Although Windows and most programs that run under Windows have been making a lot of the keyboard shortcuts universal, “Control b” for bold, “Control i” for italics, PageMaker’s commands for bold, italic, underscore and normal text are as follows:

F5 - normal text
F6 - bold
F7 - italic
F8 - underscore

The following commands are for aligning text in PageMaker. These can be used when your cursor is anywhere within the paragraph that you want to align or by selecting text first, such as multiple paragraphs.

Ctrl/Shift/l - align left
Ctrl /Shift/r - align right
Ctrl /Shift/c - align center
Ctrl /Shift/f - force align
Ctrl /Shift/j - justify

There are many other keyboard shortcut commands for using with text. Some of these commands will open dialogue boxes where multiple choices and settings can be selected. These commands include:

Ctrl /i - Indents/Tabs. Tabs and indents can be set at the beginning of a document or after text has been selected. Setting indents and tabs before you start typing will set them as the default.

Ctrl /Shift/3 - insert page numbers. The page numbers command should be placed on the Master Pages for multiple page documents. This can be done using the Text tool. Place the Text tool where you would like the page number to appear on the page and type in the command. Left and right facing pages should have page numbers set on each page.

Ctrl/m - Paragraph Specifications dialogue box.
Ctrl/t - Character Specifications dialogue box.
Ctrl/3 - Define Styles. This opens the Define Styles box where each type style can be modified.
Ctrl /b - Styles dialogue box. This allows you to apply the styles to text.
Ctrl/j - Colors dialogue box.
Ctrl/u - Fill and Stroke dialogue box.

Some additional keyboard shortcut commands in PageMaker include the following and are self-explanatory.

Ctrl /d - Place
Ctrl/e - Edit story
Ctrl/k - Preferences
Ctrl/n - Document setup
Ctrl/o - Open document
Ctrl/p - Print document
Ctrl/q - Close program - prompts to save first
Ctrl/s - Save document
Ctrl/v - Paste
Ctrl/w - Close document
Ctrl/y - Add index entry

To access different tools from the toolbox without having to use your mouse, consider these commands:

F9 - switches to pointer tool and back to the tool that was previously used.
F10 - switches to hand tool and back to the tool previously used.

There are some PageMaker commands that are universal within the Windows platform. They include the following:

Ctrl/c - Copy
Ctrl/x - Cut
Ctrl/v - Paste

Where would be without copy, cut and paste? Retyping all the time, that’s where!