Shortcut for Highlighting Text (The Many Uses of the Shift Key)

Highlight text word by word

Double click the word to highlight (select) it, triple-click to select the paragraph. Everybody knows this. 


But what if you want to select just a few words or a phrase? For example, to link a word or several words, the title of a book or an article to a page on the internet or to another page in your document? Dragging the cursor over a couple of words may be annoying if you are in a hurry.  


Here is a keyboard shortcut to select text character by character from cursor:

press Shift (⇧) and then a keyboard arrow - right to select to the right, left - to the left of the cursor. 

Now, here is a neat one. To select text word by word:

press together Shift and Option (Alt, ⌥) keys and hit keyboard arrows.

With this shortcut you can quickly highlight several words.

And then there is another one - for highlighting text to the end or the beginning of the line:

Command (⌘) + Shift + right/left arrow.

Typing the right arrow will highlight all text to the end of the line, typing the left arrow will highlight all text to the beginning of the line. Press and hold Command and Shift, then type left and right arrows - you will have the whole line highlighted.


Those who remember type-writers know that the main purpose of the Shift key was to to switch register to capital letters or type some punctuation marks. It does much more on modern computers. Combinations of Shift/Option/Command give you access to a variety of special symbols and foreign letters and accent marks. Pressing Shift while restarting your Mac is one of the most useful troubleshooting techniques - Safe Boot.
  
Jump-selecting word by word, line to line is described in the iWork user's guide and the list of keyboard shortcuts sits under Help menu. Trouble is, it's not often clear why or when you may need a particular shortcut. It's worth making a note of any frequently repeated operation specific to your work, and then to find out if there is a useful shortcut for it. 

Frequently Used Repeated Text. Storing for Easy Access.

A reader if this blog recently asked me if there is a way to store frequently repeated text, i.e. disclaimer, address, slogan or business description, in such a way that you have quick and easy way to copy-paste it into a new document.

It would be a great idea to have two or more Clipboards - like you can have several Inspectors open for one document - store repeated text on one clipboard, use another for copy-pasting. But no, we don't have that option. Still there are several other simple ways of storing repeated text.

- Put your file in the side-bar of a folder. In the side-bar of any open folder there are several folders by default: Home, Applications, Desktop etc. You can drag any folder or file there for quick access. So type your frequently used repeated text in TextEdit, save and drag to the Side Bar. Next time you need it, click on the file alias in the Side Bar and the file will open (launching the application in which it was created). Select the text and either copy-paste it or drag to your document.

- Drag from Stickies. Another similar trick is with Stickies. Launch Stickies (if they are not in the Dock by default, find them in Applications folder), type your text, highlight it and leave the sticky hanging somewhere in the corner of your screen while you work on the main document. Current versions of Stickies can make them float in front of all other open windows and be translucent - you can see your document even when there's a sticky hovering over it. When you need the repeated text, go to the sticky, click AND HOLD on the text and drag it to where you want it appear in your document. You don't need to switch Applications - grab and drag without leaving Pages, or whatever other programme you are in.

- Put the file with repeated text in the Dock. Two options here.
First, on Macs, open windows  collapse and sit in the right-hand side of the Dock when you click on the yellow button or double-click on the top bar of the document. You can leave a document with repeating text there.
Second, if you need the repeated text for a longer time, drag the icon of the file without opening to the right-hand side of the Dock and leave it there. When you need it, click - and it will jump up open.

Please drop me a line if you know other ways of storing frequently repeated text.

How to Set Custom Dimensions for Pages Document

Several readers wrote to me recently asking how to set custom dimensions for a Pages document. Custom meaning dimensions not available in Page Setup options (A4, B5 etc.)


