Indesign Keyboard Shortcuts for Styles don't make sense to me?!?!?

[PugMOM]

Where is the 'time save' when I have to (I'm doing listings that have like 8 different points to hightlight bold followed by regular weight text descriptions)

1. highlight text with mouse

2. left hand hits command/right hand hits 2 on the Number Pad

3. grab mouse, highlight next, and etc. etc. etc.

How is this any faster that just using the styles panel? Why can I not use the numbers above the letter keys? (but they don't work!)

This seems wonky and I bet I'm missing something...

help.

[cbishop01]

You can change the Shortcuts to what ever you think is more useful Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts (On Mac)

[Steve Werner · Accepted solution]

I believe the poster is talking about keyboard shortcuts assigned to paragraph or character styles (which are set up in the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles panels).

For as long as there have been style shortcuts, they have required the use of a numeric keypad. It's quite ridiculous actually.

In the meantime, I find using Quick Apply to call out styles (faster for me, keys on my keyboard). Learn about it in InDesign Help:

Format text in InDesign

[PugMOM]

ya know..this is an option..i still don't see any more efficiency though. Seems a bit more cumbersome to pull up this panel...

again, probably missing something.

[cbishop01]

Wow you cant reassign those.  That sucks. 

[PugMOM]

awesome..i see that! what i am not seeing - and I am sure this is user error, so forgive me - is a specific choice for editing 'Character Styles' or under which label they would live..I'm not sure where they live within this...

[John Mensinger]

PugMOM wrote:

3. grab mouse, highlight next, and etc. etc. etc.

IMO, this is where you're going awry...

Better options:

1. Using the mouse in between is an interruption of your flow; use the keyboard to navigate and select text
2. Use the Find Format feature of the Find/Change function to search for and apply styles to the terms you want to style.
3. Use GREP styles to automatically apply Character Styles to specific text or patterns that occur in particular Paragraph Styles

Why can I not use the numbers above the letter keys? (but they don't work!)

True; only the num-pad number keys are style-shortcut-eligible. I don't know why, and personally, I prefer the number pad to the numbers-above, so lucky me, I guess.

[PugMOM]

I like the thinking...yep, flow def interrupted.

couple notes on my end:

no way to highlight with keyboard (that I know!)

GREP styles would def be more efficient..never used those! Thanks.

if my fingers stretched from the command key to the key pad, i'd be set.

Thanks for the alternative method..will def try in the future.

[joet082964]

If I understand correctly, maybe nested styles can help you?  That's if your "listings" are consistent and there are many of them.

Create and use nested styles in InDesign | Adobe InDesign CC tutorials