windows XP
  • Hour 2. Getting Started with Windows XP
  • Hour 3. Managing the Windows XP Interface
  • Part II: Morning Windows Desktop Exploration
  • Hour 4. Working with the My Computer Window
  • Hour 5. Navigating Files with Windows Explorer
  • Hour 6. Calling for Help
  • Hour 7. Improving Your Windows Desktop Experience
  • Part III: Early Afternoon Windows Exploration
  • Hour 8. Installing Programs with Windows XP
  • Hour 9. Finding Files, Folders, and Friends
  • Hour 10. Using the Desktop Accessories
  • Part IV: Late Afternoon Internet Integration
  • Hour 11. Surfing the Web with Internet Explorer
  • Hour 12. Tying Windows into the Web
  • Hour 13. Networking with Windows XP
  • Hour 14. Managing E-mail and Newsgroups with Outlook Express
  • Part V: An Evening with Advanced Windows
  • Hour 15. Exploring Your Hardware Interface
  • Hour 16. Understanding Printing and Fonts
    • Introduction to Spooled Printing
    • Setting Up a Printer
    • The Print Dialog Box
    • Managing Print Jobs
    • Deferred Printing
    • Fonts Have Style
    • Fonts and Typefaces
    • Removing Fonts
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 17. Using Windows on the Road
  • Hour 18. Giving Windows XP a Tune-Up
  • Hour 19. Managing Your Hard Drives
  • Hour 20. Tinkering with the Advanced System Tools
  • Part VI: Having Fun at Nighttime
  • Hour 21. Using Media Player
  • Hour 22. Picturing Windows XP Graphics
  • Hour 23. Making Movies with Windows XP
  • Hour 24. Advanced Windows XP Tips
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Differences Between the Windows Home and Professional Edition
  • Appendix B. Glossary
  • Appendix C. Answers to Quizzes

Fonts and Typefaces

Before computers were invented, printer experts stored collections of typefaces in their shops. Each typeface contained every letter, number, and special character the printer would need for printed documents. Therefore, the printer might have 50 typefaces in his inventory with each of those typefaces containing the same letters, numbers, and special characters but each having a different appearance or size.

Windows also contains a collection of typefaces, and those typefaces are stored as fonts on the hard disk. If you want to use a special typeface for a title, you must make sure that Windows contains the typeface in its font collection. If not, you will have to purchase the font and add that font to your system. Software dealers sell numerous font collections. Several fonts come with Windows and with the programs that you use, so you might not even need additional fonts.

The Control Panel's Classic View (available when you select Switch to Classic View from the Control Panel window) contains an icon labeled Fonts from which you can manage, add, and delete fonts from Windows XP's collection. When you open the Control Panel window's Fonts icon, Windows opens the Fonts window shown in Figure 16.7. The following To Do item explains how to manage fonts from the Fonts window.

Figure 16.7 The Fonts window displays your fonts.

To Do: Working in the Fonts Window

1. Open the Control Panel window.
2. Click Switch to Classic View if you see the Control Panel categories listed.

3. Open the Fonts icon. Windows opens the Fonts window.

   Each icon inside the Fonts window contains information about one specific font on your system. Some fonts are scaleable , which means that Windows can display the fonts in one of several different sizes.

4. Open any of the icons inside the Fonts window, and Windows immediately displays a preview of that font, as shown in Figure 16.8. When you want to create a special letter or flier with a fancy font, you can preview all of the fonts by opening each one until you find one you like. When you find a font, you can select it from your word processor to enter the text using that font.
   

   Figure 16.8 Get a preview before selecting a font.

5. If you click the Print command button, Windows prints the preview of the font. If you click Done (do so now), Windows closes the font's preview window.

6. Another way to gather information about certain kinds of fonts is to right-click over a font and select Properties from the menu that appears. The Font Properties dialog box will appear.

   The font icons with a green, rounded O symbol are TrueType fonts (you can verify that a font is a TrueType font from its Properties window. A TrueType font is a scaleable font that Windows prints using 32-bit technology so it will look as close to typeset characters as possible. The remaining fonts, with the letter A or another icon, refer to screen and printer fonts of more limited size ranges than TrueType fonts normally can provide.

7. Click the Similarity toolbar button. Windows searches through your fonts looking for all other fonts that are similar to the font you choose from the drop-down list box and displays the result of that search.
8. Click Large Icons to return to the icon view.
9. Check or uncheck View, Hide Variations (Bold, Italic, and so on) depending on whether you want to see variations within font families. If the box is unchecked, Windows displays a different icon for each font variation within the same family.

10. When you purchase new fonts, you cannot simply copy those fonts to a directory and expect Windows to know that the fonts are there. When you want to add fonts, you'll probably obtain those fonts on a CD, disk, or from the Internet. Insert the disk or CD (or make sure that you know where the file is located on your hard disk if you downloaded it from the Internet) and select File, Install New Font. Windows displays the Add Fonts dialog box.

    Select the drive with the new fonts inside the Drives list box, and Windows displays a list of fonts from that drive in the upper window. Click on the font you want to install (hold Ctrl and click more than one font if you want to install several fonts) and click the OK command button to install the font to the Windows folder named Fonts.

11. Close the Fonts window.

Windows provides a single location, the Fonts window, where you can view and manage all the fonts on your system. Because of the graphical and document-centered design of Windows, your collection and selection of fonts is vital to making your documents as easy to read as possible.

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