Even more distracting than boldface text is underlined text, which is a typographic abomination that should be avoided. Back in the days of typewriters, underlining was the accepted, if not only way to add emphasis. Unfortunately, this carried over into the design of operating systems, explaining why we have Underline commands under our Format menus when we never use the feature. When typesetting, underlined text is only used in special situations such as financial or academic publications. It is also common in the design of web pages.
Underline text is nearly as unsightly as bold face.