Lesson 4: Working with Styles

InDesign,

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Styles make it easy to create consistent designs across text and objects. Styles also help you simplify adjustments to the formatting of text and objects. By using styles, you can update text or objects across an entire document in a single step.

What you’ll learn in this lesson:

- Creating and applying paragraph, character, and object styles

- Using nested styles

- Updating and editing styles

- Importing styles from other InDesign documents

- Quickly applying styles

- Organizing styles into groups

Styles make it easy to create consistent designs across text and objects. Styles also help you simplify adjustments to the formatting of text and objects. By using styles, you can update text or objects across an entire document in a single step.

Starting up

Before starting, make sure that your tools and panels are consistent by resetting your preferences. See “Resetting the InDesign workspace and preferences” in the Starting up section of this book.

In this lesson, you will work with several files from the id04lessons folder in this lesson. Make sure that you have copied the id04lessons folder onto your hard drivefrom the Digital Classroom Books website. You can download the files fromhttp://www.DigitalClassroomBooks.com/epub/indesigncs6. See “Downloading lesson files” in the Starting up section of this book. This lesson may be easier to follow if the id04lessons folder is on your desktop.

The project

You will use paragraph, character, and object styles to enhance the appearance of a two-page recipe layout and gain an understanding of how Styles make the design process more efficient.

Creating styles saves a significant amount of time and effort as you design and format your document. If you need to make changes to text or objects, styles make it a quick and easy process to update 10 or 10,000 objects that share similar formatting attributes. The initial set-up may take a few minutes when using styles, yet the time savings in the long-run are significant.

In this lesson you will also discover how to import styles from other documents, re-using the design work from these other documents, and keeping a consistent identity across multiple files. You will also learn how to organize your styles using style sets, keeping them organized, and you’ll also find tips for quickly and efficiently applying styles to documents.

Style types

There are several types of styles you can use when designing your documents, including paragraph, character, object, GREP, table, and cell styles. Each type of style applies to different page elements. These styles speed up the process of formatting and changing the appearance of text and page elements, and are especially helpful when working with longer documents. You’ll work with these types of styles when using InDesign:

• • Paragraph styles define text attributes that affect an entire paragraph of text, including line spacing (leading), indents, and alignment. Paragraph styles may also include character attributes such as font family and size that apply to an entire paragraph. Paragraph styles are commonly used for headlines and body copy.
• • Character styles contain character formatting attributes, such as font family, size, and color. These attributes are only applied to a specified range of text. Character styles are commonly used for single words or numbers that must be formatted differently within a paragraph, such as a proper name, technical terms, or numbers used in a list.
• • Object styles apply to page elements such as boxes and lines. For example, sidebars containing text or image frames can be made to look consistent across a layout using object styles.
• • GREP styles are used to format specific content within a paragraph. For example, using a GREP style, you can find a text pattern such as a phone number, and format it so the area code or country code is a different color.
• • Table and Cell styles apply formatting to portions of a table. This lesson is focused primarily on using paragraph, character, and object styles, and table styles are covered in detail in the Adobe InDesign CS6 Digital Classroom book.

In this lesson, you will create customized style definitions and share the styles between different InDesign documents, defining the formatting one time, and reusing the formatting across multiple InDesign files. You will also explore how to create default styles that are available within all new documents you create.

Paragraph styles

Paragraph styles generally include attributes for both characters and paragraphs. When applying a paragraph style, all text within the paragraph is formatted in a single click, specifying the font, size, alignment, spacing, and other text attributes. InDesign identifies a paragraph by locating paragraph returns entered using your keyboard, and even a single word on a line by itself can be considered a paragraph. In this lesson, you’ll start by defining a style, and then applying it to text.

Defining paragraph styles

When building styles, it is useful to see what the style will look like when it is applied. You can format a paragraph to your liking, and then use the formatting you’ve defined as the foundation to create a style that can be reused. You’ll start by building a paragraph style for the body text used in a cookie recipe.

1. Choose File > Open. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the id04lessons folder and select the id0401.indd file. Click Open. A two-page spread from a cookbook opens, displaying pages 72 and 73. The pages displayed are listed in the lower-left corner of your document window and also in the Pages panel.

2. Choose Advanced from the workspace switcher drop-down menu, or choose Window > Workspace > Advanced, then choose Window > Workspace > Reset Advanced to reset the InDesign panels to their default positions for the Advanced workspace. This ensures that your panels are in position, making them easier to locate during this lesson.

