Making words bold

[defaultjp5zegj1hwep]

Hi, I know how to make words bold in indesign but throughout my document I need to make definitions bold.

For example I need Biomass and biogas installations to be bold, but when I do this it will bold all of the word and in bold throughout the document which is not what I require.

Does anyone have any suggestions please?

[Manan Joshi]

I did not get your question entirely, if you apply the bold to your word what exactly happens that your don't want? Anyhow, you could apply a character style to these words, you could also use a grep style to apply this automatically to your document. See one such discussion below

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/grep-style-bold-specific-words-with/td-p/9943126

If this does not help then please share a sample document explaining what you want in the result.

-Manan

[Alexandre Becquet]

Hello, i think Grep will be your friend to save time and made what you want 😉
Have a look at the Treasure of Grep group on FB : The Treasures of GREP

[Creamer Training]

Do you mean, you need to make the words bold ONLY when used as a definition but NOT when the words are used elsewhere? In that case, you will need to apply a Character style manually whenever you need it. InDesign is not smart enough to know when the same word is used as a definition or when it is normal text--unless there is a pattern to when the definition is used. Then, a GREP F/C or style might be able to work.

If you want the first use of the word in a story to be bold, I suspect a script could do that from a master list.

[defaultjp5zegj1hwep]

Hi for example I want to make the word you bold but it will also bold the word your like this as it picks up the letters you in the word your.

The document I am making has the words you and your within it but only you should be in bold.

Thanks for your help 

[vladan saveljic · Accepted solution]

Try as in my example bellow

\byou\b

[Creamer Training]

Drop @vladan saveljic's code into your paragraph style:

[Spenno]

As many have said, of course it will be possible to change all instances of any words/phrases, but InDesign looks for some kind of pattern - if you DON'T want it to apply this bold character style in some cases, there needs to be something that differentiates them from the others. Usually a paragraph style, different size ... etc. When the pattern is broken and consistent, you can control everything.