(10 Dec 97)
Dear David Havard,
Thanks for your help about the pernicious MS Word font default. Your
step-by step instructions worked precisely, except for a few minor
differences in button location in my versions of W95 and MS Word.
Now I understand why we CANNOT get rid of the MS font default of
Times New Roman, and since I've had related inquiries from some
other listmembers I shall post this to the Parkinsn. list rather
than you alone:
MS Word, in its pigheaded way, suffers from trying to be all things
to all users by providing a huge variety of text options, as might
be wanted in a busy office with lots of letters, memos, ad layouts,
spreadsheets, reports, etc., to do in a fancy way. For someone like
me who wants only to record text as on a simple old typewriter, this
versatility is just a royal pain in the ---.
Here are the steps to check out my unhappy discovery:
My Computer (permanent W95 desktop icon)
C: (list of folders and other files on main hard drive)
MS Office (window with several folders and other files)
Templates (folder)
Normal.dot (MS Word icon for standard document*)
Document 1 (empty text window with menu bar)
* MS Word's "Normal Template" is nothing more than a standard blank
document that is automatically copied and retitled as the first
page of any new document that you may originate (e.g., this one).
To proceed:
Format (from menu bar at top)
Style (from drop-down menu)
Dialog Box (where you can specify some features)
Styles Menu (scrollable list of objects)
Default Paragraph Font
Heading 1
Normal
Modify (button at right of Dialog Box)
Modify Style (new Dialog Box)
Format (button at right of box)
Drop-down menu in box
Font (from menu)
Font Dialog Box
Here, you can choose the Font, Style (regular, bold, italic) and
Size of the type you wish to appear by default in each new document,
as one of the objects in the Styles Menu above. But there's a catch.
You may choose a font for "Normal" text, and a different one for
"Heading 1" if you like, say a paragraph heading or title in
boldface. But you CANNOT change the "Default Paragraph Font"!! If
you try to do that, you find that the "Modify Style" button is
grayed out! Which means that MS won't let you change their "Times
New Roman" default font, any time you start a new paragraph in your
text document. I don't know exactly which keystroke combination
tells MS Word to start a paragraph, but if you do it inadvertently
you'll see that the type font has suddenly changed from whatever
you had chosen, back to "Times New Roman" and you must go through
the "Format" routine once more. In their arrogant conceit,
Microsucks has chosen your default for you, and you are stuck.
Joe
J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694
3527 Cody Road
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-5013
