Small Symbol Size

WordTips reader Mike Maxwell complained about the small size of the fonts used in the Insert Symbol dialog box. (This dialog box is visible when you choose Symbol from the Insert menu.) WordTips readers were quick to point out that while there was no native solution within either Word or Windows, there are a couple of shareware or freeware programs available that may do the trick. One such program is Symbol Selector (http://www.rkssoftware.com/symbolselector/overview.html), and the other is Extended Character Map (http://aritechdev.hypermart.net/ecm.htm). If these programs don't fill the bill for you, there are bound to be others available at any software download site on the Internet.

Symbol Selector was the program recommended the most by readers; it shows all the available characters in a much larger font and allows them to be copied to the Clipboard as either text or as a graphic. Symbol Selector is shareware; you can download a 30-day evaluation version, and a full version is available for $19.95, as of this writing. Extended Character Map takes less memory, and it shows the selected character in a very large format. Both programs are intended as a replacement for the Windows Character Map applet, not as a replacement for Insert Symbol. Thus, they copy text to the Clipboard and you must then paste that text in your Word document.