RE: Emacs as word processor

[Drew Adams]

>        I wish I could specify fonts in Emacs in a way that would
>        really be useful in making such a document.
> 
>     Are you referring to customize-face or something else (such
>     as, e.g., .Xresources/XLFD/XFT processing)?
> 
> I mean a simple way to put some text in a different font, such as a
> 14-point bold font for a title, and have it (1) display on the
> screen in that font and (2) have that markup saved in the file.
> 
> Emacs can already display a piece of text in that font, but it lacks
> a convenient user-level feature to do this whole job.

You can already do all of that (the "whole job"), FWIW.  (Not that
that your more general request is limited to this.)

1. Enriched mode lets you save highlighting permanently - see
   (emacs) `Enriched Mode'.

2. Facemenu lets you highlight text easily, including text that you
   will type from now on.

There are other ways, besides facemenu, to highlight, of course.
And there are 3rd-party libraries that help with this (e.g., "I mean
a simple way").

Here is one - `highlight.el':
http://www.emacswiki.org/HighlightLibrary
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/download/highlight.el

See also `facemenu+.el':
http://www.emacswiki.org/FaceMenuPlus