bold the first word of something in a bulleted or numbered list

[Praxian21074290ue4p]

I am making a very long document for work and when I bold the first word of something in a bulleted or numbered list, the bullet or number bolds too. It's just the first word of the sentence I need bolded, the rest is unbolded.
Please help if someone know

Thanks in advance 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

How the bullets / numbers are made? 

Through the option in the ParaStyle or manually? 

Are you using NestedStyles?

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Praxian21074290ue4p:

Yes, that's because the bullet or number picks up the formatting from the first character in a paragraph. The solution is to add an un-bolded space at the beginning of the paragraph. Most spaces take up horizontal space and visibly disrupt the alignment, but you can use Type > Insert Special Character > Other > Non-joiner and that one won't.

~Barb

EDIT: I forgot the screen shot. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Arrgh — I wrote a very concise answer on using Nested Styles, then misread the OP and Barb's reply and deleted it as a misleading answer.

OP, you should get a copy of the answer in email. Nested styles are your solution here.

[Barb Binder]

Why did you erase it, James? Both are technically correct but yours is the better answer!

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Read the OP correctly, posted, read the OP again and your answer in one sweep and took away that the problem was unwanted bolding. Acted too quickly, not enough coffee yet... if someone wants to backpost it from email, that might be useful.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Read the OP correctly, posted, read the OP again and your answer in one sweep and took away that the problem was unwanted bolding. Acted too quickly, not enough coffee yet... if someone wants to backpost it from email, that might be useful.

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InDesign actually has three features that do some variation of this (automatically apply a style to some part of a paragraph): GREP styles, Nested Styles and Line Styles. Your need is very simple; a Nested Style will do it.

First, create (if you haven't) a Character Style named Bold or similar. Fine-tune it for the bold look you want on these first words. (If it's not a good general bolding style, give it a distinctive name like FirstBold.)

Note: although ID has one-key bold and italic like Word, it's best not to use these overrides. ALWAYS define character styles for any applied text changes like font, color, weight, etc.

In your bullet paragraph style, open Drop Caps and Nested Styles. Click New Nested Style. Select your bolding style, and you can probably leave the default of through 1 Word/s as is.

All instances of this style should now bold the first word.

Look into the full use of this and especially GREP styles — they can automate all kinds of very tedious secondary formatting. I'm doing a programming document right now, and GREP styles are saving me whole bottles of aspirin worth of fussy formatting effort. 🙂

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By James Gifford—NitroPress

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Thanks. This whole topic got a little off the rails. OP: please feel free to ask any remaining questions.

[Frans v.d. Geest · Accepted solution]

Use a Character style that uses a specific non-bold and choose that in your Paragraph styles for the 'bullet/number' for lists.

[sunnydhillon]

I am looking for the same results, as I am not much of a techie person, I am a little confused. I am looking for the following as a new style (bulleted, bold before colon, then normal text). Could you outline step by step how to get this created pl? Would appreciate it.

• LinkedIn Style: Let’s make this bold header
• Bold: Only before the colon
• Normal text: After the colon

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@sunnydhillon

Please check Nested Styles section: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/indesign/using/drop-caps-nested-styles.html 

[sunnydhillon]

Thank you sir, appreciate your prompt response. Will do.

[sunnydhillon]

I am in Ms Word for Mac, hope that works for Mac as well?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

I am in Ms Word for Mac, hope that works for Mac as well?

By sunnydhillon

Word isn't InDesign... 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

😛

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

This thread got a bit tangled, so here's the summary. You want to use a Nested Style with your bullet Paragraph style.

• Create your Bullet style in all respects as you want it, other than the bolding.
• Create a character style that bolds as you want it (maybe using Semibold, color, a different font, as you like).
• Then in your Bullet style, add this Nested Style:

Note that this makes the colon a required element. If you want it through one word, or two, adjust the Nested Style's definition.