Hello,

Three questions—all related.



1. I have just upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista (complete reload) and in the process, reloaded Word (2007). Now I find that I cannot edit my documents. A message says that I must remove restricted fonts. The problem is, these should not be restricted. I have purchased the fonts used—and reinstalled those. So, why are my documents still only "read only"?

The documents concerned are very long and complicated book manuscripts, which I have been working and re-working for years. Thus, there is some chance that a font has crept in there somewhere of which I have forgotten about and which may only exist in terms of a few characters. The problem there, is: how do I find out if there is in a document a font of which I am aware—and how do I identify it when Word will not now let me into the document?

2. I've never had to address this before: the relevant solution presented by Word is to click on "remove restricted fonts." But what happens then? Does all my text revert from my chosen (again: purchased) font to some non-restricted generic font? In short, will I have to reformat the documents?

3. If its worth knowing, I load all my programs onto a separate—dedicated—program files partition. (I.e., I keep C: as lean as possible.) This was never a problem with Vista. Now, however, under Windows 7, Word keeps crashing. Thus, I wonder if the two issues are connected.

Advice?

I don't have an answer, but I share your problem. We moved to Windows 7 32bit and Office 2010 at work. We switched to new computers because unit-wide our previous ones were quite old (XP & Office 2003, and old for that).

My fonts were moved along with the rest of my info and files by our IT staff when they made the move. I came across the restricted fonts issue when I open an old file that contained Baker Signet. Our previous graphic designer had used Baker Signet extensively. We purchased it at that time.

It's not that I can't live without this one particular font, but I am concerned where else this issue is going to raise its ugly head.

The only way I have found to deal with this is to reformat the documents. It substitutes the areas where Baker Signet the format with something strange looking. I will check again and update with details.

On edit: I have added a pdf of merge document for making two-sided table signs for meetings. Hence the strange formatting. You run a mail merge, print, fold down the middle, and voilà—place signs. Anyway, the font still shows as BakerSignet LT 110 in Word. As you can see, though, something else is substituted. (For comparison, here is a link to Baker Signet at Identifont.)

Attached Files

2 Sided Large Table Signs Form first last only.pdf (13.4 KB, 9 views)

Hello VSwingfield, and thanks for your reply. As you say, you don't have a solution, but there is always solace in numbers. May be somebody else out there has a solution.

Just some thoughts how I would troubleshoot (TS) this

1. I would TSon a copy of the file to experiment on
   
2. What kind of Fonts are in a document? I would click the small arrow to the bottom right of the Home--> Styles, and from the list on the right, move down the list, and as my cursor scrolls over an item, I can see among other things the fonts for the style listed -- For a manuscript, you should be consciously using Styles
   
3. With Styles, I can easily make changes (for example, fonts) that sweeps through my document
4. Not spotting something obvious, I would do a total uninstall--if you decide this is an option, then read how on my Troubleshooting page below -- DON'T UNINSTALL WITH WINDOWS, because you will keep the problem (if it is a problem)
5. If you do a reinstall, do NOT click Yes for any updates -- Do this after you get your core Word working

Maybe my thoughts will help you some till someone else provides a quick fix

Hello zy... & thanks for replying.

Um, the problem with your opening gambit is that under the restriction a user has no access to Styles. Hence...!

Presently, I am working on a copy, as you suggested, which I made as follows:

1. I opened an earlier version of the document and saved it, with complete text, etc, as a template.
2. I deleted all the text and saved the template again, leaving me with a new blank template per the original.
3. Opened the new template,
4. Copied the text to the new template.

Or at least, that's what I THINK I did. (When troubleshooting, I tend to get lost.) Anyway, it seems, so far, to have worked—but as I don't trust it, I am presently doing a "pseudo-edit" (a complete read through, just to make certain that every character is where it should be).

Here is some brain flatulence:

While you doing what you are doing, use Styles to cut down on work

Not knowing precisely your situation, here is a thought or two what I would do

I would make Headers into Header 1, Header 2, and so on

Along with these I would also either keep or modify Normal, e.g., font, spacing, etc

I would go through my document doing this -- My most used style Normal I would know for sure had the correct fonts, etc

Now, with my Document Map, I could jump to what I wanted to edit, for example, change this to Header 1, 2, 3...

With the Document Map you have a nice outline of your book, for example, if you see something as a Header 3, but in keeping with your guidelines, you can jump to it and simply Style it into Header 2

Farther, I would do some zoom outs to see over-all how my long document was looking

Keep in mind that second best may be more efficient and time saving than the ideal -- That is, don't get bogged down in the minute

Stand back often and evaluate how can I do something more efficiently -- Push Word to help you with its zillions of ways to do something

I know Word and Excel well enough to spot something I know they can do efficiently, so I learn how

To understand the 'restricted font' issue, see: http://word.tips.net/T000072_Read-On...ded_Fonts.html
Essentially, the problem appears to be that some one has embedded a font into a document, and Word now recognises that the font is of a kind for which the license does not allow that. Provided the font is only the system, un-embedding it should be OK; otherwise you're stuck with the read-only condition or not using the font. If you unembed such a font and it's one that you believe should be available, that suggests the font hasn't been installed or there has been an installation issue with that font.

A simple macro like the following might halp you find any troublesome fonts in the active document:
zyzzyva: Please don't post everything in bold - it just makes it harder to read (and, hence, less likely to be read).

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]