Your Opinion: Bolding Keyboard Shortcuts
This is going to sound far from revolutionary, but I tried something a little different in my new Lightroom 2 book; we “bolded” all the keyboard shortcuts to make it easier for them to stand out if you’re searching for them later on.
I got the idea from an attendee to my previous Lightroom Live Tour; in their evaluation form they noted that if they have to go back to their workbook to find a particular shortcut, it would make it easier if they were bolded, so in their search they could skip over paragraphs (or entire pages) without bolded shortcuts. Plus, they thought it would just be helpful, and more eye-catching in general.
So, the reason why I’m bringing this up now is; I haven’t heard any feedback one way or another on this particular aspect of the book. Maybe nobody noticed; maybe everybody thought they were always bold. Is it distracting, or helpful?
Anyway, if you have the book, take a quick look and let you know if this is a step in the right direction or not. I made a screen capture of a page (above), and you can see a larger version by clicking on it, but honestly, it’s kinda hard to see here, so it’s really better if you look in your copy of the book. I’m really interested to hear your feedback for future books, and workbooks (which is what I’ve been working on for days, preparing for my Lightroom 2 Tour, kicking off in just a few weeks. Yikes!). Thanks in advance for your help.
Note: I’ve been getting emails from people who led PhotoWalks around the world who have received their copy of the book. I heard from Glasgow and Paris in just the past few days. I’m lovin’ it! 
Scott,
I received your book recently as the winner of the Detroit area Photowalk. I think it’s a terrific book. As to the bolding of shortcuts, I think it’s a great idea. It’s not distracting if you aren’t interesting in the shortcuts, but it’s useful if you are. I agree with some other posters here about how having a page in the back of the book with all the shortcuts might be nice and the idea of a spiral bound book is also something that I think would be beneficial.
Thanks!
Scott,
)
I will let you know. I am still working my way through the introduction and acknowledgements.
Scott,
I got the book at PSW and have really enjoyed it. The shortcut bolding really helps. I do agree that a spriral binding would be great. I have several of your books and they help me to expand and enhamce my skills and knowledge of how to work more efficiently.
Thanks!
Hi Scott,
In all honesty I hadn’t noticed the bold, but that could be because it’s so intuitive to have it like that. I do LOVE the shortcuts, I’m a total shortcut freak in most programs.
What I would love to see would be a list of all the shortcuts at the end of the book. That would be incredibly handy, then you wouldn’t have to go sorting through the book at all – they would just be there for you in one gorgeous list.
Either way I adore the book and appreciate the time and thought you put into writing it. Thanks so much.
Bay
Scott,
Text? Shortcuts? What bold?! You mean we were supposed to do something more than just look at the pretty pictures?
Bold seems to be the convention others use and I like… I suggest you stick with the bold moving forward… it definately is better.
-Chris
Just to add to what others have said, the bold feature is terrific. I noticed the difference right away, and in my humble opinion, it is a nice touch.
Also, I’m happy to read that I’m not the only person that reads the book “linearly” at first before sitting down in front of Lightroom 2. I thought I was the only one.
Thanks for another GREAT book, Scott!
Thanks for the tip (a poster up above somewhere) for the idea about taking books in to be spiral bound. Didn’t know you could do that.
Maybe one of these days I’ll send Scott a photo of my digital photo book – it’s followed me along to many classes over the years. Lot’s of bookmarks & folded pages.
Hey bold move on going bold. Tons of OK’s on the idea too. Amazing what tips you can learn from others, if we’re willing to listen.
I think this is really a great idea Scott. I didn’t buy the book yet because I’ve just got the previous version
and can’t justify the new purchase at the meantime.
Bolded text…..I’m lovin’ it!
Bold is the way to go!! Makes it much easier when going back over to find the shortcuts… Spiral binding might be nice.. Hard to say as most books (if not all) have a regular binding.
Yep, the bold has been very helpful. Thanks, dude.
I’d love an aggregate shortcuts section separating Mac and Windows keystrokes. Their proximity is not confusing, just distracting.
