PCTech Forums

Over the weekend I loaded up some new applications including OfficeXP on my computer that's running XP and now most text is italicized! Webmail, IM, most anything. It seems like a default has been set that I never was aware of, and have no idea where to look for it.

I feel pretty dense over this, as I would think something like this would be patently obvious and easy to correct, but I've found nothing.

You could change you theme or:
Right-click an empty area on your desktop, and then click Properties.
Click the Appearance tab.
In the Item box, click any of the following items:
Active Title Bar
Icon
Inactive Title Bar
Menu
Message Box
Palette Title
Selected Items
ToolTip
Window

In the Font box, click the font that you want to use for the item.
In the Size box, click the size that you want to use for the item.

Thanks Gecko, but that doesn't seem to do it. All settings appear to be the same between two different computers, but one has most everything italicized, at least in my Opera browser and in my IM dialog windows. Any other ideas?

open word and
go to format -- fonts --- italics is prob checked by default.
uncheck and click default

Hiya pdeinc

Sorry for the confused answer- I did it when I got up this morning hehe

I've thought again though, something to try first. If we go back to Gecko's reply to you he gave you the right answer but try this, it's a little bit different

Get your display properties box up by right clicking an empty area of your desktop then choose 'Appearance' then click on 'Advanced'
If you click around the box that displays the windows boxes you will see that the italics [I] becomes selected on certain things. See if you can deselect it in areas where you know it shouldn't be selected. You can always swap it back if you make a mistake.

Let us know how you get on.

lilpink x

The reinstallation of the fonts is still a possibility but try the above simpler way first

I do understand those early morning thoughts...they seem so rational at the time, but in later review...well, enough said, lol!

I have tried every possible permutation of those settings without correcting the problem. I tried to explain recently what I found to be a bit confusing about them as well. Essentially, what you can modify is: Inactive Title Bar, Active Title Bar and Message Box. For those 3, you have choices for Font, Size, Color, Bold and Italics.

But there is one more selection that doesn't yield those opportunities and that is when you click on the region showing "Window Text". What it shows for Item selected is simply "Window" with no font nor related choices, yet this is where I think the problem lies. Keep in mind, what I'm describing holds true for any computer I try it on, not just the one I'm having problems with.

Another interesting anamoly is that as you make changes for any of the 3 I've listed where you are presented choices, the one that affects (at least in the display pane) the "Window Text" is "Acitve and Inactive Title Bar"? Now just why is that?

Anyway, thanks for trying and if any other ideas pop up, let me know.[/b]

I had another fiddle and I can see that Active and Inactive Window, Message Box and Window Text are all linked. If you deselect the italics for one of them all of them should change. Is that the case on your computer? If so, it should solve your problem.

lilpink x

Let’s try something different:

Start > Control Panel > Accessibility Options > Display tab > check Use High Contrast >
Click the Settings button > use the dropdown to select Windows Classic click OK >
Click Apply > click OK
If the classic doesn’t work try Black High contrast, Wheat or Teal something with a different font.