3. Choose File > Save As. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the id04lessons folder and type id0401_work.indd in the Name text field. Click Save to save a working copy of this lesson file so you do not overwrite the original lesson.

4. Click the Paragraph Styles button () in the dock on the right side of the workspace to open the Paragraph Styles panel. The styles that have been created and used in this document are listed. This document contains four styles: basic paragraph, callout large, and two recipe-specific styles: rec_steps and rec_yield.

The Paragraph Styles panel lists styles that are available for formatting paragraphs.

5. Select the Type tool () from the Tools panel. Position the cursor over the first paragraph of text located in the middle column on the left-hand page. The paragraph starts with the text, The smell of fresh baked cookies... Click four times to select the entire paragraph.

6. Press the Character Formatting Controls button (A) in the top-left corner of the Control panel located at the top of the workspace, to display the character options. Choose Minion Pro from the Font drop-down menu, and, if necessary, choose Regular from the Font Style drop-down menu. Set the size to 10 pt from the Font Size () drop-down menu.

Setting the character formatting options in the Control panel.

7. Press the Paragraph Formatting Controls button () in the Control panel to display the paragraph formatting options, and type 0.2 in the First Line Left Indent () text field. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to indent the paragraph by 0.2 inches.

In the paragraph formatting options section, type 0.2 in the First Line Left Indent text field.

8. With the paragraph still selected, press the panel menu button () in the upper-right corner of the Paragraph Styles panel and choose New Paragraph Style. The New Paragraph Style dialog box appears.

Use the Paragraph Styles panel menu to create a new style.

9. In the New Paragraph Style dialog box, type body in the Style Name text field, then click to select the Apply Style to Selectioncheck box so that the text you’ve formatted will be connected to the new paragraph style, and then click OK to establish the name of the new style. The body style is added to the list of styles in the Paragraph Styles panel, and uses the formatting you created as the foundation for the style.

Choosing the Apply Style to Selection option also linked the selected text to the new style, and if the style is updated, the selected text will reflect any changes to the formatting.

10. Save the file by choosing File > Save.

Applying paragraph styles

You can now apply the new paragraph style to paragraphs in this document. You can apply the style to individual paragraphs, or multiple paragraphs. Here you will apply the formatting to all the paragraphs in this text frame.

1. With the cursor still within the recipe, click once in the second paragraph. Do not select the text, simply placing the cursor in the paragraph is all that is needed.

2. In the Paragraph Styles panel, select the body style to apply the style to the second paragraph. The style applies to the entire paragraph where the cursor is located, even though the text is not selected.

3. With the cursor still within the recipe, choose Edit > Select All, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS), to select all the text in the frame.

4. In the Paragraph Styles panel, select the body style to apply the style to all selected text. The entire recipe now uses the same character and paragraph formatting as the initial paragraph you formatted.

Format all the text within the text frame with the body style.

To format an individual paragraph, use the Type tool to click within the paragraph to be formatted, then click the style to be applied in the Paragraph styles panel. When applying formatting to a single paragraph, you only need to insert the cursor within the paragraph to be formatted, and do not need to select the entire paragraph.

Character styles

Building character styles is similar to the process you used for creating paragraph styles in the previous exercise. You’ll start by formatting text, and then you’ll define the character style based upon the attributes of the text you have formatted. Character styles affect only character attributes, such as font and size. Character styles are typically used for words that need special treatment, such as bold, italics, or a unique font, and character styles only apply to text that you have selected.

Defining character styles

On the right page of the document you will make the text bold at the start of each step. You’ll format the first step, and then define a style to apply to the others.

1. On page 73 of the recipe layout, use the Type tool () to double-click and highlight the word Create located under the Yield section.

2. Press the Character Format Controls button (A) in the Control panel, and then choose Bold from the Font Style drop-down menu. Keep the text selected.

Use the character portion of the Control panel to set the type style.

3. Press the Character Styles button () in the dock on the right side of the workspace to open the Character Styles panel.

4. With the bold text still highlighted on the page, press the panel menu button () in the upper-right corner of the Character Styles panel, and choose New Character Style.

5. In the New Character Style dialog box, type Bold in the Style name text field. Note that the only attribute being defined by this style in the Style Settings section is “bold.” This is because the Bold attribute is the only difference from the paragraph style that is also applied to this text. This style can be applied to any text using any font to apply the bold style of that font family. Click OK to create a new style. The new style name appears in the Character Styles panel.

