Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Fonts Missing in Word.

Fonts Missing in Word

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 8, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


3

Graham installed Office 2003 Professional on his computer. When he tried to access the Fonts drop-down list in Word, PowerPoint and Publisher, all he got was a Device font, but in Excel he had access to all the fonts installed on the system. Graham is wondering why this was occurring.

In order to understand what is going on, it is important to understand what Word expects from its environment. One of the things that Word expects (as does PowerPoint and Publisher) is a printer that it can work with. If the printer is installed correctly in Windows, then Word will use it and format everything you see on-screen as if it will be printed on that printer.

If you don't have a printer driver installed—or if you don't have a printer driver installed that can use your fonts—then Word can't access the fonts, either. Excel can because it doesn't really care that much about printer capabilities. Whether a given font can be used by a given printer is of little consequence to Excel, but it means quite a bit to Word.

So, the first thing you need to do is check with Windows to see which printer drivers you have installed. If you don't have any installed, then install at least one. (An HP LaserJet driver is always a good choice, even if you don't have access to one of those printers.) If you have the correct printer drivers installed, make sure that one of those printers is specified as the default printer in Windows. Restart Word and your fonts should now be available.

If you have a laptop computer that you normally don't print from, you should still install a printer driver on it and make sure that printer driver is set as default. If you don't, you won't be able to use the full formatting features of Word.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3369) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Fonts Missing in Word.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Expanding Width of All Tables

If you have a lot of tables in your documents, you might want to change the width of all of them. You can take forever ...

Discover More

Finding Workbooks Containing Macros

Workbooks can contain macros, or not. It is entirely up to you whether they do or not, but at some future time you might ...

Discover More

Using Correct Apostrophes

Word does a pretty good job of figuring out what apostrophes to use around your text. There may be times, however, when ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (menu)

An Unruly Ruler

Does the ruler in Word seem to have a mind of its own? If you have problems understanding why the ruler behaves as it ...

Discover More

Understanding Default Insert Date Formatting

Insert a date into Word, and you are presented with a variety of formats you can choose from for that date. The default ...

Discover More

A Shortcut for Switching Focus

Word provides keyboard shortcuts for lots of things, but it doesn't provide one for switching to the desktop and back to ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 4 - 1?

2015-03-27 03:08:08

John

I have installed Office 2003 Professional on my new computer, but I selected to install only Word and Excel during the installation wizard, since those are really the only two programs I use.

On my old computer I had many more fonts installed by the Office 2003 installation, but on the new installation it only installed a few fonts.

Is there anyway to install the missing fonts, like running the installation again and selecting some setting?


2014-12-12 12:25:06

Alex Shaw III

I had a similar issue when I wanted to use the Terminal font in Excel, but it wasn't available in the list. What I did was type in the word Terminal in the font box and it worked.

You just have to make sure it's installed in your c:WindowsFonts directory first.

Alex Shaw III
Techronology :: Excel Effects


2014-06-27 10:07:12

Rokkash Arputhasamy

what would you do if there were only a single font in ms word


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.