The St yles of Tex t
In This Chapter
ᮣ Setting up styles
ᮣ Working with nested styles
ᮣ Controlling styles
ᮣ Using styles
It’s the dirty secret of desktop publishing: Most users avoid using styles, even though they know they should. Instead, they apply formatting locally to text, hoping it’s the same as a few pages back. It’s a lot like not eating your vegetables: Even though you know that they’re good for you (and they even taste good), it’s easier to get something already made, never mind what’s in it. So, I’m going to tell you about styles before I get to the other ways to format text. Styles really are good for you: They save you lots of work, help you avoid embarrassingly inconsistent formatting, and give you more time to indulge in the guilty pleasure of local formatting.
I cover the particulars of paragraph and character formatting in Chapters 14 and 15, respectively. The formats themselves are the same whether you apply them directly (locally) or through a style (globally). I cover table styles and cell styles in Chapter 19 and object styles in Chapter 9, although the basic creation and management methods are the same for all styles.
Text in your layout may already have styles applied, using styles defined in Microsoft Word, as Chapter 11 explains.
Creating Styles
A style is a simple but powerful concept: It’s a collection of formatting attributes that you can apply to text all at once, saving you time. Even better, if you change the style, all text that uses it is automatically updated, saving you time and ensuring consistency. That’s got to be appealing!
228 Part IV: Text Essentials
InDesign gives you two kinds of styles for text: paragraph and character. Paragraph styles apply formatting to entire paragraphs, while character styles apply formatting to text selections. Unless you’re doing a one-page ad, the formatting of which won’t be repeated, you should have paragraph styles for all different types of paragraphs in your layout. You also need character styles for places where you consistently want to override your paragraph styles, such as for the lead-in of a bulleted paragraph that may have the first few words in a different font or color.
Whether you’re creating styles for paragraphs or characters, the basic process is the same. (They’re also pretty much the same for object styles, covered in Chapter 9, and for table styles and cell styles, covered in Chapter 19.) The easiest way is to format your text using the Paragraph and Character panels, as described in Chapters 14 and 15, and then make sure that you’ve selected the text you want to use as the model for your new style. Next, create the appropriate type of new style:
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For paragraph styles, open the Paragraph Styles panel by choosing Type➪Paragraph Styles (Ô+F11 or Ctrl+F11). Then choose New Paragraph Style from the flyout menu to open the New Paragraph Style dialog box, shown in Figure 13-1.
Figure 13-1:
The New
Paragraph
Style
dialog box’s
General
pane.
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For character styles, open the Character Styles panel by choosing Type➪Character Styles (Shift+Ô+F11 or Ctrl+Shift+F11). Then choose New Character Style from the flyout menu to open the New Character Style dialog box, shown in Figure 13-2.
Figure 13-2:
The New
Character
Style dialog box’s
General
pane.
In both cases, the style picks up the selected text’s formatting. Adjust the style further if desired, give the style a name using the Style Name field in the General pane, and then click OK.
Of course, you can specify all the formatting directly in the new-style dialog boxes rather than having InDesign pick it up from existing text. Create the new styles as just described and then go through each of the panes (selecting each from the list at the left of the dialog box) and choose your settings. In the General pane of the New Paragraph Style and New Character Style dialog boxes are several controls that make styles work more intelligently: ߜ
The Based On pop-up menu displays the names of other styles. You use this feature to create families of styles. Thus, if you change a style that other styles are based on, all those styles are updated with the new settings.
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In the Shortcut field, hold down any combination of Ô, Option, and Shift (or Ctrl, Alt, and Shift) and press any number on the keypad. (You can’t use letters, punctuation, and nonkeypad numbers for keyboard shortcuts, and Windows users need to make sure that Num Lock is on.) ߜ
If you want to apply a new style to text that is selected, be sure to check the Apply Style to Selection check box before clicking OK to save the new style.
230 Part IV: Text Essentials
InDesign comes with a predefined default paragraph style called [Basic Paragraph] that text in a new frame automatically has applied to it. You can edit [Basic Paragraph] like any other style. Similarly, InDesign offers a predefined character style called [Basic Character]. (Style names that include surrounding brackets mean you can’t delete the styles, even though you can modify them.)
You need to keep in mind several things when creating paragraph styles. (Character styles are pretty straightforward, so I’m not presenting a similar list for them.)
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To have InDesign automatically apply a different style to the next paragraph when you type text, choose a style name from the Next Style pop-up menu while defining a style. For example, when you define a style named Headline, you can choose Byline as the next style, so after you type in a headline, the next paragraph will be formatted for a byline. Obviously, you need to have the Byline style available.
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If you want your paragraph style to use a character style, you must define that character style first. (Drop caps and nested styles use character styles.)