Bold is the only attribute being defined in the character style because that is the only attribute that is different from the paragraph style that is applied to the text.

6. Choose File > Save to save your work.

Applying character styles

Applying character styles is also similar to applying paragraph styles. You will highlight the text you want to format, and then click the style name to apply the style.

1. Continuing to work on the right-side of the layout, highlight the text Create the cream under the Yield section.

2. In the Character Styles panel select the style Bold, applying the new style to the selected text.

Applying the character style.

3. Highlight the phrase Mix dry ingredients and apply the Bold style by selecting it in the Character Styles panel.

When both character and a paragraph styles are applied to the same text, the attributes defined in the character style take precedence over the attributes defined in the paragraph style. In this exercise, the Bold attribute of the character style is applied even though the rec_steps paragraph style is applied and uses the Regular attribute.

Using nested styles

Nested styles combine character styles with paragraph styles, so you can apply both character and paragraph styles in a single step. For example, you can use a nested style to make the first word of a paragraph bold and blue, while the rest of the paragraph is regular and black.

In this exercise, you will create a nested style by modifying one of the existing paragraph styles so it also includes a character style for the initial portion of the paragraph.

1. Using the Type tool (), click in the bottom paragraph on the right page, which starts with the text, Bake in oven. If you closed the Paragraph Styles panel, click the Paragraph Styles button to open it, or choose Type > Paragraph Styles.

2. In the Paragraph Styles panel, double-click the rec_steps style to open the Paragraph Style Options dialog box for this style.

3. Select the Drop Caps and Nested Styles option along the left side of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box, then click the New Nested Style button. A new nested style is added to the nested style section of this dialog box.

4. In the Nested Styles section’s drop-down menu, choose Bold to select the character style you created in the previous exercise. Keep the dialog box open, and next you will specify the characters to which the Bold style will be applied.

5. Click to select Words located to the right of the Through 1 option. Change Words to : by pressing the Colon key (:) on your keyboard.

The Bold style will apply to all text up to, and including, the colon (:). You can define where nested styles stop, or string together multiple nested styles to create different formatting for the start of a paragraph or line of text.

Creating a nested style to automate text formatting.

If you do not replace Words with a colon, only the first word of the recipe step will have the character style applied to it.

6. Click the Preview check box in the lower-left corner of the dialog box to view the changes in your document. If necessary, reposition the dialog box to view your page.

7. Click OK to close the Paragraph style options dialog box.

If the formatting isn’t being applied as expected, select all four paragraphs under the Yield: 8 dozen heading and in the Character Styles panel choose none to remove any existing character styles. If character styles have been manually applied to the text, it prevents nested styles from being able to format the text.

8. Choose File > Save to save your work. Keep the file open for the next part of the lesson.

Updating styles

You have applied multiple attributes to text in a single click using styles. Next you will see how Styles save time when changing or updating formatting, making it easier to keep your text consistent across your documents. You will update all text associated with a style by modifying the style definition. Here you will change the size of the recipe steps. By making a single update, all text using the rec_steps style will be updated. Although you are working with two pages in this example, the same time-saving technique works just as easily on documents with 10 or 100 pages.

1. Continuing to use the Type tool (), click in the bottom paragraph on the right page, which starts with the text, Bake in oven.

2. In the Paragraph Styles panel, the rec_steps paragraph style is highlighted, indicating that the style is applied to this paragraph. Double-click the style to open the Paragraph Style Options dialog box.

3. Click to select Basic Character Formats on the left side of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box.

4. Choose 11 points from the Size drop-down menu, and then choose Auto from the Leading drop-down menu to change the vertical line spacing.

5. Select the Character Color option along the left side of the dialog box, and then choose cookie color from the list of available colors.

Changing Paragraph Style Options attributes updates all paragraphs to which the style has been applied.

6. If necessary, click the Preview check box in the lower-left corner to see the changes in the document as you make them.

7. Click OK to commit the changes and close the dialog box. All text formatted with the rec_steps style has been updated.

The updated text after the paragraph style is changed.

Loading styles from another InDesign document

After you create a style, you can use it in other InDesign documents. This lets you reuse your styles and formatting in other files, keeping their appearance consistent, and saving time because you do not need to recreate similar styles. The Paragraph Styles and Character Styles panel menus both include an option to load styles from other documents. Here you will import previously created styles used in another recipe.

1. With the document open, choose Load All Text Styles from the Paragraph Styles panel menu (). The Open a File dialog box appears.

