# Cannot select bold or italic format in editor **URL:** \ **Category:** Beta Testing (Mac)\ **Created:** [September 20, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192 "2019-09-20T22:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![warrenao](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/warrenao/32/22179_2.png) [@warrenao](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/warrenao)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/1 "2019-09-20T22:17:19Z")
Catalina beta 19A558d, Scrivener 3.1.3. On both my Air (2014) and Mini (late 2012), I am not able to hit cmd-B or cmd-I to bold/italicize text in the editor. If I select “Show Fonts”, both the bold and italic options are there, and work; but the Bold and Italic options under Format \> Font are greyed out. Hitting the key shortcuts just gives me a system beep. The font in question is Georgia, so it’s not like it’s arcane, and this was never a problem with any previous macOS/Scrivener combination. Just Catalina beta, and the current Scrivener. I’ve logged this with Apple, too, as FB7243476. ---
**Author:** ![gr](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/gr/32/38680_2.png) [@gr](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/gr)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2019, 4:17am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/2 "2019-09-21T04:17:07Z")
I can’t help myself, but I am curious, is this a font-specific problem you’re seeing? Have you tried it with any other common fonts, like good old Times New Roman or something? gr P.S. Though you probably know this already, it is perhaps worth saying: Scrivener does not fake italics and bold (like Word will), so you must have the typefaces for these in your font set. ---
**Author:** ![warrenao](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/warrenao/32/22179_2.png) [@warrenao](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/warrenao)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/3 "2019-09-22T00:20:40Z")
> [@gr](#): > > I can’t help myself, but I am curious, is this a font-specific problem you’re seeing? Have you tried it with any other common fonts, like good old Times New Roman or something? It’s a fair question, and yeah, I’ve tried it with other fonts too. It doesn’t appear to be specific to Georgia, and it is specific only to macOS Catalina. I’ve never seen this behavior before in any prior version of Scrivener, with any other macOS release. > [@gr](#): > > P.S. Though you probably know this already, it is perhaps worth saying: Scrivener does not fake italics and bold (like Word will), so you must have the typefaces for these in your font set. I know. I have the complete suite of Georgia in my systems’ fonts folders: Regular, bold, italic, and bold-italic. This problem isn’t replicated in any other text editing software I have, either; it’s very much a Scrivener thing, and more than a little surprising, since font-rendering code, and bold/italic selection code, should be just about boilerplate standard. But I’ve seen more than one hard-to-track bug surface in Scrivener, so I know things can get complicated and difficult in unexpected ways. ---
**Author:** ![xafec](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/e8c25b/32.png) [@xafec](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/xafec)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/4 "2019-10-10T20:15:50Z")
Thought I’d mention that I’m having the same problem. I can bold text by clicking the [B] toolbar button, but I cannot by typing command-B nor by using the Font menu, where the Bold option is greyed out. (Italic is fine.) This affects all fonts I have tested, including Times New Roman. I am on macOS Catalina (official release, not the beta) with Scrivener 3.1.3. ---
**Author:** ![michaelbartelle](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@michaelbartelle](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/michaelbartelle)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2019, 9:20am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/5 "2019-10-11T09:20:13Z")
Just getting on board to say I’m also having this issue after my recent upgrade to Catalina. ctrl + u works fine for underline, but the italics and bold shortcuts are not working for me. ---
**Author:** ![shugenja](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@shugenja](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/shugenja)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2019, 3:45pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/6 "2019-10-11T15:45:03Z")
I am having the same issue: After uploading to Catalina, bold and italic shortcuts no longer work. ---
**Author:** ![dtresurgam](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@dtresurgam](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/dtresurgam)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2019, 6:21am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/7 "2019-10-12T06:21:51Z")
I had exactly the same problem after upgrading to Catalina this morning. Luckily if you download the latest version of Scrivener (3.14) the problem goes away – it appears this one has been updated for Catalina compatibility. ---
**Author:** ![BFSV](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@BFSV](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/BFSV)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/8 "2019-10-15T19:48:26Z")
> [@dtresurgam](#): > > I had exactly the same problem after upgrading to Catalina this morning. Luckily if you download the latest version of Scrivener (3.14) the problem goes away – it appears this one has been updated for Catalina compatibility. I have the same problem, with Verdana, Times New Roman etc. But for me, Scrivener 3.14 didn’t help. Italics and Bold are still greyed out from the menu, and command-I or command-B just results in an error sound. Hope 3.15 has a more stable fix. Or the Catalina update … ---
**Author:** ![shugenja](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@shugenja](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/shugenja)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/9 "2019-10-15T23:05:11Z")
This still does not work for me even after upgrading to the latest version of Scrivener. Oddly, I am having a similar problem on Scapple: shortcuts for bold and italic do not work. ---
**Author:** ![warrenao](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/warrenao/32/22179_2.png) [@warrenao](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/warrenao)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/10 "2019-10-16T16:55:56Z")
Interestingly enough, 3.1.4 does seem to correct the problem for me. I’m using Catalina beta 10.15.1 19B68f, which may or may not be related to anything. ---
**Author:** ![AmberV](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/amberv/32/13021_2.png) [@AmberV](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/AmberV)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/11 "2019-10-16T17:15:08Z")
If you’re still seeing this problem, we’ve traced it down to a likely conflict with [localisation](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/shortcuts-problem-under-catalina-3-1-4-version/47506/7) of font names. You’ll have to hang tight while a fix is investigated. ---
**Author:** ![ClevelandX](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@ClevelandX](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/ClevelandX)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/12 "2019-10-17T15:04:11Z")
Same. ---
**Author:** ![ClevelandX](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@ClevelandX](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/ClevelandX)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 10:17am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/13 "2019-11-12T10:17:36Z")
Any news? ---
**Author:** ![ValkAngie](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/439d5e/32.png) [@ValkAngie](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/ValkAngie)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 11:24am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/14 "2019-12-06T11:24:07Z")
I have this issue as well, only with italic (I’m on Catalina 10.15.1). It’s a real bother, especially in Composition mode. Are there any news about that potential fix? ---
**Author:** ![ValkAngie](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/439d5e/32.png) [@ValkAngie](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/ValkAngie)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/15 "2019-12-06T22:17:16Z")
> [@ValkAngie](#): > > I have this issue as well, only with italic (I’m on Catalina 10.15.1). > It’s a real bother, especially in Composition mode. Are there any news about that potential fix? EDIT : Apparently, if the selected text contains more than the italicised characters, the keyboard shortcuts seem to work to remove italic, then put it back. However, it won’t work if the selected text if fully italicised. The selection must contain more than the italicised text for this to work. Hope this helps ! ---
**Author:** ![Magor](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/magor/32/29_2.png) [@Magor](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/Magor)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 10:56am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/16 "2019-12-14T10:56:12Z")
Update to Scrivener 3.1.5 and Catalina 10.15.2 fixed the problem for me. Thanks for the wonderful support! ---
**Author:** ![AmberV](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/amberv/32/13021_2.png) [@AmberV](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/AmberV)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/cannot-select-bold-or-italic-format-in-editor/47192/17 "2019-12-16T16:35:58Z")
Thanks for the confirmation! Glad that’s finally sorted out.