How Do I Set a Shortcut for Character Styles in InDesign?

Apply Adobe InDesign styles with your keyboard once you assign shortcuts to them.

Assigning keyboard shortcuts to the character and paragraph styles you create in Adobe InDesign documents lets you apply these styles without using or even opening the InDesign Styles panel, speeding your work as you create and adjust your page designs. While you can assign a shortcut to any character or paragraph style, you must do so when you create the style or modify the style after the fact to add a shortcut to it.

Things You'll Need

• Computer keyboard with a "Num Lock" key

Instructions

1. Open the Character Styles panel by choosing "Character Styles" from the Window menu. To edit an existing style, right-click its name in the list and select "Edit" followed by the name of the style, or double-click on the style name if you don't have an active selection. To create a new style, activate the fly-out menu at the top-right corner of the Character Styles panel and choose "New Character Style."

2. Turn on the Num Lock on your computer keyboard. Click in the "Shortcut" box in the Character Style dialog box.

3. Press and hold the "Shift," "Alt" and "Control" keys (Windows) or "Shift," "Option" and "Command" keys (Mac), or any combination of these keys, along with one of the numbers on your keyboard's numeric keyboard. Your shortcut appears in the dialog box.

4. Finish editing or creating your character style. Click on the "OK" button when you have completed selecting style parameters

5. Select a range of text. Press the keys you selected in your character-style keyboard shortcut to apply the style to your selection.

Tips & Warnings

• You must turn on the Num Lock to use character-style keyboard shortcuts.

• If you share documents with colleagues who don't have keyboards with the appropriate keys, they will be unable to use any keyboard shortcuts you assign to character or paragraph styles.

• If your computer keyboard lacks a "Num Lock" key, you cannot use it to create keyboard shortcuts for character or paragraph styles.

• You cannot use the regular number keys on your keyboard, or any other character keys besides those on the numeric keypad, as part of your keyboard shortcuts.