If you only want to use paragraph or character styles from another document, you can choose to load only these styles by selecting either Load Paragraph Styles or Load Character Styles from the respective panel menus. For this example, you are importing all styles created in another document.

2. In the Open a File dialog box, choose the file id0402.indd from the id04lessons folder. This is the document from which you’ll import the styles. Click Open, and the Load Styles dialog box appears.

To see the entire contents of the Load Styles dialog box, you may need to click and drag the lower-right corner of the dialog box until all the styles available for importing are visible.

The Load Styles dialog box appears after selecting a document from which you want to import styles. Use the Load Styles dialog box to select the styles you want to import into your document.

If you want to import styles that use the same name as existing styles in your document, the Load Styles dialog box lets you choose how to handle the conflicting names. The “Use Incoming Definition” option causes the imported style definition to be used, replacing the definition used in your current document. The “Auto-Rename” option causes the imported style to be renamed, allowing you to use both the existing and imported styles. Click the words “Use Incoming Definition” to see the drop-down list, where you can change it to the “Auto-Rename” option. The Incoming Style Definition boxes below each style’s name displays the highlighted style’s definition for easy comparison.

3. Click the Uncheck All button, deselecting all styles in the Load Styles dialog box, then click to select the rec_head, rec_list, and Head styles by clicking the check box to the left of the name of each style.

You can import all the styles in a document or choose to only import selected styles. Only the styles you selected will be imported into your document.

Check the styles you want to import into your document.

4. Click OK to close the Load Styles dialog box. The Paragraph Styles panel now includes the imported styles rec_head, rec_list, and Head, which can be used in this document.

5. Choose File > Save to save your work.

Quick Apply

Using Quick Apply allows you to rapidly apply styles without needing to locate them in one of the styles panels. You’ll use a key command and type the first few letters of a style’s name, applying the style.

1. In the Pages panel, double-click the left side of the document spread, page 72.

2. Using the Type tool (), click to place the cursor in the text frame located at the top of the left page, in the text Molasses Won’t Slow Eating These Gingersnaps.

3. Press Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Command+Return (Mac OS). The Quick Apply window opens.

You can also use the Quick Apply button () located in the upper-right corner of the Paragraph Styles, Character Styles, or Control panels.

4. Using your keyboard, type hea in the window’s search field. The Head style appears at the top of the list. Press the Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) key on your keyboard to apply the style to the text. The Quick Apply window closes.

Because paragraph styles format an entire paragraph, you don’t need to select or highlight the text to apply the paragraph style.

The Quick Apply window makes applying styles faster and easier.

5. In the Pages panel, double-click the right side of the document spread, page 73.

6. Using the Type tool, click to place the cursor in the text frame located at the top-right corner of the page, in the line of text that reads Cookie Color.

7. Click the Quick Apply button in the Control panel and type rec in the text field. Three styles starting with rec appear in the list. If necessary, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate to and highlight the rec_head style if it isn’t already highlighted, then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to apply the style.

You can also use Quick Apply to access menu commands and panel options even if you have forgotten the location where the command is accessed—you only need to know the name of the command you want to access.

8. Continuing to work in the text frame in the upper-right corner of the layout, click to place the cursor in the paragraph belowCookie Color. Click the Quick Apply button along the right side of the Control panel, or use the keyboard command Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Command+Return (Mac OS), and type the letters ca in the text field. Select the callout large style, and then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to apply the callout large style to the text.

Applying the callout large style to the text.

9. Choose File > Save to save your work.

Organizing styles into groups

If you create documents that contain a large number of styles, you can organize them into groups to make them easier to manage and locate. Here you will organize the recipe’s styles into a group.

1. Choose Edit > Deselect All to make sure nothing in the document is selected.

If the Deselect option is disabled, you have nothing selected and can proceed to the next step. You can also make certain nothing is selected by using the Selection tool () and clicking on an empty area of the pasteboard, outside the document page area.

2. In the Paragraph Styles panel, click the rec_steps style to select it. Press and hold the Ctrl key (Windows) or Command key (Mac OS) and select the remainder of the rec paragraph styles.

You may need to expand the panel to see all the styles. You can expand the panel by clicking and dragging the lower-right corner of the panel.

3. Press the Paragraph Styles panel menu button (). Choose New Group From Styles to create a new group from the selected styles. The New Style Group dialog box appears.

4. In the New Style Group dialog box, type recipe in the Name text field, then click OK. The group folder now appears open in the Paragraph Styles panel.

