How to link font styles in Windows?

Question

I've installed several versions of a font (standard, bold, bold-italic, etc).

But when I use them in MS Office or OpenOffice, they appear as separate fonts, and using bold/italic style modifiers gives the simulated version.

How can I instruct the programs or the OS that the alternative variants are the proper bold/italic variants to be used? I have heard of style-linking, but how can it be done, when it doesn't happen automatically?

Answer 1

This is actually a function of the font files themselves.

A font file can have a face name and a family name, poor developers, or perhaps just inattentive or inexperiences font developers, often apply the face name as the family name. This causes each face to be seen as a separate family.

As far as I'm aware, the only way to correct the grouping is to edit the font files themselves applying the same family name to every file.