I got some great feedback on last week’s article about sharing Word documents. A couple of people pointed out that I missed a totally obvious option when it comes to fonts. You can embed TrueType fonts within the document. Choose Tools|Options and in the Save tab, click Embed TrueType Fonts and then Embed characters in use only.
Another reader named Marsha pointed out an Office 2003 peculiarity as well. I’ve never used it, but apparently the new Reading Layout can cause a problem when you share documents. To turn it off, choose Tools|Options. In the General tab, remove the checkmark next to “Allow starting in Reading Layout” checkbox.
In much less nerdy news, good weather has finally arrived so we’ve been dealing with spring tasks like cleaning screens and hosing off the back deck. Plus, I’ve returned to some of my long-neglected refinishing tasks. Some readers may remember that I killed my sander in my effort to remove the revolting old paint from the Ugly Dresser I picked up from the free pile at the dump.
Well, James fixed the sander and it works better than ever. I also have decided to revise my refinishing plan for the Ugly Dresser. I did get the paint off all the flat parts, but it has sort of molding/curlicue type stuff where there’s just no way that horrid paint is ever going to totally leave, since I can’t really get at it.
So, my plan is to use the same dark mahogany stain that I’ve used on other projects. Then I’ll use black enamel paint on the drawer molding and the curlicue areas on the front where I can’t completely remove the paint. I already did the stain and it came out remarkably well.
Assuming I don’t make a complete mess with the black paint, once the Ugly Dresser has a coat of varnish, it might even look kind of cool. Considering its origins, it’s a vast improvement. Maybe I’ll even rechristen it the Swan Dresser.