preparing formatting options for non-savvy bloggers ?

Hello,
I am doing a site for a person who will create pages and add text. The person is not very computer-savvy. I want to prepare different formatting options, different typefaces, colored backgrounds and what not.

I am looking for something that can be used from the visual editor, without going into code view.

Ideally I would like the user to be able to select some text and pick a .class from a dropdown list or click a button.

Can that be done or is there a better way to do it?