I gave a copy of this book to a friend, who emailed me yesterday declaring you “a genius.” So your subliminal text seems to be working, too.
I occassionally write simplified “how-to” instructions for doing things in complicated business software. I always bold the keyboard shortcuts and sometimes highlight them with color – although in a book that would be distracting. My instructions are seldom more than a couple pages long. As you may guess I highly approve of making them really easy to spot.
Oh, by the way, I’m working my way through your LR2 book and am picking up a lot of good tips.
Make a terrific day! (I am)
Scott-
I think the keyboard shortcuts in bold is better. It is easier to see and easier to remember (since it kinda ‘jumps out’).
Andrew
Hi Scott,
I didn’t receive my book yet but should be in tomorrow, In anticipation!! But without having seen the book yet, I can say that is the BEST WAY to go. I have an animation that uses that process. Which I constantly use because of the ease of finding my scripts
Cheers,
GT
I think the bolded keyboard shortcuts has been quite helpful so far as I’m working through your new LR2 book.
Scott,
As the (surprised and pleased) winner of the Photowalk in Portland, Oregon, I recieved my copy of your Lightroom 2 book last week. What a neat and fun way to learn Lightroom 2.
Also, thank you so much for your hard work and dedication in making this a terrific book. I really enjoy everything you do, you make everything so clear and easy to understand and implement.
I hold my breath at the thought of wrecking your wonderful books but usually take an ugly yellow marker eventually and mark up the shortcuts and other basic steps I am interested in after reading through. I think the bolding is a great idea. A quick reference at the top for the steps is not a bad idea either for after I have read the whole section and want to go back and just grab the concept.
Thank you for providing me the opportunity to participate in the Photowalk and kudos to Laurie Excell for bravely volunteering as our fearless leader.
Pam
Great idea. It makes searching for something specific much easier.
Regards
Your total inspiration in all things Photoshop
Scott, this is something that I comment on every time I review one of your books! Here’s my comment from my review of your 7-Point Book:
“…It’s a pain to pick out the key points (keyboard shortcuts, menu items, etc.) in the text. Scott hasn’t really changed the text styles so the key points still blend in with the rest of the text….”
Bold works well, and you can take it a step farther by using button graphics in place of “Shift,” “Option,” “Alt,” etc.
Jeremy Schultz
What a BOLD idea, I like it !
It does make finding the short cut simpler and it does , at least for me, result in retention of the short cut better.
Now if Adobe could keep the short cuts and placement of navigation text and tools consistent between Lightroom and Camera Raw, life would be good.
Thanks for asking, listening and taking your blog readers input seriously.
Bolding is a great idea!
I’m not one to read a book of this type cover to cover but more as a reference on getting a specific task done.
Ditto on the coil binding, that would be awesome.
Great book, great blog, thanks Scott
Jack
Hi Scott,
Much to my surprise, my photo was chosen as the winner from the San Jose, Costa Rica photo walk. I am very honored. I received this book over a week ago. I also purchased your book from your offer to help the orphanage.
So now I have two copies. I haven’t gone thru the entire book yet, but the bold lettering is very helpful. Thanks to some of the above for sharing your tips. I will save the autographed book as a collectors item and put a spiral on the second book for daily use. I would like to have an index with references to all shortcuts in the book, that would make locating tips easier.
I hope this book becomes more useful to me than your first book on Lightroom.
Thanks to you and to everyone else who share there knowledge.
I like the bold – works for me – and great book too – it’s really helping me to get a workflow in my head that is going to be workable.
Cheers, Jason
I think the bolding works well tho I must confess I rarely use keyboard shortcuts except for reject and pick flags.
I think spiral binding would be awesome.
Got the book last week and I’m working my way through it. Thanks for the personalization. The book is great.
To Bold or not to Bold, that is the question. I think bold is better. Helps me see the commands.
I second the comment about spiral binding. Spiral binding would keep it open better and not break the spine through use (which I expect a lot of)
Scott,
Bold does help for the keyboard shorcuts … Why not taking it a step further and addinga shortcut card or a summary ?
