Styling Text

InDesign also lets you apply electronic styling such as All Caps, Small Caps, Subscript, and Superscript. (See page 65 for a discussion about electronic styling.)

To apply electronic styles:

• Choose one of the styles listed in the Character palette menu . The text changes to the style chosen .
  
  

  The electronic style options in the Character palette menu.

  

  Examples of the electronic styles applied to text.

  

  • All Caps converts lowercase letters to all capital letters.

  • Small Caps converts lowercase letters to reduced capitals.

  • Superscript reduces and raises the text above the baseline.

  • Subscript reduces and lowers the text below the baseline.

  • Underline draws a line under the text. (See the next page for how to customize the appearance of the underline.)

  • Strikethrough draws a line through the text. (See the next page for how to customize the appearance of the strikethrough line.)

  • Ligatures automatically substitutes the combined letterforms for characters such as fi and fl .

    Applying the Ligatures command to the top text replaces specific pairs of letters with combination letter forms such as those on the bottom.

    

  Tip

  The All Caps style has no effect on text typed with the Caps Lock or Shift key held down.

  Tip

  The sizes of the Small Caps, Subscript, and Superscript are controlled in the text preferences (see page 531).

As mentioned on the previous page, you can change the appearance of the Underline and Strikethrough effects.

To customize Underline and Strikethrough Options:

1.	Select the text.
2.	Choose Underline Options or Strike-through Options from the Character palette menu. The Underline Options or Strikethrough Options dialog box appears . The Underline Options and Strikethrough Options dialog boxes let you customize the appearance of the Underline and Strikethrough effects.
3.	Click Underline On or Strikethrough On to turn on the effect. Tip The effect will already be on if it was applied in the Character palette menu.
4.	Use the Weight controls to set the thickness of the line.
5.	Use the Offset controls to move the line as follows: Positive underline numbers move the line below the baseline. Positive strikethrough numbers move the line above the baseline.
6.	Choose one of the rules from the Type list (see page 157 for working with rules).
7.	Choose a color and tint from the Color and Tint lists.
8.	If your line type has a gap, such as in a dashed line, use the Gap Color and Gap Tint lists to color the gap.
9.	If desired, check the Overprint Stroke and Overprint Gap options. (See page 145 for more information on overprinting colors.)

Underlines as Highlights!

One of the most exciting uses for the custom underlines and strikethrough effects is to use them as highlights for individual lines or words of text. This is something designers have wanted to do for years.

All you have to do is set the weight of the line to slightly thicker than the text point size. And use the offset to position the line around the text. You can then apply these custom underlines as highlights for text. You can also combine the underline and strikethrough lines above and below the text .

An example of how custom underlines and strikethrough settings can be used for highlights and other special effects.