Getting Fancy with Nested Styles
A special function available only in paragraph styles is something called a nested style. Basically, a nested style is a way of applying a series of character styles within a paragraph style based on a set of parameters you specify. For example, in a numbered list, you might want one character style applied to the numeral, and another to the first sentence, and then have the paragraph style’s text formatting applied to the rest of the paragraph. With nested styles, you build all that into the paragraph style and let InDesign do the heavy lifting. Here’s how it works:
1. Define any character styles that you’ll apply to text through a nested style.
Even if all you’re doing is making text italic, you need to define a character style to do so. The Nested Styles feature can’t apply any attributes other than those available in a character style.
2. Open the Paragraph panel (Type➪Paragraph Styles [Ô+F11 or Ctrl+F11]), choose Style Options from the flyout menu to open the Paragraph Style Options dialog box, and go to the Drop Caps and Nested Styles pane.
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3. Click New Nested Style.
An entry appears in the Nested Styles section of the dialog box. This entry is what will be applied to text.
4. Click the style name in the Nested Styles section of the pane to choose from an existing character style.
When you click the style name, a list of other styles appears, including
[None], which uses the paragraph style’s default formatting.
You also have the [Repeat] option, which, if selected, lets you repeat a sequence of previous styles. (You choose the number of repetitions in the third column.)
5. Click in the second column to determine the scope end point.
Your choices are Through or Up To. For example, if you choose Through for a nested style that is set for four words, all four words will get the nested style. If you choose Up To, the first three words will get the style, and the fourth will not.
6. In the third column, specify how many items you want InDesign to count in determining the scope’s end point.
For example, if you want to have the first seven characters have the style applied, choose 7. If you want to have the style applied up to the first tab, choose 1.
7. Click the item in the fourth column to specify the scope of text to which you’re applying the nested styles.
Figure 13-3 shows the options. They break into three groups: a number of items (characters, words, and so on), a specific character (tab, em space, and so on), and a specific marker character (inline graphic marker, auto page number, and section marker). Whatever you choose needs to be consistent in all your text because InDesign will follow these rules slavishly.
8. Create multiple nested styles in one paragraph with different rules for each.
Obviously, you may not need to do this step, but the option exists. InDesign applies the styles in the order in which they appear in the dialog box, and each starts where the other ends. Use the up and down arrow buttons to change the order of nested styles.
9. Select the Preview option to preview the formatting if you selected sample text before opening the dialog box.
10. Click OK when you’re done.
232 Part IV: Text Essentials
Figure 13-3:
You can use
a nested
style to, for
example,
apply a
specific
character
style to the
two first
words in a
paragraph.
At the bottom of the Nested Styles dialog box is a new feature: nested line styles. It works just like other nested styles except that it lets you apply a character style to a certain number of lines in a paragraph — a popular design approach, such as having the first line in small caps. You specify the desired character style and how many lines you want it applied to, and InDesign does the rest.
Managing Styles
InDesign provides lots of ways to manage your styles. In this section, I cover the common ones. Note that the options described here also apply to object styles, table styles, and cell styles — so, for example, the Load Paragraph Styles menu option will have a counterpart in the Object Styles, Table Styles, and Cell Styles panels’ flyout menus.
Updating styles
If you’ve already created a style and want to change it, just go to the appropriate styles panel and choose Style Options from its flyout menu. If you’ve selected text that has the formatting you want the style to use in place of its current formatting, just choose Redefine Style from the flyout menu. Remember that all text using the style is automatically updated when the style changes.
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Sharing styles with others
The Load Paragraph Styles or Load Character Styles menu option (based on which styles panel is open) and the Load All Text Styles menu option let you import styles from another InDesign document. (Load All Text Styles imports paragraph and character styles at the same time.) You get a dialog box listing the styles in the chosen document so that you can decide which ones to import.
If you import styles whose names match those in the current document, InDesign gives you a chance to let the imported style overwrite the current style or to leave the current style as is and give the imported style a new name. If an entry appears in the Conflict with Existing Style, you can click that entry for a pop-up menu that provides two choices: Auto-Rename and Use Incoming Style Definition. Figure 13-4 shows this Load Styles dialog box. Note that at the bottom of the dialog box is the Incoming Style Definitions window, which lists the style definitions to help you decide which to import, as well as which to overwrite or rename.
Figure 13-4:
The Load
Styles
dialog box.
Using style groups
To help you find the desired style in documents that have dozens of them, InDesign lets you create style groups, which create a folder in the styles panel’s style list that you can open and close as desired. To create a group, choose New Style Group from the panel’s flyout menu or click the Create New Style Group iconic button (folder icon) on the bottom of the panel. Enter a name in the dialog box that appears and click OK.
