Regarding text converted to shapes...
Interesting that if you move a letter shape OUT, above or below, of the shape "group" you can change the styles of that letter as desired - Cool. But if you move it back into the shape "group" it swaps back to the style of the group. Not expected but fine. Easy to work around.
However You can take ALL the letters out of the default shape text group (The default shape group goes away) You can then change any letters as you like, select them, and put them in a new group (⌘g) Within that new group you can edit letters individually as you desire. Now I just need a KBD shortcut to do just that - Maybe there is a way already - ⇧⌘g doesn't do it, but it COULD...