For LR3 … it would also help to find a nice way to highlight anything that’s different from earlier versions.
Finally, I preferred the lighter leyout of the LR1 book (just a matter of taste).
Cheers,
Xtof.
I got your book yesterday (photowalk leader, Boise, ID).
I haven’t had a chance to look at the book yet, but in general I like keystrokes or commands in Bold in books that I own for the very reason the attendee stated. It does make it easier to skim for that info.
Bold Shortcuts…big help..thank you. Hurry up and come to Denver for the Lightroom Tour!
As an educator I would say bolding in a instructional book would be very helpful.
One idea though….
If the book is written for both platforms Mac and PC could the bolding be tweeked. Mac in bold black color, PC in bold brown or dark gray.
I teach in both platform computer labs. Just a thought.
I pre-ordered my copy of the new Lightroom book a long time ago, and I have to say that the bold shortcuts were one of the first things I noticed. I really like them and they are very helpful. Please include them in your future books, including the new CS4 for Digital Photographers (which I’m sure you’re working on).
Hi 2 all
I’m not sure about the Bold-Shortcuts. In my opinion it destroys the layout of the page. Emphasizing the shortcuts in general is a good idea. It would be worth the time to try out different options. Bold, italic, different type, different color, adding an additional “shortcut-box” at the end of each chapter, etc….. in the end, it’s a book to learn something from it I know, but it should look nice too.
r.
I had your Lightroom 2 book on pre-order, and when it came I ran through so many lessons in a row since I was eager to finally educate myself about Lightroom. I’ve used some of your past books, and I have to say the bold keyboard shortcuts help tremendously. I can go back and find them for quick reference, whereas before I had to hunt through a decent amount of text. Keep up the great work!
Hi Scott,
This is the first of your books that I have bought, sorry about that.
I assumed that this presentation for keyboard shortcuts was your standard method. Anyway, it is great like this – easy to follow and easy to find later.
Stick with it. Great book, by the way.
Hi,
This is now my 5th book written by you. Easy to read, easy to understand and the bold makes this faster to use as reference.
Oh, by the way. You and your ‘Jazz hands’ you do on the podcast, has me noticing how many people actually do it, or the other version, the crooner hands, forearms out with a limp wrist shaking. It has me in stitches. I was watching tv, Eli Stone the second episode and Victor Garber was doing a song and dance with his crooner hands. Made me think of you and your Jazz hands!
Sorry for going on about it. Just thought you might like to know.
I think having the KB shortcuts is the overkill. It’s loosely equivalent to emailing someone using all caps.
No doubt this book will be highly useful to me as all of your others have been in the past.
Cheers
Howdy,
As the photowalk leader for Brighton, UK I was fortunate enough to get my book quite early. And yes, I find the bold face to be just fine.
As a educational / reference book it’s important to be able to find your material again in a pinch. The bold face seems to rectify that issue.
However, how likely would the possibility of a “short-cut page” at the very end of the book be? This would then contain all the shortcuts, grouped by Module, in one easy and convenient place.
Just a thought,
Kris
! One more important improvement (applies to all your guide books): they are all great reads but going back to find a specific procedure is a hazzle….After each chapter I would like to have a barebones list of the actions described in the 29 steps in chapter “X”. This way you don’t have to read all the text when all you need to get going is a short recap of the steps involved. This should require only ½-1 page.
The bolded keyboard shortcuts is one step in this direction which I would highly recommed going forward.
PS Please don’t change your writing style. It is a great way to bring things down to earth and to ensure that your photography experience remains FUN.
Exellent, I love the bold way.
Scott- I liked the bold like everybody else. -Jeremy
Well I do like the short cuts bolded, but I find myself stumbling, even though I have seen it for years over “Command “C” (Ctrl “C”)”. I know you need to do it but surely there must be a way to make it flow better. Maybe Command/Control with an explanation at the front of the book. For me it is like reading the Lord of the Rings and stumbling every time I come across a name I can’t read. My pea brain can’t process it.
Scott:
I love the idea of bold keyboard short cuts; another thought woulf be to use italic or a different color for PC or MAC