Microsoft Word for the web has improved the font interface: it has more font options and they are now easier to find.
Word supports dozens of fonts, but they’re hard to access because they’re all in one drop-down list, and the list just keeps getting longer! More is better, but the more fonts Word adds, the harder it is to access the font you want to use. It’s a small problem to think about how many fonts Word offers, and you don’t want to sound ungrateful, but the new Font Picker completely solves the problem. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how Word for the web updated the font interface. Fonts are now much easier to find and apply.
I’m using Microsoft 365 Word for the web on a Windows 10 64-bit system. The new font picker is only available in Word for the web for now. There is no demonstration file; you don’t need one.
How to use a new font family organization
In Word for the web’s new font picker, font families are listed in alphabetical order in the main drop-down list. The first thing to notice are the new family submenus – dropdown menus – in the Font drop-down list, as shown in Image A† To see all fonts in a family, click the arrow to the right of the font family name.
Image A
Using this new organization is simple: find a font family, then choose a member of that family. However, there’s a lot more going on in the drop-down list.
Using the Font Picker Sections
The Fonts dropdown now has three sections, each accessible through a dropdown that you can expand and collapse:
- Most recently used
- Pinned Fonts
- Office Fonts
The Most recently used drop-down list contains the 10 most recently used fonts in backwards chronological order. Theme fonts are always at the top of this list, however. When you open a document, the Font Picker in this section will display the fonts used in that document. This list is dynamic, so the items will change as you use fonts and open other documents.
Pinned fonts include font families and individual family members. To pin a family or member, click the Pin icon on the left. Doing so will show that family or member in the pinned area. In Figure B, you can see I pinned the Chiller font. To release it, click the pin icon; it’s a switch. You want to limit the items in the pinned area to the items you use most so that they can be accessed quickly. Several fonts are pre-pinned and you can delete them to make room for the fonts you use most.
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Figure B
The Office Fonts section contains a list of font styles supported by Office. These are cloud fonts available on all devices supported by Office. If you’re planning to distribute an electronic file, it’s a good idea to use Office fonts because you know they’ll display correctly on all devices.
If you’re working with SharePoint, you might see a fourth section, Organization Fonts. These are fonts found in a SharePoint asset library.
Click About this font at the bottom of the family submenu for more information about each font. Figure C shows a brief description of the Times New Roman font. This information can help you decide to use a specific font or explain the differences between similar font families.
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Figure C
Perhaps the most important information you will learn is whether a font is a compatibility font. If so, this font will be automatically downloaded and displayed correctly on any device, even if the font is not installed.
For now, the font picker is only available in Word for the web. I’m hopeful we’ll see it soon in all Office apps, both desktop and web.
