2002-03-13 - 10:54 a.m.

Hmm...I'm a programmer, so obviously that means I must know about fonts and barcoding and stuff like that...news to me.

Just got done spending an hour and a half (billable, thankfully) searching for a way to put those annoying "A line where each letter goes, so that folks print their form rather than cursively writing it" boxes on a new form for a new client.

I *hate* those lines, and it's not just because they're a pain in the wazoo for me to write in.

Here's what I had to do to make them:

1. Type out the form, in MS Word (bleah), where these writing lines go, put a string of the number 8 for each letter (so a 15 space first name line would be "888888888888888".

2. Highlight each of those 8 strings and change their font to "WPIconicSymbolsA" (which is what it took me an hour and a quarter to find...it would be near the bottom of the alphabetical list of fonts, and it would be the only one that has that silly line with halfsides on it thing).

3. UNFORTUNATELY, for the fields that want dates (like 10/12/2002), the /'s end up being converted to square root symbols...Brilliant, just brilliant! So I have to individually select each square root symbol and change it's font back to Times New Roman (or Arial, depending).

4. Then go back and realize I forgot to make it all 20 point, so select all of the strings again and change the size.

They really should make a font, call it "Annoying Legal Form Symbols", put the normal letters and numbers in there, but also include these other things that I've only ever encountered here at the office, like the c in a circle copyright, the r in a circle registered trademark, these stupid box letter holding characters, and the rest of the things that normal people just don't use, but lawyers just love.

I should do this...could make a mint...

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