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The Font Thing
Version 0.80 (beta 2)

Copyright (c) 1999 Sue Fisher. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~scef/
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Overview

          The Font Thing is a freeware program for managing TrueType
          fonts in Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0.

          With The Font Thing you can:

          *    Browse installed and uninstalled fonts 
          *    Browse fonts in subfolders as a single combined list 
          *    View sample text and individual characters in your
               choice of colours
          *    Change sample text "on the fly" or easily switch
               between your own standard text samples
          *    View detailed font information 
          *    Print font samples 
          *    Associate notes with fonts 
          *    Install or uninstall any number of fonts at once 
          *    Load (and unload) any number of fonts for temporary 
               use
          *    Copy or delete any number of font files at once 
          *    Rename font files to avoid file name conflicts
          *    Filter fonts according to their type 
          *    Group fonts into collections for easier management 
          *    Use multiple font windows simultaneously for easy 
               font comparison and management. 


Installation

          To install The Font Thing:

          1    If you haven't already done so, unzip the distribution
               file (tfti.zip) into a temporary folder of your
               choice.

          2    Run the Setup.exe program and follow the steps of the
               Install Wizard.

          The Install Wizard copies the program and help files onto
          your computer, and sets up Start Menu links and uninstall
          information.

          There is no need to uninstall a previous version of The
          Font Thing before installing a newer version.

          To run The Font Thing:

          *    From the Start Menu, choose Programs, then The Font
               Thing (its program group), then The Font Thing (the 
               program itself).

          When you run The Font Thing for the first time, it 
          creates two subfolders called "Notes" and "Collections"
          in the program installation folder.


Removal

          To remove (uninstall) The Font Thing:
 
          1    From the Start Menu, choose Settings then Control 
               Panel.

          2    Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.

               The Add/Remove Programs Properties window is 
               displayed.

          3    Select The Font Thing from the list of programs.

          4    Choose the Add/Remove button, then follow the
               instructions on your screen.


Version History

          Version 0.80 (beta 2) released 22 December 1999

          New Features:
          *    Choose your own colours for the font sample text, 
               background and extra information (e.g. ASCII values
               and plain text characters).
          *    Set up standard text samples and quickly switch 
               between them using drop-down lists (you can still 
               type your own ad-hoc text samples too, of course).
          *    Rename font files to avoid file name conflicts.
          *    Load (and unload) fonts for temporary use.
          *    Set the size of the font used for font notes.

          Modifications:
          *    The main menu and context (right-click) menus have 
               been changed back to standard behaviour, since the 
               nifty menu components I was using caused problems 
               with other windows (such as the Properties dialog 
               and Help Contents page) coming up behind The Font 
               Thing's main window. The most obvious result is 
               that the main menu isn't dockable/floatable any 
               more (although the tool bar and filter bar still 
               are); the images next to the menu items also behave 
               a bit differently. On the positive side, however, 
               the program is quite a lot smaller! I'll reinstate 
               the main menu docking/floating behaviour when a 
               suitable version of the menu component is available.
          *    Added the Add to Collection and Copy to Folder 
               commands to the File menu (they were previously 
               only available on the font list context menu).
          *    Added a None function to the filter area, to make it
               faster to clear filters.
          *    Clicking on a font sample in the Multiple view now
               selects that font in the adjacent font list (you can
               hold Ctrl down while you click to select multiple
               fonts in this manner).

          Bug Fixes:
          *    Fix occasional access violation errors when browsing
               folders with the Multiple page active.
          *    Add further checks for Registry problems which could
               cause the previous version to fail on startup with
               an error message similar to the following:
                    Error reading InstalledFontList.Mode: 
                    Invalid data type for 'SerialNumber'
          *    When showing text labels on the tool bars, ensure 
               the buttons are wide enough to fit the longest 
               visible text label (e.g. in Large Fonts mode).
          *    Correct the position of the character zoom popup 
               relative to the active font window.

          The help file was updated accordingly.


Further Information

          If you have any suggestions, questions, comments, or even 
          bug reports (!) you can contact the author at:

               scef@ozemail.com.au

          You can also check the following web page for the latest 
          program information:

               http://www.ozemail.com.au/~scef/tft.html

