Creating and managing text styles

There are several ways to create a new text style:

Build it from scratch—the new text style will have no initial connection to any other text style.
Duplicate it from another style—the new text style will initially be exactly the same as the selected text style but has no connection to that style.
Base it on an existing style—the new text style will use the selected text style as its base. A connection between the styles is retained and a hierarchy is established.

A text style can be modified in two ways:

To create a text style from scratch:

(Optional) Select a portion of text or click inside a paragraph.
On the Text Styles panel, select:
- Create Paragraph Style—to create a new paragraph style.
- Create Character Style—to create a new character style.
- Create Group Style—to create a new group style.
See Text style types for more information.
Adjust the settings in the dialog.
(Optional) In the Edit Text Style dialog, select the Apply style to selection option to apply the style to the text selected in step 1.
Click OK.

To create a text style from an existing style:

On the Text Styles panel, click on a listed style's options menu and select:
- Duplicate—to start with settings exactly the same as the selected style.
- Create Style Based on—to automatically set the dialog's Based on option to the selected style.
Adjust the settings in the dialog.
Click OK.

To edit an existing text style:

On the Text Styles panel, click on a listed style's options menu and select Edit.
Adjust the settings in the dialog.
Click OK.

To update a text style:

With a text tool active, select a portion of text or click inside a paragraph and make any local changes via the context toolbar, Character panel or Paragraph panel.
Do one of the following:
- On the Text context toolbar, select Update Paragraph Style to update the paragraph style applied to the current text to match the local formatting or select Update Character Style to update the character style applied to the current text to match the local formatting.
- On the Text Styles panel, use the equivalent icons at the bottom center of the panel. From any listed style's options menu, select Update

To assign a keyboard shortcut to a text style:

On the Text Styles panel, click on a listed style's options menu and select Edit.
In the dialog, select the Style section and then click inside the Keyboard shortcut box.
Press your required key combination.
Click OK.

The following options are available in the Style section of the Edit Text Style dialog:

Based on—sets the default settings for this style. In a hierarchical sense, the Base on text style is the master style to this subordinate style.
Next style—for paragraph styles, this determines the text style automatically applied to the following paragraph (see note).
Keyboard shortcut—sets the keyboard shortcut which will apply this text style.
Type—determines the predominant nature of the text style.
Show in both panels—if this option is off (default), the text style can only be applied in its predominant way (determined by the Type set above). When selected, a paragraph style can be applied as a character style and vice versa.
Reset Formatting—removes all the settings applied in the Character, Typography and Paragraph sections of this dialog. The settings in this Style section remain unchanged.

Additional Edit Text Style dialog options:

Style name—defines the name the text style will use throughout the app.
Character—assigns character-level attributes to the text style or overwrites those determined by the Based on style. See Character panel for details.
Typography—activates OpenType features for the text style or overwrites those determined by the Based on style. See OpenType font features for details.
Paragraph—assigns paragraph-level attributes to the text style or overwrites those determined by the Based on style. See Paragraph panel for details.
Style settings—lists all the attributes applied to the current text style.
Apply style to selection—applies the current text style to any selected text (if text was selected prior to entering the dialog).