Comments on: Change Typefaces without Using the Mouse

By: Russ

Russ — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:22:18 +0000

I am trying to change or find out if there is a way of changing the preset type face in cs3. So when I draw a ext box it will start with the type face I set instead of going back to times. Any ideas.

By: Dave Courtemanche

Dave Courtemanche — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:00:35 +0000

Thanks for the tips Pariah – I hate touching the mouse.

By: George Coghill

George Coghill — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:38:17 +0000

Peter & Aaron:

On the Mac, once you highlight the Font Family or Font Style area, you can just use the up & down arrow keys to move up and down through the selections.

And if the text is highlighted, you get an instant update in the text box as you scroll through.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:34:18 +0000

A late thanks, Pariah. Just tried your technique and it works fine.

By: Eugene Tyson

Eugene Tyson — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:18:48 +0000

In CS3, when I hit tab on the Character Panel to change the weight of the type, it reverts back to the text box and does not enter the next field in the panel.

By: Daniel Rodney

Daniel Rodney — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:50:54 +0000

Great tip. I’d just add that I personally don’t like using the Character panel because I feel that it wastes screen space. The Control panel is always there, and you can do the same thing (except different keystrokes) with the Control panel.

if the Control panel is showing the Character options just press Cmd-6 (Ctrl-6 on PC) and you’ve highlighted the font field.

If the Control panel is showing Paragraph options, press Cmd-Opt-7 (Ctrl-Alt-7 on PC) to change it to the Character options. Then press Cmd-6 (Ctrl-6 on PC) to highlight the font field.

Of course this doesn’t work in InCopy since it lacks a Control panel.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:56:48 +0000

Aaron: Once the font style box has the input focus, you can press Alt + down arrow to pop open the list of styles and then navigate it using the up and down arrow keys. I don’t know if this works on Mac OS though.

By: Pariah S. Burke

Pariah S. Burke — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:52:32 +0000

Very astute observation, Aaron. Technically? Yes, you can still do it straight from the keyboard despite the fact that InDesign hands over Myriad Pro Light Condensed instead of just Myriad Pro Light when you type “light”. If it’s a typeface you use often, pop open the style list and note the position of the Light style, which is between Light Italic and Regular. Then, to get to Light, type “Regular” (or a portion of it) and use the keyboard Up arrow once–or type “Light Italic” and press the keyboard Down arrow once.

Practically speaking, if it isn’t a style you choose often, you’ll probably wind up reaching for the mouse rather than messing with the Up and Down arrows.

Incidentally, the sort order of Myriad Pro, which I use frequently, and other large type families is really irritating.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:15:52 +0000

OK, here’s a stumper:
Assuming you have the entire family of Myriad Pro installed, can you change your font to Myriad Pro Light without reaching for the mouse? I don’t think it’s possible. (It defaults to Light Condensed, and hitting ‘delete’ will not remove the ‘Condensed’. Quite annoying, really.