It can sometimes be useful to know exactly which fonts are installed on your computer, and how they look when converted to text, this can be especially useful if you want to change to a different font, and you’re not sure which one will look best. Instead of having to try lots of different fonts until you get one you like you can just pick the one you like from a handy pre-printed list
It’s possible with a little VBA coding to create a list of all the fonts, along with a sample piece of text, in both upper and lower case characters, along with their font name for reference purposes.
To create this list you will either need to be familiar with VBA coding, or use the sample pre-prepared document that you download at the end of this article.
Firstly, start-up word, and create a new macro.
In the macro type (or paste in) the following code.
Sub FontView()
Dim FontCount
Dim Text$
Dim intCounter
Documents.Add
FontCount = FontNames.Count
Text$ = “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” & vbCr
For intCounter = 1 To FontCount
With Selection
.Font.Size = 12
.Font.Name = (“Times New Roman”)
.Font.Bold = True
.Font.Underline = wdUnderlineSingle
.TypeText Text:=FontNames(intCounter) & ” – ” & vbCr
.Font.Name = FontNames(intCounter)
.Font.Underline = wdUnderlineNone
.Font.Bold = False
.TypeText Text:=Text$
.Font.AllCaps = True
.TypeText Text:=Text$ & vbCr
.Font.AllCaps = False
End With
Next intCounter
End Sub
Run this code either directly from the Macro menu, or alternatively attach it to a command button, and save your document so that you can re-use it at anytime to list all you installed fonts.
If you wish to see another string displayed instead of ‘The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’, just replace the contents of Text$ at line 7 to your favoured text.
If you don’t want to type all the code, or you’re not proficient in VBA, click here to download a document with the macro and command button already set-up (This example also has a second button that allows you to specify your own sample string without editing the code!)