On the Move to InDesign: Formatting Text

If you’re familiar with Adobe Illustrator, InDesign’s Tools palette should look very familiar. However, you may wonder about that tiny “T” just under the Fill and Stroke icons. That button changes formatting from affecting the container (XPress users think “box”) to changing the text.


Figure 1

First select the text frame with either of the Selection tools. Then click the Text Formatting icon. A large T in the Fill or Stroke area indicates you can change the text attributes. Any changes you make to the character or paragraph attributes will be applied to all the text in the text frame. You can also change the color of the text by choosing a new color in the Color, Gradient, or Swatches palettes.


Figure 2

Note: The Text Formatting icon is disabled if you select a text frame that is linked to another frame.

Read more On the Move to InDesign tips here.

Read more by Sandee Cohen.

Sandee Cohen is a New York City-based instructor and corporate trainer in a wide variety of graphic programs, especially the Adobe products, including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat. She has been an instructor for New School University, Cooper Union, Pratt, and School of Visual Arts. She is a frequent speaker for various events. She has also been a speaker for Seybold Seminars, Macworld Expo, and PhotoPlus conferences. She is the author of many versions of the Visual Quickstart Guides for InDesign.
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