Font Assistant Tips and Information

Font Assistant will allow you to create up to 63 groups. Group names must not exceed 32 characters or contain a double-quote character ("). If you use the FAST.BIN file shipped with Word Assistant, the permanent groups count as part of the 63 groups. You can delete some or all of the permanent groups to allow for the creation of the 63 groups.

While the Fonts dialog box from the Control Panel is open, do not activate or deactivate font groups in Font Assistant. Close the Fonts dialog box from Control Panel before changing the active font groups on your system in Font Assistant. Failing to follow this advice can cause the two applications to get differing views of the active fonts on your system.

Font Assistant includes predefined font groups that include all the font products previously released by Microsoft. Grouping fonts reflects personal choices, so consider the predefined groups as suggestions only. You can always add or delete fonts from any predefined group except the <all fonts> group.

To review the fonts in any group, highlight the group in the Fonts Group(s) list. The Samples area to the right of the list will display a one-line sample of each font in the highlighted group.

If you modify the predefined groups, you can always restore the original groups.

To restore the predefined font groups, choose Restore Default Group from the file menu.

Be aware that restoring the defaults will erase any font groups you created. If you want any of those groups, you'll have to recreate them.

The FAST.INI file is Font Assistant's database of information about the fonts installed on your system. This database can become inconsistent with the installed fonts, especially if you use the Control Panel to add, delete, or otherwise change the fonts on your system while Font Assistant is running. For example, installed fonts may fail to appear in the <all fonts> group, and deleted fonts may still appear in font groups.

In the unlikely event that this happens, delete your FAST.BIN file from the Windows directory. Choose to install Font Assistant from Word Assistant setup. You will have to recreate any font groups you created from scratch.

If you use many fonts on your system, Windows might run out of system resources required to display those characters. When this occurs, you might see a rectangular box or blank in place of the character.

To correct this problem, close some of your open applications to free resources for Windows. If this doesn't work, you may have to restart Windows.