{"id":1381,"date":"2020-01-21T13:14:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T21:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/?page_id=1381"},"modified":"2025-11-14T07:30:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:30:02","slug":"bold","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wordpress-how-tos\/bold\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress: Bold and Italics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Overuse of text bold face and italics can often have the opposite of the desired effect. That is, instead of drawing attention to important information, it can make text harder to read and overwhelm the user. Users with visual impairments may also have difficulty with text that is over-emphasized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bold<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Use bold for important individual words or short phrases <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do not use bold paragraph text as headings on a page. Use the heading block instead<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do not use bold for entire sentences or paragraphs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do not apply bold to headings (they are already bold)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Italics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Do not italicize whole sentences or paragraphs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use italics for individual words that need empahsis e.g. I will <em>not<\/em> be attending due to the severe weather<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>TV programs, movies, music albums, books, magazines, plays, journals and newspapers should be italicized:&nbsp;<em>The New York Times<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Harvey Mudd College Magazine<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Online magazines, journals and scholarly publications also should be italicized. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Works of art (paintings, drawings, sculptures) are also typically italicized.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do not italicize the name of a newspaper or periodical that is part of the name of a building, organization, prize or the like: Los Angeles Times Book Award, Tribune Tower.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ship names: We set sail aboard&nbsp;<em>RMS Titanic<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Taxonomic designation, technical terms and idiomatic phrases from another language are also appropriate for italicization.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Apply Bold and Italics <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Highlight the text; a toolbar will appear above the block<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Select either the <strong><kbd>B<\/kbd><\/strong> or <em><kbd>I<\/kbd><\/em> buttons<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-mudd-highlighted-content\">Use either bold <em>or<\/em> italics, not both. If bold and italics are applied to the same text, neither will be shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1348\" height=\"312\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlight-text.png\" alt=\"Screenshot showing selection of text in WordPress editor.\" class=\"wp-image-2071\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlight-text.png 1348w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlight-text-300x69.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlight-text-1024x237.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlight-text-768x178.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1348px) 100vw, 1348px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Select text<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1366\" height=\"302\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-b-button.png\" alt=\"Screenshot showing bold face being applied to selected text in WordPress editor.\" class=\"wp-image-2072\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-b-button.png 1366w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-b-button-300x66.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-b-button-1024x226.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-b-button-768x170.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Select B button to apply bold<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"241\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-i-button-1024x241.png\" alt=\"Screenshot showing italics being applied to selected text in WordPress editor.\" class=\"wp-image-2073\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-i-button-1024x241.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-i-button-300x71.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-i-button-768x181.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/select-i-button.png 1392w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Select I button to apply italics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alternatives to Bold and Italics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have some important information in a sentence or paragraph, consider adding a heading above that content to draw attention to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-mudd-highlighted-content\">Another option is to apply the pre-determined &#8220;Highlighted&#8221; style, like this paragraph has <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Write the pargraph<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make sure the cursor is somewhere withiin the paragraph<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the block settings, select the <kbd>Highlighted<\/kbd> button<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1408\" height=\"468\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/selected-paragraph.png\" alt=\"Screenshot showing a paragraph with cursor placed within it.\" class=\"wp-image-2074\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/selected-paragraph.png 1408w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/selected-paragraph-300x100.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/selected-paragraph-1024x340.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/selected-paragraph-768x255.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1408px) 100vw, 1408px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Cursor is within paragraph I wish to highlight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"562\" height=\"668\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlighted-button.png\" alt=\"Screenshot showing settings for a paragraph in the WordPress editor.\" class=\"wp-image-2075\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlighted-button.png 562w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlighted-button-252x300.png 252w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Highlighted button is selected<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1454\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlighted-pargraph.png\" alt=\"Screenshot showing how a paragraph looks in the WordPress editor once it has been highlighted\" class=\"wp-image-2076\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlighted-pargraph.png 1454w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlighted-pargraph-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlighted-pargraph-1024x439.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2024\/04\/highlighted-pargraph-768x330.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1454px) 100vw, 1454px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Resulting appearance of a highlighted paragraph<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Note that bold and italics will not be visibly applied to text within the highlighted paragraph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overuse of text bold face and italics can often have the opposite of the desired effect. That is, instead of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":995,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1381","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2552,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1381\/revisions\/2552"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}