Using Font Effects...

Changing your font makes a HUGE difference your document's appearance. Many companies actually have "rules" as to which font and font size is acceptable for company documents (crazy, I know...but can't say I blame them. Could you imagine important contracts and financial reports going out in Curlz MT or AR Hermann (look 'em up)).

Most font effects can be found already installed on the toolbar. You can set font type, font size, font color, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, subscript and superscript. You can set text effects like outline, shadow, reflection and glow. You can highlight text and change the case, including sentence case (capitalizing only the first word and any proper nouns), uppercase, lowercase, capitalize each word, and toggle case.

As if all that weren't enough to completely knock your socks off, there's more!

First of all, to get to your font menu, you can do one of two things. First, highlight the text you want to change. Then you can click the itsy-bitsy-teeny-tiny little arrow in the toolbar beside the word "FONT" (under the font color button). Or, you can just right click your mouse to pull up your "context" menu. Go down to "Font" and left click to select it.

Either method will lead you to your font menu where you can select many of the options that are already on your toolbar, as well as a few other options that aren't, such as underline style and color and double strikethrough.

(If your using WORD 2003 (or heaven forbid earlier versions), you can still find your font menu by using your right click/context menu or go to Format on the Menu bar, then down to Font.)

But wait y'all...there's even more!!!

In the Font menu, you'll see two tabs: Font and Advanced. (In WORD 2003 or earlier, you'll actually see three tabs: Font, Character Spacing, and Text Effects) Now, honestly, most users will not go beyond the Font tab. In fact the little bit of information I've given you may have already caused a few heads to explode.  All anyone really cares about is size, color, type, etc... Right?

But for those persons who actually want to know more...or maybe just want to see what else I can throw out there...we'll briefly talk about the Advanced tab.

This little gem allows you to set your Character Spacing, Kerning, and OpenType Features. Say What????

(All this fancy-schmansy mumbo jumbo is for the "serious" user...or for those who really want to show off! And, Hey, why not? When you know how to do this artsy crap, you absolutely should show off! At the very least, you'll feel extra smart...for a little bit anyways.)

Character spacing adjusts the amount of space between all letters by allowing you to change the scale, spacing, and position.

• Scaling allows you to increase the width of your font by percentage without changing the height.
• Spacing can be condensed or expanded making characters closer together or further apart.
• Position can be raised or lowered above or below the baseline (the line your text normally starts at).
• Kerning is used to adjust the space between particular pairs of letters and gives a more uniform look to your document by avoiding the gaps that occur with letters such as "L", "T", "W", "Y", and "V". Once you set your font size, anything that point size or above will be adjusted.

And finally, for anyone who's still with me, WORD 2010 also offers OpenType Features (not available or compatible with earlier versions).

Ligatures
Ligatures are two or more glyphs (an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written) that are formed into a single glyph in order to create more readable or attractive text. (Don't blink your eyes at me...I didn't make this crap up)!

There are four types of ligatures (info from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms745109.aspx)

• Standard ligatures -  Designed to enhance readability. Standard ligatures include "fi", "fl", and "ff".
• Contextual ligatures - Designed to enhance readability by providing better joining behavior between the characters that make up the ligature.
• Discretionary ligatures - Designed to be ornamental, and not specifically designed for readability.
• Historical ligatures - Designed to be historical, and not specifically designed for readability.

Number Spacing

• Proportional - Treats each numeral as having a different width (number "1" is narrower than number "5")
• Tabular - Treats each numeral as equal-width. Numerals align vertically increasing readability.

Number Forms

Old style font is offered and is useful in displaying numerals in styles that are no longer standard. Below is an example of the difference between Lining and Old Style Number Forms:

Stylistic Sets
You can choose various stylistic sets for your font. WORD comes pre-programmed with 20 stylistic sets, although most fonts only include 1 or 2. "Gabriola" includes 6...see below to see the differences.

Random Contextual Alternates (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms745109.aspx)

Random contextual alternates provide multiple substitute glyphs for a single character. When implemented with script-type fonts, this feature can simulate handwriting by using a set of randomly chosen glyphs with slight differences in appearance.

Huh?

Basically, this allows you to "switch it up" a bit and make the same letter look slightly different simulating what happens when you actually write stuff out.

The following text uses random contextual alternates for the Lindsey font. See how the letter "a" varies slightly in appearance.

So, how do you feel now? Did you learn something new? Can you apply some of these new font effects to your next document? At the very least, I hope you have the urge to go play around and try some of these font effects out in your next document.

And with that, I leave you with this little nugget. Go check out http://1001freefonts.com/ for some super cool fonts to download for free! So fun!