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Bold keyboard shortcut on Mac

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
July 4, 2025
5 replies
1306 views

Hello!

I have latest InDesign as a subscriber to Adobe cloud.
Every time I try to use shortcuts to get bold or italic text InDesign switches to direct selection mode (because I press CMD button in Shift+Cmd+B or I).

Tried to create custom keyboard shortcuts – it does not work. InDesign still treats Cmd key as a switch to direct selection tool.

Tried to clear preferences – it did not help.

Checked other fonts – the same problem presits, so it's not the improper font installation without bold or italic versions.

Am I missing something?

Bold_does_not_apply.zip

Correct answer Willi Adelberger

Every text, object and table must be based on its style. It makes working faster and more secure for printing. Only with styles you are able document wide make text look conform.

If you have the whole paragraph in the same style, like a bold headline with a larger size, the paragraph style has to be used.

If you want to have single words or a span inside a paragraph, like bold, italic, a color, etc. the character style is the way to go.

Important in styles is based on, so if you change the mother style, the children inherit the change if not defined in this apsect otherwise before.

For paragragraph styles is the attribute next style important. It changes the style automatically after return, or when you have a single frame it can be applied via object style too.

You write, that you use underline. For professionals it is not used any more. It comes from a time with the typewriter, but not with the computer. I recommend to avoid it, except for URLs, there it is used often.

For mor information read the help file or book a class to go deeper into InDesign.

P

pycckkuuAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you for all the replies. I appreciate the suggestion to use styles and I wouldn't mind learning how to do it, as Mike Whiotherell mentioned, using keyboard shortcuts is much better workflow when you use Indesign not as main source of income (which is my case). I don't have enough time right now to learn more about styles beyond what I already know, altough, again, I am willing to do so, but, again, not at this season.

What happened to me: I've created custom keyboard shortcuts and used Control keys instead of Cmd. After a programm restart it started to work for me, although I could not replicate it in other instances.

Thank you for your input and willingess to help!

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

While I, too, greatly recommend character styles for bold words in text as a much-better workflow.

Mike Witherell

I

Ian384814086k9h

Participating Frequently

The shortcuts Cmd+B for bold and Cmd+I for italic don't work. I've tried adding my own shortcut but this no luck either. Does anyone have a way around this?

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Ian384814086k9h,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Could you try running Illustrator under Safe Mode (macOS) and checking if it helps? If the problem persists, kindly confirm the version of Illustrator/OS installed, so I can better assist you.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Sometimes 3rd party apps can hijack keyboard shortcuts. Try disabling 3rd party apps, like anti-virus, VPNs, etc. and see if the problem persists.

Webroot

Magnet

and others are notorious.
Especially on a Macs (no idea why Mac OS allows this)

Quick way to check is to boot your Mac in Safe Mode and only launch indesign and see if the problem persists.

If it is ok then it's definitely a 3rd party app.

So you'll have to systematically go through background apps and exit them to see what's causing the issue.

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

In InDesign you should not apply Bold or Italic as you would do in Word or other programs because InDesign does not support fake styles.

The way to go is to create a character style for bold or other styles and use them. Character styles can have shortcuts attached.

I hope you use Paragrapgraph styles. Never work without styles.

P

pycckkuuAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks for swift response, but I use bold a lot and not only in headers, but throughout the text (as well as underline, italics or bold italics). If you have a good guide for the paragraph style though, it would be great to see it, as I've tried multiple paragraph styles and none work as fast for me as editing right in text using shortcuts like the one mentioned above. I'm willing to admit that I might've used the wrong templates that wont fit my style though.

Willi Adelberger

Correct answer

Community Expert

Every text, object and table must be based on its style. It makes working faster and more secure for printing. Only with styles you are able document wide make text look conform.

If you have the whole paragraph in the same style, like a bold headline with a larger size, the paragraph style has to be used.

If you want to have single words or a span inside a paragraph, like bold, italic, a color, etc. the character style is the way to go.

Important in styles is based on, so if you change the mother style, the children inherit the change if not defined in this apsect otherwise before.

For paragragraph styles is the attribute next style important. It changes the style automatically after return, or when you have a single frame it can be applied via object style too.

You write, that you use underline. For professionals it is not used any more. It comes from a time with the typewriter, but not with the computer. I recommend to avoid it, except for URLs, there it is used often.

For mor information read the help file or book a class to go deeper into InDesign.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @pycckkuu,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Could you try running InDesign under Safe Mode (Windows / macOS) and checking if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav