Selecting characters

Before you can format individual characters, you must select them. You can select one character, a range of characters, or all characters in a text layer.

To select characters:

1. Select the horizontal type tool  or the vertical type tool .
2. Select the text layer in the Timeline window, or click inside the text flow to automatically select a text layer.
3. Position the insertion point inside the text flow, and do one of the following:
• Drag to select one or more characters.
• Click and then Shift-click to select a range of characters.
• Choose Edit > Select All to select all the characters in the layer.
• Double-click a word to select it. Triple-click a line to select it. Click four times in a paragraph to select it. Click five times anywhere in the text flow to select all characters in a bounding box.
• To use the arrow keys to select characters, hold down Shift and press the Right Arrow or Left Arrow key. To use the arrow keys to select words, hold down Shift+Ctrl (Windows) or Shift+Command (Mac OS) and press the Right Arrow or Left Arrow key.

Note: In After Effects, selecting and formatting characters in a text layer puts the type tool into edit mode.