Creating and managing text styles

Text styles can be created in the Text Styles panel, ready for applying to text. They can also be managed and modified to improve your design and workflow.

There are several ways to create a new text style:

  1. build it from scratch—the new text style will have no initial connection to any other text style.
  2. 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.
  3. 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:

Create Paragraph Style Create Character Style Create Group Style To create a text style from scratch:
  1. Deselect any text.
  2. 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.
  3. Adjust the settings in the dialog.
  4. Click OK.

The new 'empty' character and paragraph styles named [No Style], are applied to the portion of text.

Options menu To create a text style from an existing style:
  1. (Optional) Format and select a portion of text or click inside a paragraph.
  2. 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.
  3. Adjust the settings in the dialog.
  4. Click OK.

By default, the new style will be applied to the portion of text because Apply style to selection is checked in the dialog.

Options menu To edit an existing text style:
  1. On the Text Styles panel, click on a listed style's options menu and select Edit.
  2. Adjust the settings in the dialog.
  3. Click OK.
Update Paragraph Style Update Character Style To update a text style:
  1. With text tool, select a portion of text or click inside a paragraph and make any local changes via the context toolbar, Character panel or Paragraph panel.
  2. 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
Options menu To assign a keyboard shortcut to a text style:
  1. On the Text Styles panel, click on a listed style's options menu and select Edit.
  2. In the dialog, select the Style section and then click inside the Keyboard shortcut box.
  3. Press your required key combination.
  4. Click OK.
Panel Preferences To import text styles from documents:
  1. Do one of the following:
    • From the Text Styles panel, go to Panel Preferences and select Import Styles.
    • Select Text>Text Styles>Import Text Styles.
  2. From the dialog, navigate to and select a document containing the text styles you would like to import and click Open.
  3. From the Imported Text Styles dialog, the text styles appearing in that document will be listed, giving you the option to rename, replace, view, and select the individual text styles within the document you would like to import.

The imported text styles replace existing styles or are added as new styles to the Text Styles panel.

Options

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

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