Resize Objects with a Keyboard Shortcut

This InDesign tip on How to Resize Objects with a Keyboard Shortcut was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on August 3, 2017.

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Scaling by 5% Via the Keyboard

You probably know that text increases in size if you select it and press Command+Shift+> (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+> (Windows). But you may not know that if you press Command+Option+>/ Ctrl+Alt+> both the text (or image) and the frame increase in size by 5%.

Press Command+Option+< (Mac) Ctrl+Alt+< (Win) to decrease the size of the frame and its contents by 5%

Scaling by 1% Via the Keyboard

Want even finer control? Then leave out the Option/Alt key. Press Command+>/ Ctrl+> to increase the size of the frame and its contents by 1%.

Or press Command+</ Ctrl+< to decrease the size of the frame and its contents by 1%.

 

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This article was last modified on July 25, 2019

Comments (5)

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  1. Claudia McCue

    To scale a graphic, just select the graphic (NOT the frame — you can use the white arrow or the Content Grabber), then use the keyboard shortcuts in the article.
    Hope that helps.

  2. crowded crow

    Is there a way to scale photo/image to a smaller size using your keyboard instead of the mouse? For that matter, is it possible to upload a photo for an account’s profile picture utilizing a keyboard shortcut? I’m still using dinosaur Windows 7 if that matters…

  3. Do you accept sponsorship?

  4. Chad Beery

    Unless I am misunderstanding there is a correction to be made on the last line, Ctrl+Alt+< scales by 5% not 1%. Probably was a copy and paste error.

    1. Mike Rankin

      Yup. Thanks, Chad. Fixed now.