The italics function on the word processor does not always work. In my work (academic) I often need to 
italicise many single words throughout a document. Sometimes the words can be italicized, but often 
they cannot. I typically do the following:

- highlight desired word
- hit apple/function key and "i" key

Result:
nothing happens, about half the time.

Fixes:
typically I close OpenOffice and restart, but this only works some of the time.

Alternate methods:
- type word
-put cursor in the middle of the word
-hit function/apple key and "i" key

Results:
same as above

Also, using the character format feature results in same.

Possibilities:
I employ many foreign words in my documents, hence the need for italicisation. Many of these words 
have diacritical marks, though certainly not all of them. Perhaps the program gets "confused" with too 
many italicisations? Not sure, but this has been a persistent and annoying problem.

Further notes:
- This problem did not occur in MS Word, which I have now stopped using in favor of OpenOffice.
- I can provide a document if necessary, although I use a specialized Mac specific font which I self 
installed - called Appeal - and unless one has it installed, the diacritical marks will looked garbled.