We give you all this talk of System 7 and the ease with which you can install fonts — and then you bump into a section about the Font/DA Mover. You must think we’re nuts!
And, to an extent, you’re right: The Font/DA Mover is not included with System 7-point-anything. Yet, unfortunately, this relic of more difficult times isn’t completely obsolete. The Font/DA Mover (version 4.1 for System 7) is still useful in two instances:
• As in the days of System 6, it’s still possible to install a font (or a desk accessory) directly into the body of a program instead of into the System file or System Folder. For example, you may install one certain font directly into FileMaker. Thereafter, this font is listed in FileMaker’s Font menu but not in the Font menus of any other programs. (See “Font/DA Mover Secrets” for instructions.)
• Almost everybody understands how fonts and DAs are installed in System 7 except, apparently, for System 7 itself. Everybody we know has seen, at one time or another, the "suitcase is damaged" message after double-clicking a font or desk-accessory suitcase.
Sometimes the Font/DA Mover succeeds in copying the fonts or desk accessories out of the old, corrupted suitcase and into a new, clean one.
This almost-extinct Font/DA Mover isn’t included on your System disks anymore; you have to get it from an online service or your local Mac user group. (To find the Mac user group in your area, call Apple’s user-group referral hotline at 800-538-9696 or visit http://www.ugconnection.org on the Web.)
Font/DA Mover Secrets
Install a font (or a DA) directly into a program
When you double-click the Font/DA Mover icon, you get a window something like the one in Figure 5-9.
Figure 5-9:
The Font/DA Mover’s universally loathed interface. In this figure, a font from a font suitcase (left side) is being installed into ClarisWorks (right side).
On the left side, you see whichever fonts are currently in the System file (or a font suitcase you’ve opened). On the right, there’s an Open button that can open a font suitcase on a disk; at that point, the suitcase’s contents are listed on the right. Fonts can be copied from one place to another by highlighting their names in the appropriate list and clicking Copy.
However, the System file and suitcase files aren’t the only places fonts (and desk accessories) can be stored. Using this Secret, you can actually install a font or a desk accessory directly into a program, so that it’s available exclusively in that program.
The trick is this: Close the list showing the System Folder contents (click Close). The Close button now says Open. Before you click it, though, hold down the Option key. The Open File dialog box that appears lists every program on your disk. Double-click the one into which you want to install the font or desk accessory. Your screen should look like Figure 5-9.
Highlight the font or desk accessory you want to install into the program you opened and click Copy. If you can click Quit at this point, do it; you’re all done.
Next time you run the program in question, you’ll see the new font in the Font menu or the new desk accessory in the Apple menu. To remove the font or desk accessory from the program, use the same Option-Open trick; highlight the item you want to ditch, and click the Remove button.
Fonts you’re not allowed to remove
System 6 users: The Mac requires three fonts: Chicago 12 point (used in menus); Geneva 9-point (used in icon names); and Monaco 12-point (used very little, thank heaven). If you use the Font/DA Mover to remove these fonts, you hear a beep and you are told that they’re unremovable.
Don’t let this bother you. Despite its error message, the Mac still goes ahead and removes all the other fonts you selected for removal. (You don’t have to reselect anything just to omit the three system fonts from your selection.)
System 7 users: The Font/DA Mover won’t let you remove any fonts from the active System Folder! If you try, you get the curiously out-of-date message shown in Figure 5-10.
Figure 5-10:
MultiFinder? Who said anything about MultiFinder? Anyway, the point is that the Font/DA Mover won’t let you remove fonts from the active System 7 folder.
