Use the Control panel to change the appearance of text.  When text is selected or when the insertion point is placed in text, the Control panel displays either the character formatting controls or the paragraph formatting controls, or a combination of both, depending on your monitor resolution. These same text formatting controls appear in the Character panel and Paragraph panel.

Note the following methods of formatting text:

• To format characters, you can use the Type tool to select characters, or you can click to place the insertion point, select a formatting option, and then begin typing.
• To format paragraphs, you don’t need to select an entire paragraph—selecting any word or character, or placing the insertion point in a paragraph will do. You can also select text in a range of paragraphs.
• To set the formatting for all future text frames that you’ll create in the current document, make sure that the insertion point is not active and that nothing is selected, and then specify text formatting options.
• Select a frame to apply formatting to all text inside it. The frame cannot be part of a thread.
• Use paragraph styles and character styles to format text quickly and consistently.

For a video on working with text, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0075.