234 Part IV: Text Essentials
When working with style groups (which have a folder icon to the left of their names in the panel list), you have several options to add styles: ߜ
You can drag any desired styles into the group.
ߜ
You can copy a selected style to the group by choosing Copy to Group and then selecting the target group in the dialog box that appears. ߜ
If multiple styles are selected, you can create a group and move them into it in one fell swoop by choosing New Group from Styles in the flyout menu. (Note that this option is grayed out if any of the predefined styles — [None]
and either [Basic Paragraph] or [Basic Character] — are selected.)
To quickly open all groups, choose Open All Groups in the panel’s flyout menu. To quickly close them all, choose Close All Groups.
Other management options
The styles panels’ flyout menus have several other options to manage your styles:
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Duplicate Style copies the currently selected style so that you can work on the copy.
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Delete Style — no surprise! — deletes selected styles.
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Select All Unused selects all styles not used in the document so that you can delete them all at once with the Delete Style menu option — part of keeping your document neat and tidy.
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Sort by Name alphabetizes the list of style names. (You can change the order of style names by dragging them within the list.)
Applying Styles to Text
Applying paragraph styles and character styles have some subtle differences, so I cover those particulars in the following sections. But two techniques work the same for both types of style:
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If your text selection uses more than one paragraph style or more than one character style, the styles panel displays the text (Mixed) at the upper left to let you know.
ߜ InDesign has a neat capability that lets you apply multiple styles at once to selected text:
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1. Define the various styles and be sure that each style has a different style selected in the Next Style pop-up menu in the Paragraph Style Options or New Paragraph Style dialog boxes. For example, if you have Headline, Byline, and Body Copy styles, make sure that Headline has Byline selected in Next Style and that Byline has Body Copy selected in Next Style.
2.
Highlight
all the text that uses this sequence of styles. Now
Control+click or right-click Headline and select Apply "Headline" Then Next Style from the contextual menu. InDesign applies
Headline to the first paragraph, Byline to the second paragraph, and Body Copy to the rest.
Remember that Headline is just the example style used here; the actual contextual menu option will replace Headline with the actual style name you select inside the quote marks.
Paragraph particulars
To apply a paragraph style, just click within a paragraph or highlight text in a range of paragraphs and then click the style name in the Paragraph Styles panel or press its keyboard shortcut. (Windows users must make sure that Num Lock is on when using shortcuts for styles.)
When you apply a style to selected paragraphs, all local formats and applied character styles are retained. All other formats are replaced by those of the applied style. If you want to override those attributes, choose Clear Overrides from the Paragraph Styles panel’s flyout menu or hold the Option or Alt key when clicking the style name in the panel.
If you want to remove a style from a paragraph so that it’s not changed if the style is later updated, choose Break Link to Style from the flyout menu. The upper left of the panel displays the text (No Style).
Character characteristics
To apply a character style, just highlight text and then click the style name in the Character Styles panel or press its keyboard shortcut. (Windows users must make sure that Num Lock is on when using shortcuts for styles.) If you want to remove a style from a text selection so that it’s not changed if the character style is later updated, choose Break Link to Style from the flyout menu or simply apply the [None] style. Note that if you later apply a paragraph style to text with the [None] character style, the text takes on the paragraph style’s formatting rather than retaining its local formatting. 236 Part IV: Text Essentials
What’s that Quick Apply panel?
Another way to apply paragraph and character
working with your text. Pressing Ô+Return or
styles (and object styles, scripts, menu comCtrl+Enter again closes the Quick Apply panel. mands, and other elements) is by using the For users who are working on layouts from their Quick Apply feature. Quick Apply is a consolikeyboards — perhaps a layout artist who’s dated list of styles that you access by choosing
working on a notebook while commuting —
Edit➪Quick Apply, by clicking the Quick Apply
Quick Apply can be handy because you can
iconic button (the lightning-bolt icon) in many
switch to it, apply the style, and return to your
panels, or by pressing Ô+Return or Ctrl+Enter.
text without touching the mouse.
If you have selected text or have the textInDesign has tons of attributes in the Quick insertion point active, the Quick Apply panel
Apply panel, so it can quickly get overwhelmpresents all stored formatting attributes availing. To remove attributes you likely will never able. You can scroll down to the one you want,
use in this panel — such as scripts and menu
or you can type the first few letters of the style
customizations — choose the unnamed pop-up
name in the text field at the top to jump to styles
menu at the top of the panel and deselect
beginning with those letters and then navigate
unwanted attributes. (The check marks indicate
to the one you want. Then press Return or Enter,
attributes that will display.) You can also choose
which brings you back to where you were what attributes display in the Quick Apply panel by choosing Customize from its flyout menu.