changing font size incrementally

Hi.  I am relatively new to x7 after working for many years with x5. One feature that was useful to me in x5 was when it comes to changing the font size in the Character formatting docker, I was able to tick up or down  incrementally a point at a time. This was very helpful when checking out which size worked for a given situation. In x7 though, when i try to change the font size there are no tiny up and down arrows for changing by increments, instead i get a fixed drop-down menu (in the text properties docker) of point sizes - 12, 14, 18, etc.  I know i can change it each time by typing in a new number but this is a lot of extra work if checking out many point sizes. Is there any way to get it to work "the old way"?

(Another feature i preferred with x5 was i could get to the Align menu with just one command (alt + A), now it is two (alt J, then A). Why do they do this?)

thanks for any help,