[Boatanchors] Font usage

[Brian Clarke]

Hi Jerry,

This so-called 'ridiculous idea about capital ideas' is based on research into 
the ways that 99% of the literate population respond to the printed image. The 
findings are not related to education levels, language or culture. Let's get our 
heads out of the sandpit and avoid deliberately inflaming others' passions by 
flouting the clear results of good research. I don't really think that because the 
early type fonts available, based on 60-year-old [or even older] RTTY 
machines, were all caps and that there were very few special symbols, should 
continue to be used as an excuse for poor communication practice.

Please cut your 83-year-old a little slack by showing him how to change the 
automatic font style and size of incoming and outgoing messages - or, do it 
for him - it should be a oncer. You should find it under Format/Font. And just 
in case you had forgotten, set up a non-seraphic font [eg, Arial, Helvetica] for 
on-screen viewing and a seraphic font [eg, Times New Roman] for page print.

73 de Brian, VK2GCE.

Jerry asked:

  Does anyone know who started that ridiculous idea about capital letters 
  anyway?

  There are also other sides to this silly thing about shouting being the use 
  of capital letters.

  Frequently I used an older non-standard rackmount computer (an old 
  super-mini Prime) with an emulator.  It doesn't even recognize lower case. 
  <snip>
  Oh, yes.  And then there is a case of a close personal friend on an Apple 
  that isn't very computer literate, can't see very well and uses capitals to 
  see.  I know he ought to be able to learn of changing font sizes and more, 
  but at 83 I hope somebody cuts me a little slack, should I live so long.