# Program on Microsoft for years



## halfacre (Apr 4, 2011)

It seemed as if no one used Microsoft Word that was own their computer for years and no one knew about it........now they charge to down load and use it.... 
When I joined Lumberjocks there was a lot of guys asking about programs that they could down load for printing and using letters with their wood workings.. 
and lots of guys said they had to go to town and have a printer shop make them what Microsoft had right their in their own home 
And it still seems like many still don't know that for I read old post that ask where they can get that kind of programs on their computer. Or show something they had to go to town to have someone make for them. Mircosoft Word use to be the namd of the program and it was already there when they bought the computer that would enable a person to go to WORD and arrange letters they wanted to scroll saw. Then have Rapid resizer make it exactly the size needed for that [project.And for many many years it was free and a person could down load other fonts and types of letters that was not on their program already. But know they do charge for a person to down load Word....
It seemed like every thing I did with the scroll had to do with sawing out peoples names for I flooded all my kinfolks with gifts that included their names on what ever it was that they got for Christmas. 
You could lay out the type of letters in to words with the desired sizes then print out the exact sizes needed, glue it on the wood and saw it out as one word at a time with the exact distance between each letter.
. I found out right quick one didn't want to make the letters one a time then try to glue them down on to your wood and look like they were presentable.
Has anyone ever used this Microsoft program that was already on the computers. I think Mac did not have a program like this.









You can buy a set of letters and numbers but thats all you will gets sheets of paper








you can't get to transfer on to wood then cut it out to look good enough to show it off.
Word was the thing that made it all look like a printing shop in town did it all for you at a no charge price but know it cost.

Halfacre, 
Jess Littlefield


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

There are several free word processing programs as well as presentation programs you can use. Most are accessed via a browser. For one thing you can use the MS Office suite for free here. I do not remember exactly what I had to do to use it for free but you do have to at least setup a free MS OneDrive account. That might be all. It lacks a few features of the paid subscription but will do most things most of us need.

Another free office suite is Googles. Setup a free Google Drive account and you will have access to their word processor and other office apps. 

StarOffice is another free office suite. I have not used it in years but it used to be comparable. 

On the Mac, you can download their iWork suite (Pages, Sheets and Keynote) for free. 

BTW, Microsoft, Google and the iWork office apps are all available for free on iPhone and iPad as well. MS and Google require you to set up their cloud accounts, I assume the Apple apps simply use your Apple ID.


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## northwoodsman (Feb 22, 2008)

I always used Microsoft Word, I still subscribe to the entire MS Office suite because I use most, if not all, of the software included. If you are looking for fonts, www.dafonts.com is a source for just about every font available on the planet. Most are free as long as you don't use them for commercial use. Since many are copy-writed by different individuals you may find yourself having to accept terms and conditions for each one you download. I use the site all the time for laser engraving. I download the libraries and have them saved in Lightburn. The font's on the website that I mentioned can be added to almost any program or library.


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

It is simple to also make use of all the fonts available on your system with just the standard email program.
All of these let you enter text (compose an email) and set the font style and size.
Once that is done, send it to your printer.


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## DanKrager (Apr 13, 2012)

Open source software is readily available at no cost, donations appreciated. Open Office, Libre Office, Inkscape, Gimp, Blender are all downloadable for most popular operating systems. The thing I like about these programs is that they are not dependent upon "the cloud" or even the internet for that matter. While it's convenient to use internet to install and upgrade them, it isn't required.


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## JAAune (Jan 22, 2012)

Libre Office is a favorite of mine. Open Office works but last time I used it, it hadn't been updated with new features for years. Libre Office calc has a QR code creator built in which is nice for printing kanban cards.

Independence from clouds is mandatory around here. I like cloud as an offsite file backup option but never as the primary way of creating and storing files.


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## MrUnix (May 18, 2012)

JAAune said:


> Libre Office is a favorite of mine.


Same here. Between it, the Gimp and Inkscape, there isn't much you can't do in the way of making scroll saw patterns - from dirt simple letters to super detailed portraits. The price is right as well 

Cheers,
Brad


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## CrankAddict (Dec 10, 2018)

halfacre said:


> Has anyone ever used this Microsoft program that was already on the computers.
> 
> 
> Jess Littlefield


Yes, every Windows system comes with notepad and wordpad for free. Simply press WIN-R (WIN is the Windows key with the little flag on it) and this will open the Run dialog... then type either "notepad" or "wordpad" (without the quotes) and hit enter. You can select from any font on your system. Notepad only allows a single font for the whole document, whereas wordpad allows you to change it per line/word/etc just like you can with a more advanced word processor.


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## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

paint.net is a free paint program that can print any available font in any available size. You can also mix in any graphic you can find on the internet. 

