Every year at EDUCORP, we receive hundreds of phone calls and letters from people with the same question: How do I use fonts? What is Font/DA Mover, and why do I need it? What's it all about!
To answer this question, first we must clearly understand the relationship between fonts, desk accessories, and your disks.
On every disk that can start your Macintosh (called, logically, a startup disk) there is a file called System. This file (usually contained in the System Folder) controls most of the operation of your Macintosh, including fonts, desk accessories, diskette and file operations, and much more. Think of the System file as a three-ring binder. Inside that binder is stored lots of information that the Macintosh needs to access as you work with it. And, just like a real binder, information can quickly and easily be removed or added from the System file.
You can think of fonts and desk accessories as “pages” that can be added or removed from our System file binder. And that's Font/DA Mover's job. Inside the System file “binder” are two special sections reserved for all the fonts and desk accessories that will be available when using that disk. Font/DA Mover simply adds and removes “pages” from these sections.
The Font/DA Mover program has two sides; one for the font (or desk accessory) you're moving, and one for where it's going (see figure 1). And since you normally want to add or remove fonts and desk accessories from your disk's System file, Font/DA Mover automatically opens the System file when you use it (see figure 2).
Clicking on a button marked “Close” will close whatever file is open in that window (in this case the System file). The button will then change to the word “Open”. Of course, clicking a button marked “Open” will allow you to select a Font file, Desk Accessory file, or System file, which will then be opened in that window.
To do any adding or removing, we'll need to open another file alongside the System file. And that's why Font/DA Mover has two sides. Let's select the “Open” button on the right hand side, and open up a font (see figure 3).
The next step is to select which fonts to copy. This part's pretty simple: just click on the name and size of the font. To select multiple fonts for copying, you can “drag” the mouse across the names of the fonts, keeping the button held down, or you can hold down the SHIFT key and click on each individual name, which will be added to the other selected fonts.
At this point, the button labeled “COPY” becomes selectable. Arrows inside the button indicate the direction that the font copying will take place. Just click on the COPY button, and after a few seconds, the fonts will have been added to the System file! (see figure 4.)
Fonts can be removed just as easily. First, select the fonts you would like to remove, then click the button labeled “REMOVE”. See how easy this is now?
Everything works exactly the same for Desk Accessories. To switch to the DA mode, just click on the small “radio button” at the top of the Font/DA Mover screen. All the other operations are identical.
Well, hopefully we've given you enough information to go out and move fonts and desk accessories around to your heart's content. But if not, there's always…your Macintosh manual! Apple pays professional writers big, big money to write those books, and they're pretty good!
