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J
jimp87522270
Inspiring
January 27, 2023
Answered

Indesign strike through default option

  • January 27, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 3150 views

Good afternoon!  I am currently working in InDesign 13 and would like to know if there is some way to globally change the strike through text DEFAULT option for the width of the strike through line. The perfect world answer would be to change the default so if I open a NEW document OR an EXISTING document - the new default I set would apply. If that is not possible - at least change the default so it applies to everything in the document - not just one text box. 

 

Can anyone help? I'd be much obliged. 

 

BTW, interesting that the strike through option on this Adobe webpage is a standard width that works exactly the way I'd like InDesign to work: strikethru

Correct answer jimp87522270
  • Make or import your styles, when no document is open. Any new document will enherit these styles.
  • Select any style, when no document is open, this will be the default style for any new document.
  • Select any style when no tool is selected in an existing document. This will be the default setting.

Eureka! Okay, Willi - you didn't give me the magical global default answer I wanted (there probably isn't one) - but you gave me enough information to get to a workaround that's good enough. I knew how to set the defaults according to bullets 2 and 3, but what I didn't understand until you sent me back to the strikethrough options in bullet 3 is the relationship between the tool selected and the default width being local to just one text box or global for the entire document. So with a little tinkering you got me to my original fall back position - I set the default for all new documents and then I'll just change existing documents when necessary. Good enough!

 

Thanks for your help - much appreciated!

 

BTW, Adobe? It would still be nice if you guys made the default size a little wider.  😉

2 replies

D
defaults2aq0czkx4gl
Inspiring
September 17, 2025

Blimey - only just realised these strikethrough options existed! As someone who designs a lot of sales brochures (specifically 'was' prices ie Was £9.99), this is a bit of a godsend. At least I can make the strikethough a different colour now. The golden outcome however would be the option to rotate it 45%, but they don't seem to have cracked that yet.

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
January 27, 2023

You could create your own style for Strikethrough, with almost any tweaked settings you like. It's all in Character Style Options under Strikethrough.

 

Since I don't think there's any other way to apply strikethrough other than a style setting, it's just a matter of setting one or more styles as you like them. And styles can easily be copied from doc to doc. ETA: I'm overlooking the key-command Ctrl-Shift-/ here. But in general, those Word-style spot overrides should be avoided in ID. Create a style for all overrides, including bold, italic, underline (if anyone uses that in modern docs any more)... and strikethrough.

 

Not exactly a change to the 'default' but given ID's overall approach, pretty close.

 

 

J
jimp87522270Author
Inspiring
January 27, 2023

Appreciate the answer - especially the speed (almost instantaneous - good work!) However, I'm familiar with the styles (long time user) and that doesn't solve my problem. I don't want to copy styles or go to the style sheets everytime I need a strike through. I simply can't believe there is no way to change the default since the Adobe set default is .24 pt which is borderline invisible and would have no use whatsoever that I can imagine. Just another head-scratching decision by the Adobe design team imo. But thanks again - appreciate your input.

 

Anyone else have any ideas?

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
January 27, 2023

I'd counter that these are among ID's "word processing" features, included for any number of reasons but — IMHO — no good ones. Applying bold, ital, UL and ST using undefined styles is contrary to ID's whole rationale and creates unmanaged, unmanageable spot overrides.

 

Ya wanna write, go write in Word. 🙂

 

That they work poorly and have no adjustability is either concurrence with the way I see them, or another layer of reasons not to use them.

 

You could easily map an ST style to almost any keyboard command, including (I think) the default. But if you want to use ID like a word processor and not have to mess around with those style things, maybe someone has a better solution.

 

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