If you want to change the formatting of all the text in a text frame, try selecting the frame with the Selection or Direct Selection tool. This has several benefits over using the Type tool:
- You can select more than one frame at the same time (if you want to apply the same formatting to the text in multiple, unlinked frames).
- You can see the effects of the formatting more easily because you’re not distracted by the “reversed out” text you get when you select text with the Type tool.
- You don’t have to worry about whether you’ve properly selected all the text in the frame.
Of course, there are two problems with this technique. First, it always changes all the text in the frame. For example, if you change the font, it’ll change the font of every character — even that little dingbat you may have forgotten was hiding in the middle of the story.
Second, and more important: The text attributes don’t appear in the Control palette when you have the Selection tool chosen! No problem: After you select the frame(s), press T to switch to the Type tool. Now the Control palette changes to show text attributes, even though you have a frame selected rather than text.
Note that this technique won’t work if the frame is linked with other text frames (if a story threads from this frame to another, for example).
This article was last modified on December 18, 2021
This article was first published on June 14, 2006
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