When the Font button takes focus but no selector appears, the selector opened on a display the Windows layout still carries: a second monitor, or one that is enabled but not connected. Check the task switcher and the display layout, move the window back with Alt+Space, M and the arrow keys, and restart the editor only if no hidden window exists. In one documented case the selector returned after a restart.
You click Font, the Font Format Setting window goes grey, and nothing opens. The selector did open. It is sitting on a display the Windows desktop still contains but your eyes cannot reach: a second monitor, or one the display layout still carries after a monitor change. Press Escape once to take the settings window back, then work through the task switcher and the Windows display layout before you touch anything in the project. In one documented case the selector came back after a restart of the editor alone, so the fault belonged to that session. This article gives the check order, the keyboard move that recovers a window parked outside the visible desktop, and what to record if it returns.
Why the Font button seems dead
The tell is focus. A button that did nothing would leave the Font Format Setting window active with its title bar bright. Focus moving away means Windows handed it to another window, and the only candidate is the font selector: it opened, somewhere unseen. Classic fonts still selecting normally tells you the editor's font handling is intact. The failure is confined to reaching the Windows Font selector.
Windows keeps one desktop across every display in its layout, and the layout can list displays that are not in front of you: a monitor that is enabled but unplugged, or an arrangement inherited from a docked laptop or another workstation. A dialog remembers the coordinates where it last sat and opens there again. Any window can land out in that unseen area, the same trap as when a window opens on a disconnected monitor.
Press Font once. A second click opens a second hidden selector at the same coordinates, and then you are hunting two windows.
What each symptom points to
- The
Font Format Settingwindow loses focus and nothing appears. The selector opened on a display outside your view: a second monitor, or one the layout lists and the desk does not have. - Escape brings the settings window back. The parent window is healthy. Stop pressing Escape and go find the selector; the fault is placement.
- Classic fonts still select. The editor's font handling works. Only the
Windows Fontpath is out of reach. - The task switcher lists a font window no screen shows. The window is parked outside the visible desktop. Select it and use the keyboard move in the next section.
- The selector sits on your second monitor. Nothing is broken. Work on that screen for a moment or drag the selector back to the main one.
- A restart brings the selector back. The fault belonged to that session. Log the editor version and the display arrangement, and treat a repeat as a pattern.
Bring the selector back: three checks in order
- Read the task switcher. Leave the project open, press
Fontonce, then hold Alt and tap Tab to cycle through the open windows. Look for a separate font-selection dialog. If it is listed, select it and look at every monitor on the desk, including the one you rarely use. - Count the displays in the layout. Open the Windows display settings: on Windows 10 and 11 that is Settings, System, Display; on Windows 7 it is the Screen resolution dialog from the desktop right-click menu. Compare the rectangles against the monitors in the room. Two rectangles for one monitor means a display is still enabled with no screen attached, and coordinates on it are unreachable until you reconnect a monitor there or move the window off those coordinates by hand.
- Move the window with the keyboard. Give the hidden selector focus from the task switcher, press Alt+Space, release, press M, then press an arrow key. The window is in move mode: it follows the arrow keys, and a held key keeps it travelling. Walk it left or up until an edge re-enters the screen, place it with the mouse, and press Enter to lock it down.
Finish the font choice once the selector is visible. Then correct the layout so it matches the desk, which stops the next dialog from landing in the same spot. If the task switcher listed no selector at all, go straight to the restart below.
Example: two displays in the layout, one on the desk
Inputs. Displays in the Windows layout: 2, both enabled, which is the configuration this fault turns up in. Monitors on the desk: 1. Display resolution: 1920 x 1080 on each, an illustrative input and the default on typical office monitors. Arrangement: extend mode, side by side, primary on the left.
Rule. In extend mode Windows lays the displays edge to edge into one desktop. The primary shows pixel columns 0 to 1919; the second display's area runs from x = 1920 to x = 3839. A dialog opens at the coordinates where it last sat, so a selector last used on the second display is still out there.
