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Special font features

As opposed to RC based dialogs, .NET dialogs and individual controls can use their own fonts.

Controls which do not use their own font inherit the font setting from the parent control.

To change the font used for a control, open the More tab in the translation window. If there is a font defined for the control you can change it here.

To change the font for a dialog, select the dialog in the translation list or in the dialog editor and open the More tab in the translation window. Changes to the font setting affect the dialog as well as any controls that do not have their own font definition but inherit the font settings specified for the dialog. As of Microsoft Framework 2.0 the behavior of the dialog when the font setting changes is different depending on the AutoScaleMode property. If AutoScaleMode has the value System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font the dialog and all controls are scaled (enlarged or reduced) relative to the original font setting.

As a third option, a font can be selected and set up in the properties of the language which is also used for dialogs. This setting is used for the display as well as the generation of the target files. The selected font is used for the dialog and all controls. The font size is matched proportionately, with attributes such as bold remaining the same. In the dialog for the font selection it is also possible to set the font so that it is used for all dialogs.

The change of fonts is mostly necessary when the font used in the source file is not appropriate for the target language or is not available in the target operating system. For example the Arial font cannot render Japanese characters. In such a case a font like Arial Unicode MS or MS Mincho should be used. It is advisable to use MS Sans Serif as a rule, since this font can be automatically mapped to a font that contains all the characters for the target language.

Because of this special function of MS Sans Serif , any unknown fonts found in the resources are changed to MS Sans Serif. This is done automatically by the .NET framework. In most cases this behavior is uncritical, but for certain special fonts like Wingdings this behavior is not what is wanted.

If an assembly uses a font that is not installed on the current system, Passolo outputs a warning with the name of the missing font. Internally, the font is still changed to MS Sans Serif. But it is possible to install the missing font on the system and then update the assembly to ensure that the correct font is used.