| Adjusting Font Size | |
| Decrease or Increase by Increment set in Preferences | Ctrl–Shift–< or > |
| Decrease or Increase by Increment x 5 | Ctrl–Alt-Shift–< or > |
| Adjusting Leading | |
| Decrease or Increase by Increment set in Preferences | Alt–Up or Down Arrow |
| Decrease or Increase by Increment x 5 | Ctrl–Alt–Up or Down Arrow |
| Revert to Auto Leading | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–A |
| Adjusting Kerning, Tracking, & WORD SPACING | |
| Increase or Decrease by Increment set in Preferences | Alt–Right or Left Arrow |
| Increase or Decrease by Increment x 5 | Ctrl–Alt–Left Arrow |
| Increase space between words | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–\ |
| Decrease space between words | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–Backspace |
| Clear all manual kerning, tracking, and word spacing | Ctrl–Alt–Q |
| Adjusting Baseline shift | |
| Move Up or Down by Increment set in Preferences | Alt–Shift–Up or Down Arrow |
| Move Up or Down by Increment x 5 | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–Up or Down Arrow |
| Scaling pictures | |
| Make sure the picture content is selected (not the frame it’s inside) | |
| Scale 1% Smaller or Bigger | Ctrl–< or > |
| Scale 5% Smaller or Bigger | Ctrl–Alt–< or > |
| Fitting Content & pictures | |
| Fit Content Proportionally | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–E |
| Fill Frame Proportionally | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–C |
| Center Content | Ctrl–Shift–E |
| Fit Frame to Content | Ctrl–Alt–C |
| Nudging objects | |
| Move by Increment (set in Preferences) | Arrow keys |
| Move by Increment x 10 | Shift–Arrow keys |
| Move by Increment x 1/10 | Ctrl–Shift–Arrow keys |
| Flowing Text | |
| Multi-Page Autoflow (creates additional pages) | Shift–click |
| Semi-Autoflow (keeps text in cursor so you can continue flowing) | Alt–click |
| Fixed-Page Autoflow (does not create additional pages) | Shift–Alt–click |
| Styling Text & Working with Styles | |
| Bold | Ctrl–Shift–B |
| Italic | Ctrl–Shift–I |
| Normal | Ctrl–Shift–Y |
| All Caps | Ctrl–Shift–K |
| Edit Style Sheet without applying it | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–double–click style |
| Redefine a Paragraph Style | With style selected Ctrl–Alt–Shift–R |
| Redefine a Character Style | With style selected Ctrl–Alt–Shift–C |
| Working with Paragraph Styles | |
| Remove local formatting (non style changes) | Alt–click style name |
| Remove local formatting & Character Styles | Alt–Shift–click style name |
| Working with Parent Pages | |
| Override a single parent page item on a document page | Ctrl–Shift–click it |
| Override several parent page items | Ctrl–Shift–drag a marquee over them |
| Override all master page items on pages selected in Pages panel | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–L |
| Inserting Special characters | |
| Indent to Here | Ctrl–\ |
| Right Indent Tab | Shift–Tab |
| Discretionary Hyphen | Ctrl–Shift–hyphen (-) |
| Nonbreaking Hyphen | Ctrl–Alt–hyphen (-) |
| Type in Straight Single Quote (foot mark) | Alt–' |
| Type in Straight Double Quote (inch mark) | Alt–Shift–' |
| Current Page Number (auto page numbering) | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–N |
| Em space | Ctrl–Shift–M |
| En space | Ctrl–Shift–N |
| Nonbreaking space | Ctrl–Alt–X |
| Thin space | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–M |
| Column Break | Enter (on keypad) |
| Frame Break | Shift–Enter (on keypad) |
| Page Break | Ctrl–Enter (on keypad) |
| Forced Line Break (or “soft return”) | Shift–Enter |
| Moving text cursor | |
| Move cursor to beginning or end of line | Home or End |
| Move cursor one word to the left/right | Ctrl–Left/Right Arrow |
| Move cursor to Previous paragraph | Ctrl–Up Arrow |
| Move cursor to Next paragraph | Ctrl–Down Arrow |
| Selecting & working with text | |
| Leave text frame and switch to Selection tool | Esc |
| Select from cursor to beginning or end of line | Shift–Home or Shift–End |
| Select from cursor to end of story | Ctrl–Shift–End |
| Select from cursor to beginning of story | Ctrl–Shift–Home |
| Select whole word | Double–click |
| Select line | Ctrl–Shift–\ (or Triple–click) |
| Select one word to the left/right | Ctrl–Shift–Left/Right Arrow |
| Navigating & scrolling through documents | |
| Scroll using Hand tool | Alt–Spacebar–drag |
| Go to the First Page | Ctrl–Shift–Page Up |
| Go to the Last Page | Ctrl–Shift–Page Down |
| Go to Page (then type in page number) | Ctrl–J |
| Switch between open documents | Ctrl–tilde(~) |
| Zooming | |
| Get the Zoom In tool without selecting it | Hold Ctrl then Spacebar |
| Get the Zoom Out tool without selecting it | Hold Ctrl then Spacebar & Alt |
| Zoom In or Out | Ctrl–plus(+) or Ctrl–minus(–) |
| Fit Page in Window | Ctrl–0 (zero) |
| Fit Spread in Window | Ctrl–Alt–0 (zero) |
| Toggle between current and previous zoom levels | Ctrl–Alt–2 |
| Find/Change | |
| Insert selected text into Find What box | Ctrl–F1 |
| Insert selected text into Find What box and then Find Next instance | Shift–F1 |
| Find the next occurrence of Find What text | Shift–F2 or Ctrl–Alt–F |
| Insert selected text into Change To box | Ctrl–F2 |
| Replace found text with Change To text | Ctrl–F3 |
| Replace found text with Change To text and Find Next | Shift–F3 |
| Working with panels | |
| Highlight the first option in the Control panel | Ctrl–6 |
| Toggle Control panel between Character & Paragraph options | Ctrl–Alt–7 |
| Apply a value but keep it highlighted in panel | Shift–Enter |
| Hide/Show all tools and panels | Tab (while not in a text frame) |
| Hide/Show all panels except Tools/Control | Shift–Tab (while not in a text frame) |
| Create new (style, swatches, etc) & display options | Alt–click New button |
| Working with Dialog boxes | |
| Cycle through section of options displayed on the left | Page Up or Down |
| Jump to a section displayed on the left | Ctrl–1 for 1st, Ctrl–2 for 2nd, etc. |
| Choose Yes or No | Y or N |
| Miscellaneous Good Stuff | |
| Select frame hidden behind another | Hold Ctrl and keep clicking frame stack |
| Increase/Decrease a value in a field | Click in field, press Up/Down Arrow |
| Highlight the last used field (in a panel) | Ctrl–Alt–tilde(~) |
| In Tabs panel: Move Left Indent (triangle) without moving First Line Indent | Hold Shift while dragging the (bottom) triangle |
| Select all Guides | Ctrl–Alt–G |
| Select an individual table cell | With Type tool, click in cell and hit Esc |
| Quick Apply | Cmd–Enter, type a style name, menu item... & hit Enter to apply |
| Sort menus alphabetically | Hold Ctrl–Alt–Shift and click on Menu |
| Toggle Typographer’s Quotes preference | Ctrl–Alt–Shift–’ |
InDesign Shortcuts: PC
Keyboard Shortcuts
Here are many keyboard shortcuts for InDesign, including lesser known and hidden keystrokes!
