Font Installer Required

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Font Installer Required

2005-09-10 12:29 am

Does anyone know a simple font installer? I email nwc songfiles to choir members so they can learn their parts. Sometimes I use unusual fonts like Boxmarks or Bongos or ones I make myself for special symbols. I send these as well but trouble is some of my singers have very basic computer skills and are not terribly confident of installing fonts from first principles so I am looking for an easy method.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #1 – 2005-09-10 02:07 am

Here are the instructions for Windows XP Pro.

Adding New Fonts
To manually install or re-install a font:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. Type %windir%\fonts, and then click OK.

3. On the File menu, click Install New Font.

4. In the Drives box, click the drive that has the floppy or CD-ROM that contains the fonts you want to add. If you are installing fonts from a floppy disk, this is typically drive A or drive B. If you are installing the fonts from a compact disc, your CD-ROM drive is typically drive D. Double-click the folder that contains the fonts.

5. Click the font you want to add. To select more than one font at a time, press and hold down the CTRL key while you click each font.

6. Click to select the Copy Fonts To Fonts Folder check box. The Windows\Fonts folder is where the fonts that are included with Windows are stored.

7. Click OK

For people running other software, they should go to their desktop, press F1 for help, and search for Install Fonts.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #2 – 2005-09-10 06:14 am

For step 2, a little easier to remember is

control fonts

Works from win95 on, might even work in 3.1

You can drag True Type (*.ttf) fonts from explorer to the fonts folder. Provided there is not another font "registered" with the same name, Windows will automatically install it.

Name, in this context is not just the file name, but internal names within the file. Double click on the font file to find the internal name, listed as the Typeface name:.

Sometimes you have to logoff/logon or reboot. For older (*.fon, *.fot) files, you will always have to reboot.

Rarely, windows won't allow you to delete an old font. (access denied warnings)
Solutions (in ascending "hassle" order):

A) Reboot, then delete the font before opening any other applications.

B) Reboot into safe mode, then delete the font before opening any other applications.

C) Reboot to command line mode, use attrib to remove the system (and possibly hidden) attributes from the fonts folder, delete the file(s), then restore the attributes. This is an option best left to "techies".

Except for step C, deleted fonts go to the recycle bin, so if you don't like the new font, delete it, open the Recycle Bin and restore the old file.

In multi-user environments, all users may not have the rights to add fonts.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #3 – 2005-09-10 09:36 pm

Gosh, that sounds complicated. Here's what I do:

(1) Right-click, copy the font file, from wherever it is.

(3) Open My Computer, C:\ (or whichever hard drive), Windows. If you see the display warning you not to open the Windows folder, ignore the warning and open the folder.

(4) Find the Fonts folder. Click it (no need to open it), and Paste. The font will be installed automatically.

To delete the font, you'll need to open the fonts folder, find the font, and delete it like you would any file. In most cases, it will be tossed into the Recycle bin. Be sure to check that you deleted the correct font!

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #4 – 2005-09-10 09:42 pm

There's an even easier way. Works XP, probably also other versions of Windows:

On your desktop, right-click, new shortcut. The shortcut should go to C:\Windows\Fonts, or to wherever your fonts folder is located (may be different than this).

Then, all ya gotta doo is drag and drop a font file onto the shortcut, and it is automagically installed.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #5 – 2005-09-10 11:10 pm

Thanks, I can do all that stuff, but you see what I mean, to a casual user it's pretty uphill, I need something to give them that's easy.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #6 – 2005-09-11 06:42 am

That last suggestion from Robert A. is so simple that it's absolutely brilliant.

llucyy, just create the shortcut on your pc, send them the shortcut and fonts, drag and drop, job done. Be sure to re-boot pc, otherwise fonts may not show (they didn't show in windows 98 'til re-booted)

The users can keep the shortcut in 'My Documents' or somewhere handy for future installs.

Since you say these users are "not terribly confident", it is highly likely that they are all using default installations. This will be, of course, c:\windows\fonts\

The only fly in the ointment is if they are using windows 2000
In which case the shortcut will need to point to c:\winnt\fonts\

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #7 – 2005-09-11 10:00 am

I should confirm it but I'm fairly certain that a shortcut to:
%windir%\fonts
Will do the job. It will certainly work for all NT based version (NT4, W2k and XP) and I'm fairly sure it will work for '98 and probably '95 too.

Lawrie

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #8 – 2005-09-12 07:15 am

You don't even need the "%windir%\" bit - just "fonts" will do.

Robin

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #9 – 2005-09-12 07:43 am

Just did some quick testing:

1) On NT based systems, just specifying FONTS as Robin said will work, however if you check the properties of the shortcut after it is created Windows actually puts the "%windir%\" in automatically.

