Creating and Applying Style Sheets | Adobe InDesign CS3 Bible

Before you can use a style sheet to format text, you must create it. You can create style sheets whenever you want, but usually, creating style sheets is one of the first tasks you'll tackle when working on a long document. Also, you may want to create your paragraph style sheets first and then, if necessary, add character style sheets. In many cases, character style sheets are used to format text within paragraphs to which paragraph style sheets have already been applied.

Cross-Reference ‚

See Chapter 17 for information about specifying character-level formats; see Chapter 18 for information about paragraph-level formats. Note that this chapter assumes you know how to use the character and paragraph formatting tools covered in those chapters.

Paragraph style sheets

Let's say you've been given the job of creating a newsletter. It will be several pages long and contain several stories. Each story will have the same text elements: a big headline, a smaller headline, an author byline, and body text. The stories will also include pictures, and each picture requires a caption and a credit line. Before you begin laying out pages and formatting text, you should create style sheets for all these repetitive text elements. The Paragraph Styles pane (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Paragraph Styles, or F11), shown in Figure 20-1, is where you need to go for both creating and applying style sheets.

Figure 20-1: The Paragraph Styles pane and its palette menu.

Tip ‚

You may want to combine the Character Styles and Paragraph Styles panes into a single palette by click-dragging the tab of one pane on top of the other pane and then releasing the mouse. Similarly, you may want to combine the Character (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Character, or z +T or Ctrl+T) and Paragraph panes (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Paragraph, or Option+ z +T or Ctrl+Alt+T). If you're really into combining panes, you may want to combine all four panes into a single text formatting palette.

Creating paragraph style sheets

The easiest way to create a paragraph style sheet is to manually apply character- and paragraph-level formats to a sample paragraph and then ‚ with the sample paragraph selected ‚ follow the steps below. If no text is selected when you create a style sheet, you'll have to specify character- and paragraph-level formats as you create the style sheet, which is more difficult than formatting a paragraph in advance. Here's how you create a paragraph style sheet from a preformatted paragraph:

If it's not displayed, show the Paragraph Style pane by choosing Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Paragraph Styles or pressing F11.

Make sure you've highlighted a paragraph that's been styled with all the character and paragraph formats you want to include in your style sheet, then choose New Style from the Paragraph Styles pane's palette menu (refer to Figure 20-1).

The New Paragraph Style dialog box, shown in Figure 20-2, is displayed.

Figure 20-2: The New Paragraph Style dialog box.

Tip ‚

You can also create a new style by clicking the Create New Style button at the bottom of the pane. When you click this button, a new style sheet with a default name (Paragraph Style 1, Paragraph Style 2, and so on) is added to the list. The formats applied to the selected paragraph are included in the new style sheet; the New Paragraph Style dialog box is not displayed. If you want to modify any formats, double-click the new style sheet name in the pane; the Modify Paragraph Style Options dialog box is displayed. This dialog box is identical to the New Paragraph Style dialog box.

Enter a name for the style sheet in the Style Name field.

Note ‚

Assign your style sheet names with care; be descriptive. Imagine that somebody else will be using the document and assign a name that conveys the purpose of the style sheet. For example, anybody will know what a style sheet called Body Copy is used for, but a style sheet called Really Cool Style won't mean anything to anybody but you.

Tip ‚

You may want to consider using a naming scheme that will display families of related style sheets together in the Paragraph Styles pane. (Step 5 below explains how to create a family of parent/children style sheets.) For example, you could use numbers (01, 02, 03, and so on) or letters (A. Body Copy/Base, A. Body Copy/Drop Cap, A. Body Copy/No Indent, and so on) in front of style sheet names to group style sheets.

The scroll list to the left of the dialog box shows 14 options, as shown in Figure 20-2. If you want to change any character- or paragraph-level formats, choose the appropriate option, then make your changes.
The Based On pop-up menu displays the names of other paragraph style sheets. You can use this feature to create families of style sheets.