I no longer hand scroll, I use a laser instead, it's "hands" are steadier than mine.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

Another alternative Apache OpenOffice - Official Site - The Free and Open Productivity Suite


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## MrUnix (May 18, 2012)

lew said:


> Another alternative Apache OpenOffice - Official Site - The Free and Open Productivity Suite


Both OpenOffice and LibreOffice were derived from Star Office (by the German company Star Division), which Sun Microsystems purchased and released as open source back in the late 90's. However, OpenOffice has been struggling to survive since around 2011 when Oracle (who owns Sun Microsystems) decided to abandon it, and the project was almost canceled in 2016 due to lack of participation and the move by most to LibreOffice. Since then, there has been very little development and mostly just bug fixes and minor enhancements. LibreOffice is considered the successor to OpenOffice and is where all the major development work is being done currently. Just an FYI. <wink>

Cheers,
Brad


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

MrUnix said:


> Both OpenOffice and LibreOffice were derived from Star Office (by the German company Star Division), which Sun Microsystems purchased and released as open source back in the late 90's. However, OpenOffice has been struggling to survive since around 2011 when Oracle (who owns Sun Microsystems) decided to abandon it, and the project was almost canceled in 2016 due to lack of participation and the move by most to LibreOffice. Since then, there has been very little development and mostly just bug fixes and minor enhancements. LibreOffice is considered the successor to OpenOffice and is where all the major development work is being done currently. Just an FYI. <wink>
> 
> Cheers,
> Brad


Thanks! I don't use it and wasn't aware of this.


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## wichman3 (Sep 12, 2016)

I tip for working with fonts and sizing:

New Times Roman is directly proportional to the point size; a capitol letter in 100 points is exactly 1" tall, 25 points is 1/4" tall. You can use this to size other fonts as well; start with the TNR in the size you need and then change the next letter to the font you intend to use, adjust the point size on the new font until the size matches what you need.

In libre office you can use a outline font effect to make the text appear outlined, good for scrolling. From the top menu bar: Format>Text>Outline font effect.

Been using text editors for this since my C>64 days.


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## Cinders fella (3 mo ago)

halfacre said:


> It seemed as if no one used Microsoft Word that was own their computer for years and no one knew about it........now they charge to down load and use it....
> When I joined Lumberjocks there was a lot of guys asking about programs that they could down load for printing and using letters with their wood workings..
> and lots of guys said they had to go to town and have a printer shop make them what Microsoft had right their in their own home
> And it still seems like many still don't know that for I read old post that ask where they can get that kind of programs on their computer. Or show something they had to go to town to have someone make for them. Mircosoft Word use to be the namd of the program and it was already there when they bought the computer that would enable a person to go to WORD and arrange letters they wanted to scroll saw. Then have Rapid resizer make it exactly the size needed for that [project.And for many many years it was free and a person could down load other fonts and types of letters that was not on their program already. But know they do charge for a person to down load Word....
> ...





halfacre said:


> It seemed as if no one used Microsoft Word that was own their computer for years and no one knew about it........now they charge to down load and use it....
> When I joined Lumberjocks there was a lot of guys asking about programs that they could down load for printing and using letters with their wood workings..
> and lots of guys said they had to go to town and have a printer shop make them what Microsoft had right their in their own home
> And it still seems like many still don't know that for I read old post that ask where they can get that kind of programs on their computer. Or show something they had to go to town to have someone make for them. Mircosoft Word use to be the namd of the program and it was already there when they bought the computer that would enable a person to go to WORD and arrange letters they wanted to scroll saw. Then have Rapid resizer make it exactly the size needed for that [project.And for many many years it was free and a person could down load other fonts and types of letters that was not on their program already. But know they do charge for a person to down load Word....
> ...


Today there are several public domain software programs that work better than Microsoft products, and they can open microsoft word documents.
these products are *Open Office*, and *Libre Office.
Libre Office is my personal favourite .*


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## Fuzzy (Jun 25, 2007)

wichman3 said:


> I tip for working with fonts and sizing:
> 
> New Times Roman is directly proportional to the point size; a capitol letter in 100 points is exactly 1" tall, 25 points is 1/4" tall. You can use this to size other fonts as well; start with the TNR in the size you need and then change the next letter to the font you intend to use, adjust the point size on the new font until the size matches what you need.
> 
> ...


There are 72 points to an inch.


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## wichman3 (Sep 12, 2016)

Fuzzy said:


> There are 72 points to an inch.


That is the international standard...for line spacing. Times New Roman, 72 point will have 1 inch between the lines of text, but because we can't read the letters if the top and bottom of the letters touch, space is added for readability. But we don't care about that if we want the letters to be 1 inch high, 
I dealt with this BS for 15 years, programming a laser to cut title plates for framed art prints. Boss didn't care about how or why, he just wanted a specific size, so I figured out how to get him what he wanted.


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## Fuzzy (Jun 25, 2007)

wichman3 said:


> That is the international standard...for line spacing. Times New Roman, 72 point will have 1 inch between the lines of text, but because we can't read the letters if the top and bottom of the letters touch, space is added for readability. But we don't care about that if we want the letters to be 1 inch high,
> I dealt with this BS for 15 years, programming a laser to cut title plates for framed art prints. Boss didn't care about how or why, he just wanted a specific size, so I figured out how to get him what he wanted.


72 points per inch is the INDUSTRY STANDARD ... and ... line spacing is totally independent from font size.


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

Another program that comes with a computer is called "Paint." I use Word for lettering but use Paint for images. Resizing and editing of images can be done in Paint also.


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