How to Change the Font Size of a Single Word Throughout a 200+ Page Document in InDesign

[Serene_observer5E99]

I know there must be a simple way to do this, but I don't have time to do research to find out... I have a 200+ page document and need to change the point size of a single word throughout. I don't want to spend time changing each instance of the word individually--and I know there's a solution so that is unnecessary--but I'm not aware of how to do it.  

I know it's a dumb question, but I seriously can't stop work to try and find the answer...

<Title renamed by MOD>

[brian_p_dts]

Find/Replace, in the replace, replace it with a Character Style with the point size implemented. 

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Serene_observer5E99,

Not a dumb question at all! Changing the font size of a single word throughout a large document can definitely be done more efficiently. 

1. "Use Find/Change": 
   - Go to 'Edit > Find/Change' (or press 'Ctrl+F' on Windows / 'Cmd+F' on Mac).
   - In the dialog box, enter the word you want to change in the "Find what" field.
   - Click on the "Change Format" button (the 'A' icon) next to "Find what," and select the current font settings.
   - Click on the "Change Format” button (the 'A' icon) next to "Change to," and set the new font size.
   - Click on "Change All" to apply the changes throughout the document.

This method should save you a lot of time and ensure consistency across your document.

If you need more details or run into any issues, feel free to ask!

Best,  
Abhishek Rao

[m1b]

Here's an extra twist—adding a grep style to your paragraph style(s)!

Let's say your word is "cat". First create a Character Style with the font size, etc you want to apply to "cat", then add this Grep Style to your Paragraph Style (except use your character style where it asks "Apply Style:".

Adding the \b will match a word boundary, so it won't match "CATalog" or "CATches".

For the same reason, if you are doing a on-off find/change, make sure "Whole Word" is ON.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

What's the point of overloading InDesign with GREP Styles when applying CharStyle once is more efficient? 

[brian_p_dts]

It would be the correct way to do it if starting from scratch. That way you don't miss one on edits. But we have no idea about style setup (or lack thereof) in OPs doc.

[m1b]

> What's the point ... ?

The point is to share ideas and provide more options. Also in this case, I would think that applying a character style to every instance of a single word throughout a big document is a terrible idea. There's a reasonable change that the target word appears in headings or footnotes or disclaimers, etc. A global change would be a disaster. at least constrain it to the paragraph style(s) for which that character style would make sense.

> ... overloading Indesign ...

It won't overload Indesign. Not even close.

> ... applying CharStyle once is more efficient

Maybe, depending on the OP's document setup. I doubt it, personally.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

> ... overloading Indesign ...

It won't overload Indesign. Not even close.

So it won't slow down InDesign if it will have to constantly check each Paragraph using GREP - when recomposing text?

[AlanGilbertson]

It won't overload InDesign. I have many long documents and multi-chapter books where I use multiple GREP styles with no discernable performance hit. The point of an approach like this is that once the GREP style is set up, it is trivial to make a global revision (if, for example, the client decides they want a different size or color) by editing the Character Style. It's analogous to non-destructive editing techniques in Photoshop.

[Laubender]

Hi @Serene_observer5E99 ,

in case your single word comes with different point sizes and you want to scale it to a certain percentage create a character style that uses scaling width and height percentages for character width and height.

Then perhaps do Find/Change using the character style for formatting.

However, note, if you do that on characters that already use a character style you will exchange character styles losing the previous properties of the character style that was applied initally.

To solve that issue use a GREP Style in the applied paragraph style(s) so that properties of two character styles could be stacked. E.g. a 150% for character width and height will be added to a character where fill color "red" was added from a different character style—instead of stripping the color "red" off the characters.

See the screen shots below from my German InDesign where the "s" of the word "size" is selected. The Character Styles panel is showing that character style named "red" is directly applied plus a character style "newSize" is added with the applied paragraph style's GREP style:

How paragraph style "Body Text with GREP Style" is defined. Use character style "newSize" when text is "size":

How character stye "newSize" is defined:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[m1b]

I like your approach @Laubender.