Technical Writing Tip: Favorite FrameMaker Shortcuts

Esc j j – Applies the last-used paragraph style to the current paragraph. This is helpful if you need to convert a document to a new template or need to apply new paragraph styles to a large amount of text. You can also select multiple paragraphs to apply the style to all of them at once. 

Esc c c – Applies the last-used character style to the selected text. Like the previous shortcut, this is helpful if you need to apply new character styles to a large amount of text. Remember that it always uses the last-used style, so if you find yourself switching between styles often, it may be more efficient to pop out the Character Catalog and select from there instead of using the shortcut. 

Esc Spacebar h – Adds a non-breaking space. I use this when I want to keep words/elements together within a paragraph (like keeping an icon on the same line as its tooltip). This is a better alternative than using a soft return if you want to bump a word or an icon down to the next line as it won’t cause extra line breaks if you later publish your file to HTML or eBook formats. 

Esc - h – Adds a non-breaking hyphen. Just like the non-breaking space, this is helpful if you want to keep a term or a file name together on the same line rather than allowing the automatic hyphenation to break it across lines. 

Esc g z – With an object selected, opens the Scale dialog box. This allows you to size up or size down your drawings and images proportionally by entering a new scale value, rather than resizing manually using the controls (and risking that your image gets stretched unintentionally). 

Esc m p – Resizes the image frame to fit the content. I always use this shortcut after doing any image work to ensure my frame fits the content properly and nothing is being cut off. 

Esc g g – Groups all the elements within your frame together. I use this once I’m done adding images, drawings, or text callouts to my frame to keep them in place and avoid unintentional shifting. This is especially helpful when precision with leaders and callouts is important or when you want to resize a group of elements together. (Use Esc u g to ungroup them again, if needed.)