# Let me (or us, as the case may be) help with questions regarding Office 2007 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-or-us-as-the-case-may-be-help-with-questions-regarding-office-2007/457295 "2008-07-21T20:07:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 22
**Author:** ![Mark\_Ryle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8dc957/32.png) [@Mark\_Ryle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Ryle)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-or-us-as-the-case-may-be-help-with-questions-regarding-office-2007/457295/22 "2008-10-20T03:43:28Z")
> [@Microsoft = Spawn of Satan.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-spawn-of-satan/467795/2): > > Y’know how everything typeset in Word looks like dogshit? That’s because it doesn’t do [kerning](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning) by default (or decent justification, or any of those things that have made typography not shit for the last umpteen years, but that’s by the by). Anyway … it [Word 2007] actually does support proper kerning, it just doesn’t enable it. If you [1] open a new document, [2] right click and select Font…, then [3] choose the Character Spacing tab, and [4] check “Kerning for Fonts”, setting it to something like **8 points** and above, then [5] click the “Default” button, all of your documents will magically look much, much better (assuming you’re using a font with proper kerning tables; the new Office fonts such as Calibri and Cambria have these). What does this **8 points** setting mean in “Kerning for fonts”? When I perform this procedure I notice no difference from Word’s default justification. I am able to specify any value from 8 to 72 points but no matter which I choose the text looks the same, as far as I can see. I’m using Cambria 14 font. Following **Badger** ’s second recommendation in [that post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10311216&postcount=2) indeed results in dramatically improved justification: [ul] [li]Office Button \> (uppermost left corner of Word 2007)[/li][li]Word Options \>[/li][li]Advanced \>[/li][li]Layout Options \> (at the very bottom of the dialog box)[/li][li]Do full justification the way Word Perfect 6.x for Windows does \>[/li][li]Ok[/li][/ul] This does the job very nicely and I will always use it from now on when I justify text. But what is the relation between these two procedures? Are they supposed to do the same thing? Why doesn’t the first one seem to work for me? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-me-or-us-as-the-case-may-be-help-with-questions-regarding-office-2007/457295)._