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.

If you want apply the new style to the currently selected text, enable Apply style to selection 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. Select text that is formatted with the text style.
  2. Adjust local formatting via the context toolbar, Character panel or Paragraph panel.
  3. On the context toolbar or the Text Styles panel, select Update Paragraph Style or Update Character Style as appropriate.

The text style is updated to match the local formatting.

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:

SEE ALSO: