Upgrade Check — Do I need to upgrade my Windows fonts?
There are five critical points in the life of our Windows font products. Each of these points requires an upgrade. If you own a Linguist's Software Windows font product that was purchased before Summer, 1999, you may need to upgrade it. Following is a way to tell the state of your Linguist's Software Windows products. Every product includes a Readme file, located either in the Linguist's Software Program Group on the Start menu, or on the CD or diskette. In the Readme file you will find the version number along with a version history of that product. To tell how current the product is and whether or not there are limitations on its use, scan down the version history for the following entries.
This product is Windows 10, 8, 7 compatible (or Windows 10, 8, 7- and Vista-, or Windows Vista-compatible).
If the Readme file does not mention Windows 10, 8, 7 and/or Vista, and if the product includes keyboard drivers, then you must upgrade before the product will work in the newer Operating Systems. The old generation Windows XP keyboard drivers will not work in Windows 10, 8, 7 or Vista. If the Readme file says the product is Windows Vista-compatible, but does not mention Windows 10, 8 or 7, the product will work in Windows 10/8/7 (but the documentation will not provide specific information. Note that the new generation Windows 10/8/7/Vista keyboard drivers also support Windows XP, and provide greater stability in Windows XP than did the older generation keyboard drivers.
"Fonts updated for compatibility with Windows NT4.0 SP4, Windows 98,
and euro-updated versions of Windows 95 and 3.1."
This is the latest major upgrade cycle and means the product is compatible with all versions of Windows and all versions of Microsoft Office. Especially significant for users in Europe is that it is compatible with versions of Windows that have been patched for the Euro-enabled Windows core fonts. If the updates described below (in this article) have been made to your fonts but this update has not been made (that is, if you do not find the above statement in the version history) then the fonts will still work except for three characters. Characters in our fonts in ASCII positions 128, 142, and 158 can not be typed, viewed, or printed. Instead, Windows displays the € (Euro currency symbol), the Ž (Z-caron), and the ž (z-caron) from the Times New Roman font (or from whichever font is the user's default font). With Latin fonts a user might not notice these characters were being displayed by Windows, so it could be especially troublesome. With a non-Latin font like Hindi or Thai it would be apparent something was wrong. Users who have old fonts can upgrade to new fonts and these incorrect characters will automatically be changed to the character in our font upon opening the file.
Note that the above statement does not mean our updated fonts have the Euro in them. Some of them do, but the statement means that the font (no matter what characters are in it) will work correctly in Euro-enabled versions of Windows.
Most of our products were updated for Euro-enabled versions of Windows by the Spring of 1999.
"Initial release for Windows NT4.0"
This statement must be in the version history or the product you own does not have keyboards for Windows NT4, Windows 2000, and Windows XP added to it. The keyboards will work only in Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows 3.1. Products that are this old will also have fonts that are not Euro-compatible (see above). Users must upgrade to get keyboards for Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT4. The upgrade will automatically have current fonts.
There are three core classes of our Windows keyboards. One keyboard works with Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT4; one keyboard works with Windows Me, Windows 98, and Windows 95; and one keyboard works with Windows 3.1.
Most of our products were updated for Windows NT4 (and therefore, for Windows 2000 and Windows XP) by the Fall of 1998.
"Revise <product name> fonts for compatibility with Office 97"
or
"Revise <product name> fonts for compatibility with Office 97 speller and clipboard"
The statement will be similar to the one above, but will reference the actual product name, such as "Revise LaserGreek fonts for compatibility with Office 97". In some cases, it may not mention the product name, or may not have the second phrase ("speller and clipboard"), but it always will mention Office 97. If a statement similar to the above is not present then the product is only compatible with very old systems and should never be used by anyone who uses, or will ever use, Office 97, Office 2000, Office XP, or any future version of Office. Files created with these old fonts will be corrupted when later used in newer versions of Office, and the fix for these files can be very hard. If you own these old fonts and created files using Word for Windows 2, 6, or 7 (also called Word 95, part of Office 95) you will have your text turn to little rectangles or squares when the files are later opened in Word 97, 2000, or 2002. (This is Windows' way of telling us it cannot figure out what character to display, so it displays a rectangle, officially called the ".notdef" or "not defined" character.) Our Installation and Getting Started Manual describes how to fix these files. (If your product is old enough to have a Technical Manual included, the fix is in it, as well.) Most people will fit into one of five scenarios described in the manual and the fixes get progressively more difficult. The easiest fix requires you still to own the old word processor used to create the files. Even if you are running the latest version of Windows, if you can install an old version of Word (Word 6 or Word 95), you can fix the files by buying the current fonts and following the instructions in our manual.
Most of our products were updated for Office 97 by the Summer of 1997.
"Windows 95 version original release"
If a version history does not have this statement in it the product will work only in Windows 3.1. It has old technology fonts in it and has a keyboard driver only for Windows 3.1. Any files created with this font and later opened in a new word processor will be corrupted, but usually can be fixed as described above. It is very important you do not attempt to install the keyboards from these old products into Windows 95 or later. Doing so can cause Windows 95 or later to refuse to restart. Check the Getting Started section of your manual for the fix. If your manual is too old to have this information, please contact us.
Most of our products were updated for Windows 95 by mid or late 1996.
Do you need an upgrade? Check prices. Check current product version numbers.
