SOLVED MS Office 365 Font Management

[Wolfgang W. Stachel]

I want to manage all of my fonts for use in specific projects. For that purpose, I am testing Extensis Fusion 9 and Corel Font Manager (built into Corels’s applications.) Hopefully, this will prevent large numbers of fonts hanging around unused.

Without activating fonts with Fusion or installing them with Corel Font Manager, the Office 365 applications showing >400 fonts. C:\Windows\Fonts contains only the systems fonts showing fifty-eight fonts. All other applications show only the system fonts until I either activate with Fusion or install with Corel Font Manager. When I search the PC for any of those font files, they show up in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\vfs\Fonts. Upon deletion of that folder, over four hundred fonts continue to show and work in the MS Office 365 apps. A new search of my machine shows only fonts in the folder where I store all my fonts; that folder is located on a different hard drive. Researching the subject, I find claims that fonts in Office are managed by Windows and not by Office. Any help with this “mystery” will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bighorn]

Managing Fonts has been a bit of a problem going back to Windows 3.0 or earlier and usually required a Font Management software. Windows 3.1 was better and later versions such as Windows 95 even better but there's always been some issues with Fonts not installed in the default Fonts folder. However, and I haven't used it lately, there was a procedure allowed using a Font without actually installing it, never tried it with having Fonts on a different drive. I do have somewhere between 3000 and 10,000 Fonts saved depending upon how they are counted, some are by typeface or family and some by individual type. For specific reasons I have Microsoft Works 9.x installed on a few machines and it always complains when more than 500 Fonts are installed.

UPDATE: Just checked my E-Mail and found a message containing this quote, may be of some interest:

Windows tip of the week

How to add new fonts (and manage existing ones) in Windows 10

By Ed Bott

In previous Windows versions, managing fonts required a trip to Control Panel, and previewing fonts required opening each one individually. In Windows 10, most font management functions have been replaced by newer, friendlier options, available in Settings | Personalization | Fonts.

The redesigned Fonts page displays every installed font family, with a search box to filter the list. A three-line preview shows what each fonts looks like, and a line beneath the preview displays how many font faces are available. Double-click a family icon to see detailed metadata as well as a preview box where you can enter your own text to see what each variant (Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, and so on) looks like. Use the slider to adjust the preview from 8 to 72 points in size.

A box at the top of the Fonts page in Settings allows you to install fonts by dragging them from a File Explorer. But the most interesting option is a link that allows you to get new fonts (including a selection of free fronts) from the Microsoft Store.

You can still open the old-style Fonts Control Panel, if necessary: Open the Run box (Windows key + R) and type the command shell:fonts.

 

[Wolfgang W. Stachel]

Managing Fonts has been a bit of a problem going back to Windows 3.0 or earlier and usually required a Font Management software. Windows 3.1 was better and later versions such as Windows 95 even better but there's always been some issues with Fonts not installed in the default Fonts folder. However, and I haven't used it lately, there was a procedure allowed using a Font without actually installing it, never tried it with having Fonts on a different drive. I do have somewhere between 3000 and 10,000 Fonts saved depending upon how they are counted, some are by typeface or family and some by individual type. For specific reasons I have Microsoft Works 9.x installed on a few machines and it always complains when more than 500 Fonts are installed.

UPDATE: Just checked my E-Mail and found a message containing this quote, may be of some interest:

My font management problem exists only in the MS Office 365 subscription option. Here, Office’s standard fonts are in the Cloud, thereby completely out of control of the user. If, for some reason those standard fonts are missing, the next time Office apps are opened, fonts will be reinstalled. As far as I know, there is only one option to turn this off, but it is probably interfering with other stuff within Office 365. This option is available here: File -> Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center settings -> Privacy Options; click on “Privacy Settings…. and uncheck the box for "Let Office download online content".

This is probably not an issue with the standalone Office apps, but I think MS is planning to discontinue the standalone suite and the support for it. It seems to me that the future of MS apps are the subscription variety only.

All my other applications’ fonts can be managed with Extensis Fusion or Corel Font Manager so I will ignore this nuisance in Office 365. Finally, viewing fonts in Windows is, in my opinion, pretty clumsy. I discovered a great little font viewer free for download. It’s an executable (dp4FontViewer64.exe) which does not install on the computer. For what it’s worth.