I was formatting an email just now and to set off one part I was picking a different font. I mis-clicked and chose some kind of wing-ding like font that was not letters, arrows, boxes, lines and the like. I have never on purpose used such a font and I’m just wondering who has and what did you use it for?
I’m looking through Outlook (with Word as the editor) and there are almost 400 different fonts to choose from. There are basic shapes, lines and arrows like I said (I can see a use for these in programming, I think), but also sports themed fonts, a vacation font, and some that I can’t even define a use for, just weird little figures and shapes.
I guess I’m just not that creative, certainly not in my work. I like basic, non-serif fonts, and, for programming, monospace fonts are imperative. And, these days, in a larger size too.
I use it in Excel all the time. When I make my “To Do” lists, the ‘o’ in wingdings makes a nice little box, so I have something to check off when I complete a task as I’m shopping or whatnot. And if I’m tracking my progress on a work project with a list of “to do” items, I can save the paper and just use the ‘x’ in wingdings to make a box with an x in it to show I’ve completed that task as I’m working.
I also track my spending (and savings) in an Excel spreadsheet, and the ‘a’ in webdings makes a nice check mark to indicate a transaction has cleared my bank when I do my reconciliations (though my wonderful husband just bought me a Neat Receipts scanner for my birthday, so maybe I’ll start using Quicken again instead ).
ETA: Oh yeah, and I’ve used it when I’ve created business forms in-house, also for the “check box” feature.
I’ve never actually used them for anything. I’ve played around with them before, as BayleDomon notes. If I was an organized person, like Shayna apparently is, perhaps the little check boxes would be cool. But I’m not.
And, like I said, I don’t write a lot for my job, and my personal life I’m a lazy slob, so I doubt I"ll get much out of them.
Most recently I was using them while making buttons for a webpage in Photoshop. I have a few prefered fonts specifically for icons and webpage images too.
I don’t use anywhere near the amount of fonts out there, but they can be fun to play with.
The checkboxes are vital for forms, and more than once, I’ve used the “printer’s flowers” (similar to the ones in MS Wingdings 2) as dividers on menus and similar things.
Never once had a use for the “webdings”
The scissors and a horizontal rule (or a bunch of underscores) is good for “cut here” on a form where someone needs to fill out and send in something.
Pointing fingers and the bomb are useful for calling out important things in documentation.
There are a lot of wingdings that make very nice snowflakes if you’re designing your own Christmas card
I have used the existing fonts and graphics in Word to do brochures and posters on the cheap but eventually bought myself Corel’s Print Office so I could have lots more nifty fonts and clipart.
With a little thought, 72 points, orange paper, Scotch tape, and appropriate text, the finger pointy things make for excellent directions to odd corners of your place of work after your boss nixes your “follow the yellow brick road” scheme.
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