Inspiring

Answered

How to select specific text on the page

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
September 14, 2025
4 replies
396 views

Hi commnunity.

Is there a method to select multiple text on a page, for exaple I have highlighted the text WELCOME, but would like to highlight more text (Underline Red Line) within the paragraph to make these words Bold. I tried holding shift, ctrl, alt, incase it worked, but didnt do the trick.

Thank you

How to

Correct answer Barb Binder

Hi Stefan:

If you are asking if there is a way in InDesign to select non-contiguous text strings at the same time, the answer is no.

~ Barb

C

Chris Screven

Participant

It sounds like you want to be able to apply the same style to multiple words in a body of text but not the entire text box? I see someone mentioned Character Styles. That works well, if you want to change all text that is that style then you can adjust the character style anad it will update the whole document. Another quick option is to highlight the text you want, stylize it, grab the eyedropper tool, select your styled type and highlight the text you want to edit the same way using the eyedropper tool. I hope that helps. I've attached a video, apologies in advance if it doesent explain well.

Screen_Recording_2025-09-15_at_10-21-30 AM.zip

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Be much better to create the character style - then use the eyedropper tool so that the character style is transferred to that text too.

C

Chris Screven

Participant

Exactly! I also saw someone suggest a keyboard shortcut. You can assign a single key to the shortcut like one of the F keys.

E

Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

If you're looking for a fast way to do it - I understand the need, but it doesn't exist - so a quick way to do it is to make a Character Style and then give it a keyboard shortcut.

If you're bringing the text in from Word and it's already bold but losing bold when you're adding styles - then consider using PrepText script (freely available) and it will apply the character styles through the script (automatically generates the Character Styles).

If you're typing this in InDesign then it may not be the best approach, consider a Word Processor like Microsoft Word where you can make non-contigious selections and quickly style your text.

Then import the text to InDesign and run the 'PrepText' script.

But if you're careful in Word and use Styles properly there you'll have less work in InDesign later.

InDesign would be best for designing your layout after you've got text typed up and signed off. It's more for design and layout than word processing.

Barb Binder

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hi Stefan:

If you are asking if there is a way in InDesign to select non-contiguous text strings at the same time, the answer is no.

~ Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Did you try dragging the mouse (with the Type tool active) through the text?

1 click inserts in text; 2 clicks selects a word; 3 clicks selects a line of text; 4 clicks selects a whole paragraph; 5 clicks selects all the paragraphs.

Also:

Shift + Arrow Keys: Selects text letter by letter (Shift + Left/Right Arrow) or line by line (Shift + Down/Up Arrow).
Ctrl + Shift + Down/Up Arrow: Selects paragraphs.
Ctrl + A: Selects all the text within the currently selected text frame.
Ctrl + Shift + End: Selects from the cursor to the end of the text frame or story.
Ctrl + Shift + Home: Selects from the cursor to the beginning of the text frame or story.

Mike Witherell

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded