Is it possible to search for rogue font types in a Word document?

[jdd]

I often realize, too late, that I have published documents created in MS Word, that unexpectedly contains mixed font types and or sizes (e.g., a few unwanted Arial sentences in the middle of a Veranda document).

Is there a way to search for font types and/or sizes in an MS Word document other than scanning with the naked eye?

I am also color blind so it would be nice if it could search for font colors but this would be a secondary requirement.

[app103]

You could try using Skrommel's little tool, Used Fonts, which shows what fonts are in use by a Microsoft Word document.

Features:
- Run it to show a file selection dialog, or drag and drop a doc file on it.

[mouser]

Great question.

If we use skrommels tools to find the list of fonts in use, can one of the MS Word gurus tell us how to find instances of this font in use in the document? i.e. if we wanted to find all occurrences where we used the Tahoma font, how could we do that?

I seem to remember MS Word having a feature to show all paragraph styles used in the document..

[katykaty]

Dead easy 

This is for Word 2k, I'm sure it works on 2k+3 and 2k+7:

• CTRL-F to open the Find/Replace box
• Click the Replace tab
• Click More to expand the list of options
• Click Format and select Font from the drop down
• Select the evil intruder font
• Click in the Replace With box
• Click Format and select Font from the drop down
• Select the lovely replacement font
• Click Replace All - if you're brave

Though you'd need to do that for each rogue font.

You can do a find & replace for a font size in the same way.

Ways of getting around having to do this in the first place:

• Use styles
• Copy an external text via a text editor and Paste Special, Unformatted so you don't bring in dodgy external formatting
• Use styles
• Did I mention styles?

As far as I know you can't tell Word 2k to only allow a doc to use certain styles, and you can't prevent it from changing the format of text in a particular style (except by making the style autoupdate, which isn't the same thing)

I believe Word 2k+7 can, sort of, but haven't used it enough to be sure.

I also believe that 2k+3 and 2k+7 have ways to check formatting consistency though how that works I have no idea. 

[katykaty]

Just had a look at Word 2k+3 and it's a whole lot easier 

(My company uses 2K so I mostly stick with that as I'm easily confused      )

• Choose Format, Styles and Formatting
• In the panel that appears (usually on the right) there's a Show dropdown
• Select Formatting In Use
• Where text of a particular style has had its format changed, the style will be called e.g. Body Text + Times New Roman or Body Text + 12 point to indicate the changes.
• Right click the rogue style and you can select all instances of it
• That means you can apply a correct style immediately to everything
• You can also delete a style + whatever and it'll automatically format the text using the base style

Of course, if you didn't use styles in the first place, you'll have a whole heap of them to go through 

Oh, and the Check Formatting Consistency tool is rubbish 

[jdd]

katykaty, thanks for the suggestion    but I found it to be a very cumbersome and convoluted procedure, especially in a long document.

Are there any other ideas?

[katykaty]

Which version of Word are you using?

Did you copy & paste into the document or create it from scratch?

How long is the document?

[jdd]

Word 2003.  This example is about 7 pages long including two pages with tables and figures with caption.  They usually start as an existing document (template) but several rogue editors add comments and cut and paste stuff through several iterations of review.

[katykaty]

So how many styles show up in use?

[jdd]

My understanding of the suggested procedure is that it requires a tedious line by line review of the entire document (unless I was not doing it correctly) and I gave up.  However, I would describe typical document fonts as follows:

- Draft document before removal of rogue font types:  2 or 3 font types,  with one or two font sizes.

- Final document after removal of rogue font types: 1 font type with two font sizes, as well as some All Caps of the same font

[katykaty]

You're not doing it correctly then. 

Read my 2nd post again 

[katykaty]

How did you get on jdd?

[mikiem]

Haven't played in word for years really, but wouldn't it work to assign everything to a style or two that used kosher fonts? Or maybe copy/paste/copy using notepad to remove formatting & assign styles afterwards?

[katykaty]

Haven't played in word for years really, but wouldn't it work to assign everything to a style or two that used kosher fonts? Or maybe copy/paste/copy using notepad to remove formatting & assign styles afterwards?

Yes, it's often best to design your layout using styles in a template, and your content separately - in a text editor or another Word document.

I got the impression that the OP had invested a lot of time into getting the layout design right and just wanted to fix a few rogue styles without starting from scratch.

But as the OP seems to have gone all quiet I can't be sure