(If you don't have 'Adobe PDF Printer' in your printing  options please read this follow-up article on using just Preview)  

Let’s say you design a card 11” wide by 6” high for commercial printing. Here is how to do it:


- click Page Setup in Document Inspector (or go to Page Setup from File menu);

- in ‘Format for’ choose Adobe PDF and in Paper Size drop-down menu choose Manage Custom Sizes;

- Custom Page Sizes dialogue opens;

- at the bottom of the left column click plus sign to create new page format with dimensions of your card;

- double click 'untitled' to name it, say 'Doug's Card';

- then, on the right, type in your dimensions 11" wide x 6" high (mine are set in cm, but it doesn't matter);

- set margins the way you want them to be, but remember to allow 3 mm (0.12") for printer's crop, click OK;

- now, in Page Setup dialogue, make sure that in Paper Size drop-down menu, 'Doug's Card' is selected and click OK. Your Pages document should change to the format you've created;

- next, process your card from Pages to CMYK PDF via Postscript, but DO NOT click Landscape in Page Setup, your dimensions will be preserved in the new PDF document.

Remembrance Poppy: Designed in Pages

Read a more detailed tutorial in this later post The Remembrance Poppy. (How-to tips.)

The Poppy Appeal is launched each year in Britain in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday. The nation expresses its unequivocal support for The Royal British Legion's charity work. 'Our emphasis this year is the need to help the Afghan generation of the Armed Forces and their families - today and for the rest of their lives' says the Poppy Appeal web-site.


I designed a Remembrance Poppy (image above) in iWork/Pages following the look of the traditional Royal British Legion poppy pin. It is made up of five shapes: three ovals for pettals and the black button, and two free shapes for the stalk and the leaf.

Feel free to reuse the image and remember to donate to help the veterans and their families.


Please read also 'Remembrance Poppies: Make Your Own Clipart in Pages' and 'Remembrance Theme: Using Background Images.'
'

How to Outline Text in Pages (Cover Design Tips)

Text outlined in Pages: two boxes

Text with characters that have coloured outlines is an attractive design feature. It is often used for covers, posters and headings on coloured background or when superimposed over photos. 

But can it be done in Pages? 

The quick answer is no, that option is not available, but there is a simple, if a bit fiddly workaround.

Here is how it goes, assuming you want a white outline to darker text to make it stand out on dark background.

- Create two text boxes in your Pages document, in Wrap inspector uncheck ‘object causes wrap'. 

- Type text in one of the boxes, then in Text Inspector select the colour you want for the main text – the one to be outlined. Then copy all text and paste it in the second box.

- Give the second box dark colour background – in Graphics Inspector click on colour fill and choose colour, then select all text, change its colour to white and enlarge the text size by three or four points. In my example (image above) reddish brown letters are 24 points and white letters are 27 points. Next, click outside the box, click on it again to select and make it larger than the first one – so that you can 'slip' it under the first one.  

- Move the box with white text ‘under’ the one with dark text. If it goes over, go to Arrange menu and Send it to Back. Continue moving the second box around until darker text slips ‘inside’ the white. This is the fiddliest bit of the whole work. Characters may not superimpose correctly, so go to Text Inspector and try ‘spacing’ (also called kerning), i.e. increasing or decreasing the space between characters.

- When you are satisfied select both boxes and Group them under Arrange menu.

Note how text outline is used 

If you are not satisfied and eventually give up, then check your Applications folder, you may already have another programme that allows outlining text. For instance, between 2005 and 2007 Apple bundled ComicLife with its basic installation package. In ComicLife you can give text several outlines. The programme is very simple to use. Click on 'Lettering' at the bottom of the page, type your text, then click on Details tab on the right and change the number and colour of outlines, colour of text, gradient etc.  

In the example below there are three outlines. When you are finished in ComicLife just copy-paste outlined text straight into your Pages project. It imports as a PDF.  If you don't have ComicLife download it from Plasq.com.

Text outlined in ComicLife

This post is a follow-up to the article 'Cover Tricks: Making Text Stand Out',
read a later article on how to make text stand out against the photo in the background (see the semiopaque box in the bottom left corner of the cover above).


Read more tips on cover design in 'How to Separate People from Background' and how to use 'patches' to make photos work better in this article.