Adobe InDesign CS4 - Manual (Page 240)

232 USING INDESIGN CS4
Typography
Adjust kerning manually
1 Using the Type tool , click to place an insertion point between two characters.
Note: If a range of text is selected, you can’t manually kern the text (you can choose only Metrics, Optical, or 0). Instead,
use tracking.
2 Do any of the following:
• In the Character panel or the Control panel, type or select a numeric value in the Kerning menu.
• Press Alt+Left/Right Arrow (Windows) or Option+Left/Right Arrow (Mac OS) to decrease or increase the kerning
between two characters.
The amount of the word kerning adjustment is the same as the Kerning value in the Units & Increments Preferences
dialog box. When you press the shortcut and hold down the Ctrl or Command key, the kerning amount is the Kerning
preferences value multiplied by 5.
Change the default kerning increment value
❖ In the Units & Increments section of the Preferences dialog box, type a new value for the Kerning option and
click OK.
Turn off kerning for selected text
1 Select text.
2 In the Character panel or Control panel, type or choose 0 in the Kerning menu.
You can also press Alt+Ctrl+Q (Windows) or Option+Command+Q (Mac OS) to reset kerning and tracking. When
you do so, kerning is set to Metrics regardless of which kerning option was previously applied.
Adjust tracking
1 Select a range of characters.
2 In the Character panel or Control panel, type or select a numeric value for Tracking .
Highlight text containing custom kerning and tracking
In some instances, you’ll want to be aware of text that has custom tracking and kerning applied. If you select the
Custom Tracking/Kerning preferences option, green highlighting appears over text with custom tracking or kerning.
1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Composition (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Composition (Mac OS).
2 Select Custom Tracking/Kerning, and then click OK.
Adjust kerning between words
❖ With the Type tool , select a range of text and do one of the following:
• To add space between selected words, press Alt+Ctrl+\ (Windows) or Option+Command+\ (Mac OS).
• To remove space between selected words, press Alt+Ctrl+Backspace (Windows) or Option+Command+Delete
(Mac
OS).
• To multiply the kerning adjustment by 5, hold down Shift as you press the keyboard shortcut.
Updated 18 June 2009