How do I access / map manually added ligatures in Word?

Rene Verkaart

Hi guys,

I've created a client font that has some manually added ligatures. It works fine on Apple, because OpenType does the work for me. But can I get these ligatures to work in Microsoft Word? They're not mapped to any key on the keyboard, so how can I access them? I'm making a small manual for the client how to use the font. If this means I have to map these extra ligatures to some keys, this is fine with me.



Can anyone help me out here?

Mark Simonson

Have you/they enabled ligatures in Word? I think they are disabled by default.

John Hudson

You should be able to get the OpenType ligatures to work in Word 2010 for Windows and Word 2011 for Mac, but not in earlier versions. You will need to turn ligature support on in the Font / Advanced / Advanced Typography panel though. By default they are not active, because Office programmers still prioritise performance over typography, and turn off features that might slow down the program.

Matthew Butterick

If you're shipping TTF files, you also need a DSIG table.

Rene Verkaart

Thanks guys for the feedback. I'm currently researching your feedback and doing some tests. I hope this offers a good solution. Fingers crossed.

Jan Willem Wennekes

Interesting, thanks for sharing! *changes Word settings*