Word and Missing Fonts

A part of my current job is Microsoft Office support. In our organization, if there is a problem with Microsoft Office, be it user error or otherwise, I handle it. One of the first first things I did when I came on board was convert the office from Mac 9.x and Office 2004 to Windows XP and Office 2003. Let's face it, in the business world, Microsoft Office is the defacto standard and nothing is as compatible with it as, well, itself. The Mac version is not even fully compatible.

One of the problems that I ran into with the conversion was fonts. Some of the fonts in the Office files were not available on the PC. For most of the files this was not much of a problem. However, we have several Word Documents that are very large and use many fonts. Replacing a single font in a multi-font document is a problem, if you don't know how to deal with it.

The answer is surprisingly simple. Use the Search and Replace function. In Office 2003:

1. click Edit followed by Find. Select the Replace tab and click the more button.
2. click the Find what: field, then click the Format button at the bottom of the window
3. type in the name of the Font you wish to replace, as it appears in the document (in my case it is Palatino) and click OK
   
4. click the Replace with: field, then click the Format button at the bottom of the window
5. choose the Font you wish to use instead of the above Font and click the OK button (in my case it is Times New Roman)
   
6. go to Search: and select ALL
7. finally, click the Replace All button

That is all. Notice that no actual text is required in the Find what and Replace with fields. Also, in step 3 we actually type the name of the font rather than choosing it from the list. This is necessary because the font is not available on the system, so it won't be in the list. However, in step 5 we choose an available font from the list. Step 6 is also important, as it tells the Find and Replace function to ignore any selections and work on the entire document.

The instructions may look a little tough. However, give it a try and I think you'll find it both easy and incredibly useful!