Word is getting a better font picker, and not a moment too soon. The improved font selector is due ‘any day now’ in Word on the web and hopefully in Word for Windows without too much delay.
The standard Office font selector is way overdue for improvement. It’s been stuck in the 20th Century when there were few fonts (typefaces) available. Now there’s so many fonts available and compatibility across platforms is a major issue.
Office 365 now has cloud fonts which adds a lot more fonts to the pull-down list. The current font selector is ‘not fit for purpose’ as the British say.
Microsoft has announced on it’s Roadmap’ that Word on the web is getting an improved font picker. ‘General availability’ in November 2021. Regular Office Watchers know that Microsoft’s term ‘General availability’ is a slippery phrase that comes with varying limits in both who get it and when.
Here’s the Microsoft blurb, we’ve added some bullet points etc. for easier reading.
Picking your fonts just got much easier!
Microsoft Office modern font picker is a completely reimagined experience for Office.
- Pin your favorite fonts so you can quickly access them on any device or platform.
- Easily view all the fonts used in a document, including notifications for missing and embedded fonts.
- Choose from all the available styles for a font family, whether simply bold or italic or more exotic variants, such as condensed semi bold italic.
In the Office Fonts section
- see which fonts are available on all platforms and don’t need to be embedded in a document.
Microsoft Office modern font picker offers you the effortless typographical experience you’ve been waiting for. “
Warning: the promo includes Microsoft Hype™ like ‘completely reimagined’ and ‘experience’.
It sounds a lot like the Office for Mac font picker, which comes from the macOS operating system.
We’ll be interested to see this new font picker and, naturally, explain it all in an upcoming Office Watch.
Sending a complete Word document – fonts and all
Cloud fonts are a handy extra in Microsoft 365
Make Cloud Fonts available to all programs, not just Office
Check out the five new fonts in Microsoft 365