For example, you could create a style sheet called Body Copy/Base for the bulk of your body text, and then create variations such as Body Text/Drop Cap, Body Text/No Indent, and Body Text/Italic. If you used the Based On pop-up menu to base each of the variations on Body Text/Base and you then modified this "parent" style sheet, your changes are applied to all the variations.
The Next Style pop-up menu also displays the names of other paragraph style sheets. If you want to automatically switch from the style sheet you're creating to another style sheet as you enter text, choose a style sheet name from the pop-up menu.

If you specify a Next Style for a style sheet, it's automatically applied to a new paragraph when you press Return or Enter. If you choose Same Style (the default), the style sheet you're creating will continue to be applied to new paragraphs when you press Return or Enter while typing. Typically, you'd use Next Style for things like headlines that are always followed by a specific kind of paragraph (like a byline). And you'd typically use Same Style for body text, where the next paragraph usually has the same formatting.
If you want (and you often should), you can assign a keyboard shortcut to a style sheet (Windows users must make sure Num Lock is on).

Hold down any combination of z , Option, and Shift, or Ctrl, Alt, and Shift, and press any number on the keypad. (Letters and non-keypad numbers cannot be used for keyboard shortcuts.)
When you're done specifying the attributes of your style sheet, click OK.

Note ‚
When you create a style sheet based on highlighted text, the new style sheet is automatically applied to the text.

Applying paragraph style sheets

After you've created a paragraph style sheet, applying it is easy. Just click within a paragraph or highlight text in a range of paragraphs, then click on the style sheet name in the Paragraph Styles pane or press its keyboard shortcut. (Windows users must make sure Num Lock is on when using shortcuts for styles.)

When you apply a style sheet to selected paragraphs, all local formats and applied character style sheets are retained. All other formats are replaced by those of the applied style sheet.

Tip ‚

If you hold down Option or Alt when clicking on a name in the Paragraph Styles pane, any characters style sheets that have been applied within selected paragraphs are retained, as are the following character formats: Superscript, Subscript, Underline, Strikethrough, Language, and Baseline Shift. If you hold down Option+Shift or Alt+Shift when clicking on a style-sheet name, all local formatting within the selected paragraphs is removed.

Note ‚

If a plus sign (+) is displayed to the right of a style-sheet name, it means that some of the text within the selected paragraphs has "local" formats that differ from those of the applied style sheet. This can occur if you apply a style sheet to text to which you've done some manual formatting or if you modify text formatting in a paragraph after applying a style sheet to it. (For example, you may have italicized the name of a book; that is a local change to the style sheet and will cause the + to appear.)

A few last words about paragraph style sheets. There are no hard-and-fast rules about how best to implement them. Like handwriting, you should develop your own style. How many style sheets you create, the names you use, whether you apply them with keyboard shortcuts or via the Paragraph Styles pane, and whether you use paragraph styles, character styles, or both are all matters of personal taste. One thing is indisputable: You should use style sheets whenever possible. They're a layout artist's best friend.

Managing paragraph style sheets

The Paragraph Style's pop-up menu, shown in Figure 20-1, displays nine options for managing style sheets; two buttons at the bottom of the pane let you create and delete paragraph styles. Here's a brief description of each option:

New Paragraph Style: Creates a new paragraph style sheet. When you choose New Paragraph Style, the New Paragraph Style dialog box is displayed. The pane also has an iconic button to create a new style.
Duplicate Style: Click on a style sheet name, and then click this button to create an exact copy. If you want to create a style sheet that's similar to one you've already created, you might want to choose New Style Sheet rather than Duplicate, and then use the Based On option to create a "child" of the original. If you choose Duplicate, the copy is identical to but not based on the original; if you modify the original, the copy is not affected. The pane also has an iconic button to create a new style.
Delete Style: Choose this to delete highlighted style sheets. To select multiple styles, hold down the z or Ctrl keys as you click on their names. To select a range of styles, click on the first one, and then hold down the Shift key and click on the last one.
Redefine Style: This option lets you modify an existing style sheet. Highlight text to which the style sheet you want to modify has been applied, change the formats as desired, then click Redefine Style. The newly applied formats are applied to the style sheet.
Style Options: This option lets you modify an existing style sheet. When a style sheet is highlighted in the Paragraph Styles pane, choosing Style Options displays the Modify Paragraph Style Options dialog box, which is identical to the New Paragraph Style dialog box.
Load Paragraph Styles: Choose this option if you want to import style sheets from another InDesign document. (Importing style sheets is discussed in detail later in this chapter.)
Load All Styles: This option lets you import both paragraph and character style sheets from another InDesign document. Importing style sheets is discussed in detail later in this chapter.
Select All Unused: Select this option to highlight the names of all paragraph style sheets that have not been applied to any paragraphs. This is a handy way of identifying unused styles in preparation for deleting them (by choosing the Delete Style option).
Small Palette Rows: Click this option to reduce the text size in the Paragraph Styles pane. Although harder to read, a pane with this option set lets you access more styles without having to scroll. To return the pane to its normal text size , select this option again.

