WordML and Panose- Yes, Panose!

I have learned so much about Office via the XML formats in Office 2003 that I probably would have overlooked just working with the OM. My latest revelation (the smarties out there already knew, but I never claimed to know everything!) is about Panose. Oh yeah, Microsoft Word is all about Panose, baby!

OK- what am I talking about? Here's the deal: there ought to be a way to properly identify a font irrespective of vendor. So, if you want to call your font, "FlipFlop", but really it's Times New Roman to the rest of us, that's cool, as long as you implement the Panose classification for your font:

Looks like a good time, doesn't it? Now, in WordProcessingML, you can see how your fonts are expressed because Microsoft is a Panose partner, and we have been interested from the start in finding a way to make font classifications portable. So, here is how it shakes out in my Word document:

 <w:font w:name="Verdana">
   <w:altName w:val=" Arial"/>
    <w:panose-1 w:val="020B0604030504040204"/>
   <w:charset w:val="00"/>
   <w:family w:val="Swiss"/>
   <w:pitch w:val="variable"/>
   <w:sig w:usb-0="20000287"
   w:usb-1="00000000" w:usb-2="00000000"
   w:usb-3="00000000" w:csb-0="0000019F"
   w:csb-1="00000000"/>
  </w:font>

You may have wondered what this element was for, and now you know!

Rock Thought for the Day: What is the ridiculous fascination that people have with Bright Eyes? I cringe every time I hear his alleged music played on the radio. No wonder Bob Dylan recently remarked that most artists whose music is playing on the radio these days should be embarassed. Bright Eyes is a fine example of the worst offenders.

Rock On