Formatting means changing appearance of text by applying various fonts, styles, colors etc.  Formatting aims to highlight the text from the rest of the matter.  A designer must have an idea to what is to be highlighted and what is not.

Formatting can be applied to the text before or after it is typed.  It can also be applied to selected or the text that is not selected. 

If the formatting styles are selected initially before the text was typed, then the styles can be applied to the cursor position and the style can be seen for the next typed in letters.  If the text was typed already, then it has to be selected to apply formatting.

The formatting style at cursor position will be continued for next typing letters.

Switching between Control Palette and text object while Editing the text:

Switch to control palette from text block: ctrl+~ (tild). 

Move between options in control palette: use tab or shift+Tab

Font names are listed in alphabetical order in the control palette.  Type first few letters of font name in the font name box and press enter or click on apply button to apply font name.

Formatting Styles:

BOLD – Ctrl+shift+B

ITALIC- Ctrl+shift+I

UNDERLINE- Ctrl+shift+U

NORMAL- Ctrl+shift+space

REVERSE- Ctrl+shift+v

STRIKE THROUGH- Ctrl+shift+/

ALL CAPS- Ctrl+shift+k

SUPERSCRIPT- Ctrl+shift+\

SUBSCRIPT- Ctrl+\

Changing Size of Text:

Increase by one point:- Ctrl+shift+>

Decrease by one point:- Ctrl+shift+<

Increase by Standard point:- Ctrl+alt+>

Decrease by Standard Point:- Ctrl+alt+<

Other formatting options in Control palette when type tool was activated:

Line spacing: space between two individual lines in the paragraph

Tracking: uniform space to be adjusted for the selected text

Text width : Horizontal scale of letter

Kerning: uniform space to be adjusted between two letters

Base Line: imaginary line that is carrying the line