advice for textfont needed

[J. Landman Gay]

On 1/15/13 11:10 AM, Tiemo Hollmann TB wrote:

> 1.       I don't know from where these fields inherited this font, because
> stack and card don't have a font definition either. Ok, probably it wasn't a
> good idea not to set a font. Is it something new coming as default from the
> engine?

The change was to disconnect the font property from the other text 
settings. Before, if you changed the font, all the styles and other 
properties reverted to their defaults. Now if you change the font, any 
text styles will remain in effect. I like that. It is how MetaCard used 
to work originally.

If no font is set in the card or stack, it will inherit the font from 
the IDE, which sets the font to the system default. In a standalone, it 
will inherit from the mainstack. If there is no font set in the 
mainstack, the system font is used.

>
> 2.       Is that wanted and standard that every field must have a textfont
> assigned and may not left empty or is that a bug?

Not a bug, and you don't need to set the font on every field. Just set 
the font of the stack and all objects that display text in that stack 
will inherit.

>
> 3.       Why is Lucida choosen and not Tahoma anymore, as it seemed to be
> the default in the past? Is it a change by runrev or a bug?

Fields have always inherited their properties according to the object 
hierarchy. Are you sure Tahoma wasn't set somewhere? It has never been 
the default except in some versions of Windows. What may have happened 
is that you were developing on Windows and set some text styles in 
fields. With the old method, that would also set the font, which would 
transfer over to Mac.

>
> 4.       If you don't set a font or size on field level, from where do they
> inherit these informations, if you also didn't set them on card or stack
> level?

See above -- from the IDE Home stack or the OS.

>
> 5.       Is there any advice which font you should use as default for most
> win-mac compatibility?
>
> 6.       Is there any reason not using Tahoma anymore for Win and Mac?

I think Tahoma should work, but users often prefer to see the system 
font because they are used to it. Helvetica is used a lot too. I think 
it is your choice. I'm not sure all Mac users have Tahoma installed, but 
probably most do.


-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com