Organizing Fonts on a Mac

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Hi again everyone! I’m back for a second time to share a quick little tutorial. Before I do that, I want to say a huge thanks to all of the lovely bloggers who stopped by to visit my sister’s new blog–you are the best!!!
So, this is something I’ve been asked about a few times and I’m hoping it will be of some help to some of the other font-crazed teachers out there!
It’s actually very easy to create a new folder to organize your fonts on a Mac…here are the steps:
1. Install a new font (or just head to your Font Book):
2. To the left, you will see a menu of previously made folders for fonts. At the very bottom, in the gray bar, you will see a plus sign:
3. Click on the plus sign and create a name for your new folder (called a Collection here):
4. Once you name this new collection, click and drag any fonts from the right to your new folder. I called mine “Design Fonts” and head to this folder always when making a printable…it saves me tons of time (instead of scrolling through endless fonts I don’t really use!):
I’m sorry I don’t have this information for PC users–does anyone have advice to share in that regard? I’d love to hear it if so! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy your evening!

Kristen Beakey

I’m an elementary math coach with a passion for sharing beautiful, streamlined solutions to save teachers time.  Ladybug’s Teacher Files has been a work of love since 2010. Filled with tech tutorials, math ideas, and organization…I strive to save you time in all aspects of your teaching!

27 Comments

  1. Thanks Kristen. I was able to make the folders for some of my fonts in my font book, but I can't access them through Word. I have a MAC with the PC Word on it. I am able to access my new folder through Powerpoint. Can you help me?
    Marsha

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    1. Hi Marsha, I'm not sure if this will be of help but, on my Word program for Mac, I go to the Font menu at the top of the screen. When the drop down menu appears, the first thing I see is "Font Collections". When I hover my cursor over Font Collections, I see my font folders appear, including the one I made. I hope that I explained that clearly and it works for you!

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  2. I noticed that many of my fonts only work in PPT, so for my fancier projects I do not use word. I have an old Mac and am saving up for a new one!

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  3. You're a wealth of information. Silly question but how do you select the font from the font book to use on Mac word program?

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  5. Here are directions about how to install a font on a PC:

    Open Fonts by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Fonts.

    1. Click File, and then click Install New Font.

    2. If you don’t see the File menu, press ALT.

    3. In the Add Fonts dialog box, under Drives, click the drive where the font that you want to install is located.

    4. Under Folders, double-click the folder containing the fonts that you want to add.

    5. Under List of fonts, click the font that you want to add, and then click Install.

    This still was a bit challenging for me, as most of the fonts you download are zipped–you do have to expand them first–and I had to move them all to my C: drive to be able to find them under drivers.

    Kristin, what is the name of the font you use for your flipped supply labels? I love it, but can't find it! Thanks,
    Raili

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  6. Thank you so much for sharing this! I had no idea you could do that, LOL!

    I was also curious if you use PowerPoint or Pages. I had MS Office on my last Macbook, but this time around I went with the Mac package, so I use Pages and Keynote. It took me a while to figure certain things out, but I do like them pretty well. 🙂

    gayla
    Teach On.

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  7. Such a useful tutorial. Do you by chance have any tips or ideas for organizing your clipart? I'm starting to get so overwhelmed with it and can't come up with a good system. 🙂 Jodi

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  8. Thank you for sharing all of your expertise and making tech so easy!Your tutorials are always so clear and concise.

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  10. Kristen,
    I am going to need some help. I have a MAC on the way. Do I still need powerpoint? Do you ever use keynote?
    Thanks,
    Michele

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  11. You have made my Mac envy reach a new level 😉

    I am saving up for one (and waiting for my 1 yr old to get past the destructive stage!) and then I will be in Mac bliss 🙂 Love your tutorials, as always!

    ~Stephanie
    3rd Grade Thoughts

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  12. Maybe someone can help me!!

    This was a great tutorial and I've moved a couple of fonts into a new folder I created in my Fontbook. But is there another step I need to do so the fonts show up in Word or Powerpoint in the drop down font list? How do I actually USE the fonts that are in my folder in Fontbook? I feel really silly for asking this because I know it is probably VERY obvious…but nothing I have tried is working. Help!

    Debbie
    K is for Kinderrific

    Reply

    1. I had the same problem and I went to the Genius bar at the Apple Store. There they told me that MSOffice does not recognize all the fonts. The guys then showed me that in Pages the fonts will appear in the dropdown font list. You might try checking Pages out.

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    4. I am having the same problem! I followed the great directions and make a special folder for the fonts I like. However, in Microsoft Word, they don't show up in my drop down menu. 🙁

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  14. How wonderful! I just tried it out and it worked! Thanks so much!

    Can you tell me what to do on a font I downloaded? I downloaded LD Going Nuts (Lettering Delights). It won't appear in my font list but it shows up in the Font Book. When I just tried to put it in a group, as you explained above, I moved it, but it isn't there. I'm not sure what to do. Thanks for any help you can give me.

    Diane
    The Teacher's Jungle

    Reply

    1. I'm not sure Diane…I have a couple from LD and I think they've been ok…though actually I'm not sure I have them in that folder. Are you not seeing it at all in your Font Book when you move it to the folder…or to the folder within a document? That sounds weird but I have a reason for asking so I hope I'm making sense! 🙂

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  16. Hey Kristen, I downloaded the espresso font on my mac and for some reason I cannot get it to show some capital letters. Have you had that problem? For example when I type Miss Mayfield, the m does not show unless I make it lower case. Any suggestions are appreciated!

    Reply

    1. Hey Mary! I had the exact same thing happen! I don't know why…I didn't know if there were just capitals on some letters and not others (which doesn't make sense I guess!). I've been meaning to go back and look to see if there are capitals advertised in the file. I know some fonts from the shop don't have capitals. I'll let you know if I find out anything! 🙂

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  18. I wish there was a way on my PC!! I have tried to find tutorials on the web but can't find anything! I'm sure this will be helpful for many people! 😉

    Ginger Snaps

    Reply

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