2) On my test '98 PC Specifying FONTS created a shortcut with "C:\WINDOWS\" automatically prepended.

3) Again on the '98 test PC - specifying %windir%\fonts failed. If memory serves, this is because even though the "windir" environment variable exists, DOS (Underlying '9x inc. ME) causes the test for the variable name to be done in upper case. As the variable is actually lower case it is inaccessible through the user interface. It can be accessed programatically but that is beyond the reach of a shortcut.

Lawrie

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #10 – 2005-09-12 10:38 am

This windir is nothing but the name of the directory where Windows is installed. For many systems it is simply
c:\windows
but it may be c:\winnt, or anything that you might have chosen. For instance, if you ever had a windows-directory and wanted to install (another version of) Windows in a different directory, it can be any old name. From Windows 2000? the environment variable %windir% tells you where it is,
but on any system this will do: start a Dos box (Run, cmd or Run, command - whichever works; or look it up onder Accessories) and type this:
c:
cd \
dir /ad /b win*
which gives you a list of directory-names that start with 'win' , and there should be a winner.

But hey, I like the simple way of installing fonts as described somewhere above. Personally, I go to the control panel, click on fonts, and install a new one. Simple comme bonjour. But, then, I am used to fiddle around in the control panel...

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #11 – 2005-09-12 11:02 am

Hi Rob,
...windir is nothing but the name of the directory where Windows is installed... - Yeah, I know...

What I was hoping to do was give llucyy a shortcut to email out with the font(s) that would be very easy for the recipients to be instructed in how to use.

If the %windir% variable had worked for '9x then only one shortcut would be needed and it would do the job for all., and the users would not even need to know what version of windows they're using. And believe me, getting some users to correctly identify a Windows version is well nigh impossible not matter how clever you may be. There is always a user who can outsmart you with their stupidity!

Lawrie

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #12 – 2005-09-12 12:29 pm

Oh, absobloodylutely. My instructions include opening a Dos box. That's way over the head of many.
I merely tried to say '%windir%' looks like something magical, what with the percent signs. Something like 'c:\windows' already looks more familiar, because everyone who has ever done some navigation will have seen c:, c:\ and such.

So in this thread, the best answer is the solution in the least number of words.
Rob.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #13 – 2005-09-12 03:27 pm

Yesterday I just copied the Boxmark2 font from my old windows fonts folder (on my old C drive which is now my E) to the new windows fonts folder in my new C drive. Did the same with the NWC fonts too. Seems to work well.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #14 – 2005-09-12 06:28 pm

I've always wondered why "install" wasn't a right-click option for fonts. But it isn't.

What I don't understand is: How come someone who can read sheet music can't figure out how to use a shortcut to fonts?

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #15 – 2005-09-13 12:09 am

You could send this link in your email:

!link(Win98 Font Help=mk:@MSITStore:C:\WINDOWS\Help\windows.chm::/windows_fonts_addnew.htm)

The Windows XP link doesn't work as well.

On either system, Hit F1 while focused on the desktop. Type: add new font in the search box.

Incidently, just typing fonts in the run box (WinKey+R) will launch the fonts folder. Can't be much simpler than that.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #16 – 2005-09-13 12:16 am

Sorry that link didn't work as planned. Just copy:

mk:@MSITStore:C:\WINDOWS\Help\windows.chm::/windows_fonts_addnew.htm

and paste it into your Address bar.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #17 – 2005-09-13 06:38 am

I still believe that Robert A's original idea is easiest.
I used this simple idea to create a shortcut to c:\windows\fonts
That will work for XP, ME and windows98 with default installs. As i said previously, i had already tried it for win98, and it worked. It took about ten seconds to create, and not many more to install. A re-boot is required, since the fonts are loaded at startup.

Now the only problem likely to arise is if the user is using windows 2000. Since these users are described as "very basic computer skills and are not terribly confident" are they really likely to be using windows 2000 ? and anything but default installations ?
If they are, then they should be capable of adapting the method to suit. If not, send them another shortcut which points to c:\winnt\fonts

I appreciate you might be attempting to find a solution which encompasses windows 2000, and possibly using a different win directory, but is it really necessary ?

Once again, well done, Robert A.

Re: Font Installer Required

Reply #18 – 2005-09-16 04:19 am

Thanks to all, but I have found the secret - Winzip - Just Zip the fonts, create a self installing .exe , remembering to direct to C:\Windows\Fonts (or WINNT), and then re-zip so as not to upset virus-busters in email, and bingo.