Character style sheets

Character style sheets are nearly identical in every respect to paragraph style sheets, but instead of using them to format selected paragraphs, you use character style sheets to apply character-level formats to a highlighted range of text. For example, you could use a character style sheet to:

Modify the appearance of the first several words in a paragraph. For example, some publications ‚ particularly magazines ‚ will use a style variation such as small caps as a lead-in for a paragraph. You could use a character style sheet not only to switch the font style to small caps, but also to change size, color , font family, and so on.
Apply different formatting to such text elements as Web site, e-mail, and ftp addresses (URLs), within body text.
Create other body text variations for such things as emphasis, book and movie titles, product and company names, and so on.

Creating and applying character style sheets

Using character style sheets is much the same as using paragraph style sheets. First you create them; then you apply them. And you use the Character Styles pane (Window ‚ Type & Tables ‚ Character Styles, or Shift+F11), shown in Figure 20-3, to do both. As is the case with paragraph style sheets, the easiest way to create a character style sheet is to apply the character-level formats you want to use in the style sheet to some sample text, then follow the steps in this section. You can create a character style sheet from scratch (that is, without preformatting any text), but if you do, you'll have to set all the character formats when you create the style sheet.

Figure 20-3: The Character Styles pane and its palette menu.

To create a character style sheet from highlighted text:

If it's not displayed, show the Character Style pane by choosing Type ‚ Character Styles or pressing Shift+F11.

Make sure you've highlighted text that's been styled with all the character formats you want to include in your style sheet, then choose New Style from the Character Styles pane's pop-up menu.

The New Character Style dialog box, shown in Figure 20-4, is displayed.

Figure 20-4: The New Character Style dialog box.

Tip ‚

You can also create a new style by clicking the Create New Style button at the bottom of the pane. When you click this button, a new style sheet with a default name (Character Style 1, Character Style 2, and so on) is added to the list. The formats applied to the selected text are included in the new style sheet; the New Character Style dialog box is not displayed. If you want to modify any formats, double-click the new style sheet name in the pane; the Modify Character Style Options dialog box is displayed. This dialog box is identical to the New Character Style dialog box.

Enter a name for the style sheet in the Style Name field.
The scroll list to the left of the Style Name field displays seven options: General, Basic Character Formats, Advanced Character Formats, Character Color, OpenType Features, Underline Options, and Strikethrough Options. If you want to change any character-level formats, choose the appropriate option, then make your changes.
The Based On pop-up menu displays the names of other character style sheets. You can use this feature to create families of style sheets.

For example, you could create a style sheet called "Body Copy/Base Character" that uses the same character attributes as your base Body Copy paragraph style sheet and then create variations such as "Body Text/Emphasis," "Body Text/URLs," and so on. If you used the Based On pop-up menu to base each of the variations on "Body Text/Base Character" and you then modified this "parent" style sheet, your changes would be applied to all the variations.
If you want (and you should), you can assign a keyboard shortcut to a style sheet. ( Windows users: Make sure Num Lock is on.)

Hold down any combination of z , Option, and Shift, or Ctrl, Alt, and Shift, and press any number on the keypad. (Letters and non-keypad numbers cannot be used for keyboard shortcuts.)
When you're done specifying the attributes of your style sheet, click OK.

Managing character style sheets

The options displayed in the Character Styles pane's palette menu are the same as those for the Paragraph Styles palette menu, which are explained earlier in this chapter.