Microsoft Word User Interface with a focus on the font.
Image: Adobe Stock

Word supports dozens of fonts, but they’re difficult to access because they’re all in one dropdown, and the list is growing long! More is better, but the more fonts Word adds, the more difficult the font you want to use is to access. It’s a small problem to have considering how many fonts Word offers, and one doesn’t want to sound ungrateful, but the new Font Picker does away with the problem altogether. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how Word for the web has updated its font interface. Fonts are much easier to find and apply now.

I’m using Microsoft 365 Word for the web on a Windows 10 64-bit system. The new Font Picker is available only in Word for the web for now. There’s no demonstration file; you won’t need one.

How to use new font family organization

Word for the web’s new Font Picker lists font families in the main dropdown in alphabetical order. The first thing you might notice is the new family submenus—flyout menus—in the Font dropdown, as shown in Figure A. To see all the fonts in a family, click the arrow to the right of the font family name.

Figure A

Screenshot of font selector in word.
Font Picker organizes fonts by families.

Using this new organization is easy: Find a font family and then choose a member of that family. However, there’s a lot more going on in the dropdown.

How to use the Font Picker sections

The font dropdown now has three sections, each accessible by a dropdown that you can expand and collapse:

  • Most Recently Used
  • Pinned Fonts
  • Office Fonts

The Most Recently Used dropdown lists the 10 most recently used fonts in reverse chronological order. However, theme fonts are always at the top of this list. When you open a document, the Font Picker will list the fonts used in that document in this section. This list is dynamic so the items will change as you use fonts and open other documents.

Pinned fonts include font families and individual family members. To pin a family or member, click the Pin icon to the left. Doing so will display that family or member to the Pinned section. In Figure B, you can see that I’ve pinned the Chiller font. To unpin it, click the pin icon; it’s a toggle. You’ll want to limit the items in the Pinned section to those you use the most, so they are quickly accessible. Several fonts are pre-pinned, and you can remove them if you like to make room for the fonts you use the most.

SEE: Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: A side-by-side analysis w/checklist (TechRepublic Premium)

Figure B

Screen shot of adding a font to the pinned section.
Pin a family or family member to the Pinned section for quicker access.

The Office Fonts section contains a list of font styles supported by Office. These are cloud fonts that are available on all devices supported by Office. If you plan to distribute an electronic file, it’s a good idea to stick with Office fonts because you know they will render correctly on all devices.

If you work with SharePoint, you may see a fourth section, Organization Fonts. These are fonts you’ll find in a SharePoint Asset Library.

At the bottom of the family submenu, click About This Font to learn more about each font. Figure C shows a short description of the Times New Roman font. This information might help you decide to use a specific font or explain the differences between similar font families.

SEE: Windows, Linux, and Mac commands everyone needs to know (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Figure C

Screen shot to that shows what the learn more option for a font looks like.
Learn more about a font.

Perhaps the most important information you’ll learn is whether a font is a compatibility font. If it is, this font will automatically download and display correctly on any device, even if the font isn’t installed.

For now, the Font Picker is available only in Word for the web. I’m hopeful we’ll see it soon in all the Office apps, both desktop and for the web.

Subscribe to the Developer Insider Newsletter

From the hottest programming languages to commentary on the Linux OS, get the developer and open source news and tips you need to know. Delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays

Subscribe to the Developer Insider Newsletter

From the hottest programming languages to commentary on the Linux OS, get the developer and open source news and tips you need to know. Delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays