Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!johnl
From: johnl@ima.ISC.COM (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: New Microsoft Word Question
Summary: use MAKEPRD to fix printer descriptions
Message-ID: <796@ima.ISC.COM>
Date: 16 Dec 87 17:50:11 GMT
References: <3204@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Reply-To: johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine)
Organization: Not enough to make any difference
Lines: 32

In article <3204@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> mdf@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Mark D. Freeman) writes:
>I just upgraded from 3.1 to 4.0.  ...
>In switching over to the OKILASER driver, I noticed something rather
>odd.  The TMSRMN font was roman-a in one driver and roman-i (or some other
>variant) in the other.  This meant either modifying the OKILASER driver
>to match the HPLASPS driver, or changing all my style sheets.
>
>Is this a screw-up by Microsoft, or is there some good reason for this?

It appears to me that Microsoft doesn't try very hard to put corresponding
fonts in the same place for the descriptions of various printers, which as
noted causes pain and suffering when trying to switch from one printer to
another.

Fortunately, it is very easy to use the MAKEPRD program to whip the printer
descriptions into shape. First you run MAKEPRD to translate an offending PRD
file into an editable text file. Then you edit the text file (probably not
with Word) and change the font numbers. A line starting with "{F16" indicates
the start of the modern a font, you could change this to "{F24" to make it the
modern i font, or vice versa. Then use MAKEPRD again to translate your
modified text file into a PRD file. There is lots of other obscure stuff in a
PRD file, but fortunately you need not understand it to renumber the fonts.

Having spent an hour or so doing this, you should end up with a set of PRD
files that matches the fonts that you use in your style sheets, and the
problem is solved, at least until the next update of Word. MAKEPRD is
explained in detail in the Word Printer Information manual.
-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, PO Box 349, Cambridge MA 02238-0349, +1 617 492 3869
{ ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something
The Iran-Contra affair:  None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan
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