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Roger Breton
Roger Breton
Legend
August 12, 2023
Answered

Italic and Bold keyboard shortcuts are not working in 18.5 in Windows 11

  • August 12, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 14418 views

Always had success using Ctrl + Shift + B and Ctrl + Shoft + I to make text Bold and Italic. These keyboard shortcuts are still working but in a "one way street" fashion, in that they can only get me to make the selected characters either Bold or Italic (or both): if I issue the same keyboard shortcuts, as I use to do in the past with success, to remove the Bold and Italic attributes, it no longer work?

 

It could be a case of s these shortcuts being captured by another application? But I doubt it...

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Roger Breton

    Well, "egg on my face"... I think I found the "culprit" and the winner is : the font?

    In the past, I've been a heavy user of Adobe's MinionPro and MyriadPro but this year, I decided to experiment with variable-width font such as AcuminPro, and that is what was casuing my problem!  I can toggle Ctrl+Shift+B all I want on a a selected set of MyriadPro characters, for example, and it will work as it's always had! But it only works one way in AcuminPro, to make Regular text -> Bold but not to make Bold back into Regular. Ah!!

    I'm going to close this case. Sorry for interrupting recreation... 
    Thank you all for your kind replies and patient help 🙂 

    2 replies

    Roger Breton
    Roger BretonAuthorCorrect answer
    Legend
    August 14, 2023

    Well, "egg on my face"... I think I found the "culprit" and the winner is : the font?

    In the past, I've been a heavy user of Adobe's MinionPro and MyriadPro but this year, I decided to experiment with variable-width font such as AcuminPro, and that is what was casuing my problem!  I can toggle Ctrl+Shift+B all I want on a a selected set of MyriadPro characters, for example, and it will work as it's always had! But it only works one way in AcuminPro, to make Regular text -> Bold but not to make Bold back into Regular. Ah!!

    I'm going to close this case. Sorry for interrupting recreation... 
    Thank you all for your kind replies and patient help 🙂 

      Robert at ID-Tasker
      Robert at ID-Tasker
      Legend
      August 14, 2023

      There is no reason to apologise. 

       

      It's great that you've found the "problem" and shared solution with us - I think it's pretty valuable info / lesson for all of us. 

       

      Electroscribe_2024
      Electroscribe_2024
      Known Participant
      August 31, 2023

      Checked out "It's the font," and found CTRL-SHIFT-B worked in Century, but not in Calibri or Segoe UI, which my unit's style guideleines require (Can take you down that rabbit trail later). CTRL-SHIFT-B should work in any font, not just a selected few. The whole point is to save the time I now have to spend using the Font pulldown menu.  Thanks for reading.

      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      August 12, 2023

      These problems almost invariably boil down to mis/re-mapped keys (from a plugin, a former setup, something) or scrambled preferences. Look up what keys are assigned to those combos in Keyboard Shortcuts, and/or reset your preferences — that scrambling invariably happens during an incomplete or munged update.

       

      That said, these key-features are not really recommended as a regular practice in ID. They're word-processing conveniences copied from Word etc., and apply bold and italic simply as a local, uncontrolled override.

       

      It's far better practice to create your own correct bold and italic styles — and you can do tweaks like using a semibold for either to get better visual balance — and then, if you like, assign shortcut keys to those Character Styles. That makes them fully managed elements with all the conveniences and advantages.

      Roger Breton
      Roger BretonAuthor
      Legend
      August 12, 2023

      James,

      Your points are well-taken. Alas, I've been using thse word processing style keyboard shortcuts with  success ever since Version 1.0 came out, in year 2000 or thereabout. I'm aware of the pros and cons of styling text locally... Know that my current InDesign installation was created after I went from the English UI to the French UI, uninstalling and reinstalling everything in the process, recreating fresh Preferences along the way.


      (I wish Adobe would create a simple UI language menu selection, the way QuarkXpress has always done it, in the International version, without forcing a complete uninstall and reinstall on the user...but that's another story...)

      Could you tell me whether those "legacy" keyboard shortcuts still work for you under the English UI?

      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      August 12, 2023

      Yes, they do, in 18.5 US/English edition.

       

      Back to the the start: 99 times out of 100, when you (1) update and (2) something simple and integral stops working, it's (3) corrupted preferences. Sigh.

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