Arithmetic. The combined desktop is 1920 + 1920 = 3840 pixels wide. Take a font selector 300 pixels wide, last centred on the absent display. Its left edge sits at 1920 + (1920 - 300) / 2 = 1920 + 810 = 2730. The visible desktop ends at column 1919, so the window is 2730 - 1920 = 810 pixels past anything a monitor in the room can show.
Result. The task switcher lists the selector and no screen shows it. Minimizing windows changes which window is in front, never where windows sit, so it stays at x = 2730 until something moves it.
Decision. On this desk, any window whose left edge sits at x = 1920 or beyond is invisible. Recover it with Alt+Space, M and the left arrow: after 810 pixels of travel the selector's left edge reaches x = 1920 and it slides into view, so place it and press Enter. Then fix the layout so it lists one display, which keeps the next dialog on the screen you have.
When a restart is the right move
If the task switcher lists no selector anywhere, close the editor and reopen it. Save the project first so the test cannot put current edits at risk. Then repeat the same test on the same object type: open a static text or numeric entry, select Windows Font, press Font once.
In one documented case, editor version 3.01 on Windows 7 64-bit with both monitors enabled, the selector appeared normally after that restart. The underlying cause never surfaced, so read a restart as a recovery for that session: same project, same object type, same display arrangement before and after, so the comparison is clean.
Verify the font took: reopen the object's font properties once and confirm the chosen Windows Font is still set. If the project uses Windows fonts on several objects, test one more object. Then carry on with the panel edits.
Other Windows settings that hit editor windows
Two more Windows display settings look like editor faults, and both have short fixes of their own. DPI scaling can leave objects on the canvas while their screen text is missing; checking Windows DPI when the editor shows objects but no text sorts that out. Legacy bitmap fonts can clip text inside dialogs once a font is chosen; the fix for HMI dialogs clipped by legacy Windows fonts covers that case.
What to record if it returns
Capture the details that split the cases: editor version, Windows version and architecture, the panel model, how many displays are connected and how many the layout lists, the object type, and the exact sequence that triggers the failure. Note whether the settings window loses focus, whether Escape recovers it, whether the task switcher lists a selector, whether that selector sits on another monitor, and whether a restart clears it.
The record decides the fix. A selector on another display is an arrangement problem, so correct the layout. A selector in the task switcher but on no screen is a placement problem, so use the keyboard move. A failure that repeats after a clean restart, with no hidden window anywhere, is an editor installation problem, and that record is what you hand to support.
The order to follow
Recommendation: When the Font button takes focus without showing a selector, work in this order: task switcher first, then the Windows display layout, then the keyboard move, and only then a restart with the project saved. If a hidden window exists, recover it, finish the font choice and correct the layout so it matches the desk. If the selector returns after a restart, log the editor version, the Windows version and the display arrangement, and treat a second failure inside the same arrangement as an installation problem to escalate.
Questions
Can clicking the Font button repeatedly force the selector to appear?
Press it once and stop. A second click can open a second hidden selector at the same coordinates, and the task switcher shows one entry per window, so two font entries there means you clicked twice. Recover both, close the extra one with Alt+F4, and finish the choice in one. If the task switcher lists nothing at all, save the project and restart the editor.
Does the missing selector damage the project or the fonts already saved?
No. The selector never opened, so no font setting changed: existing Windows Font and classic font choices stay as saved. The only real risk is losing unsaved edits at the restart, so save the project first. If classic fonts still select normally afterwards, the font feature itself is healthy, and the search belongs on window placement.
Which key sequence moves a hidden window back onto the screen?
Press Alt+Space, release, then press M and an arrow key: the window enters Windows move mode and follows the arrow keys, or the mouse once it reappears. Enter locks the window at the new position; Escape cancels the move and returns the window to where it was. Hold an arrow key to keep the window travelling without repeated taps.
Is it better to fix the layout or just move the window each time?
Fix the layout. A display left enabled in the Windows layout with no screen attached keeps parking dialogs off the visible desktop, so you would repeat the keyboard move on every font, export dialog and confirm box. Bring the rectangles in the display settings in line with the monitors on the desk, and dialogs stop landing on coordinates no monitor can show.
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