How to change shortcut for Italics

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
April 26, 2019
3 replies
4329 views

Hello,

I know that the shortcut for changing the font to Italics is ctrl+shift+i.

But I have a lot of formatting to do where I change specific words to italic, and the shortcut is tedius as I cant do it easily with one hand.

I tried to find it in the list of keyboard shortcuts, but I cant seem to find it. I assumed it was under the type menu, but it doesnt seem to be there.

Am I just missing it? is it somewhere else or can I simply not change that shortcut?

Also, I am using Indesign CS5

Thanks,

This topic has been closed for replies.

John Mensinger

Community Expert

marcb15607831 wrote
But I have a lot of formatting to do where I change specific words to italic, and the shortcut is tedius as I cant do it easily with one hand.

It sounds like you're using the mouse to select text, and need a one-handed shortcut so you can keep your other hand on the mouse.

Bob's Character Style shortcut is good, unless you're right-handed, since all the style shortcuts must include a number keyed on the Num keypad. (Although, something like Ctrl+1 might still be doable with your left hand.)

Some other tips that may help:

Teach yourself to navigate and select text with the keyboard only. It doesn't take long to get good at it, and then both hands stay on the keys so even 3-key shortcuts are easy.
If you have to format every instance of the same word or words, use Find/Change instead of manual formatting.
Better yet, use Nested and/or GREP styles to apply formatting to repeated instances of words or patterns.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

When we have a word (or more) that must always be italicized and it appears frequently in the document, we add a GREP style to the body text style to always apply a character style to italicize it.

Very efficient. Set it up once and it's done everywhere.

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