How to select specific text on the page

[Stefan Cargoski]

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

[Mike Witherell]

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. 

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

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

[Eugene Tyson]

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. 

[Chris Screven]

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. 

[Eugene Tyson]

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

[Chris Screven]

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