All recipe styles are now grouped within the recipe folder.

You can also create style groups without first selecting styles, and then manually drag styles into the group. You can also create subgroups, which are groups within groups.

5. Click the arrow to the left of the Folder icon () in the recipe style group listing to hide the styles in the group, and then click it again to display the styles.

6. Choose File > Save to save your work.

Object styles

You’ll now work on the overall layout of the document and use object styles. Object styles can be applied to frames, lines, and other graphic elements. Object styles apply to an entire frame, not just text, and can include attributes such as background color, borders, and effects such as drop shadows. Object styles that are applied to a text frame can also include paragraph styles.

Creating object styles

In this exercise, you’ll format the frame surrounding the Cookie Color text on the right side of the layout, and then use this formatting as the foundation for an object style.

1. Choose the Selection tool () from the Tools panel, and then click to select the Cookie Color frame in the upper-right corner of the layout.

2. Choose Object > Text Frame Options. Confirm the Make all settings the same button (), located to the right of the Top and Bottom text fields, is selected. This applies the same value to all the text fields. In the Text Frame Options dialog box, type0.125 in for the Top Inset Spacing and press the Tab key on your keyboard. Keep this dialog box open for the next step in this exercise.

3. In the Vertical Justification section of the Text Frame Options dialog box, choose Center from the Align drop-down menu, centering the text vertically within the frame. Click OK to apply the formatting.

Use the Text Frame Options dialog box to apply attributes to a selected text frame.

4. Click the Object Styles button () in the dock on the right side of the workspace or choose Window > Object Styles to open the Object Styles panel.

If necessary, click and drag the bottom-right corner of the Object Styles panel to display more available styles.

5. With the Cookie Color frame still selected, click the Object Styles panel menu button () and choose New Object Style. The New Object Style dialog box opens.

6. In the New Object Style dialog box, type callout box in the Style Name text field and click the Apply Style to Selection check box. Click OK to create the new object style, and then choose File > Save to save your work. Keep the file open.

Name your new object style in the New Object Styles dialog box.

Applying an object style

Applying an object style is similar to applying text styles: start by selecting the object to be formatted, then choose the style to be applied to the object. In this exercise, you will apply the callout box style to another frame in the layout.

1. In the Pages panel, double-click the left side of the document spread, page 72.

2. Using the Selection tool (), select the frame that contains the headline that starts with the text Light Color in the bottom-left corner of the layout.

3. Apply the callout box style to the frame by clicking the style in the Object Styles panel.

Applying the object style to the text frame containing the headline and byline formats the frame and its contents in one click.

4. Choose File > Save, or press Ctrl+S (Windows) or Command+S (Mac OS), to save your work.

Changing an object style

When you change an object style’s definition, you update all elements to which the style is applied. In the following steps, you will update the object style by changing the background color of the frames.

1. With the headline and byline frames still selected, in the Object Styles panel double-click the callout box style to open the Object Style Options dialog box.

2. In the Basic Attributes section click to select the Fill option. The available color swatches are displayed.

3. Click to choose the swatch named cookie color to add it to the callout box object style. You may need to scroll through the list of color swatches to see this color.

Modifying the object style definition to add a fill color.

4. Click OK. Both frames now reflect the changes to the background color.

Finishing up

As a review, you’ll import some additional styles and review the process of applying them to your document.

1. With the id0401_work.indd document open, choose Load All Text Styles from the Paragraph Styles panel menu. The Open a File dialog box appears.

2. In the Open a File dialog box, choose the file id0402.indd from the id04lessons folder. Click Open, and the Load Styles dialog box appears.

3. In the Load Styles dialog box, select only the styles named callout and byline to import these into your document. Click OK to close the dialog box and import the styles.

4. Choose the Type tool () from the Tools panel, and then click to place the cursor within the words by Larry Happy located at the bottom of the left page, and then click the byline style to apply it to this text.

5. In the Pages panel, double-click the right side of the document spread, page 73.

6. Click and drag to select the ingredients, selecting from sugar through cinnamon. In the Paragraph Styles panel, click to apply the rec_list paragraph style to the ingredients.

7. Click to place the cursor within the words Molasses Gingersnaps located above the ingredients, and then click the rec_head style in the Paragraph Styles panel to apply the style to this text.

8. Choose File > Save to save your work.

GREP Styles

In the previous lesson, “Working with Text and Type” you discovered that GREP provides powerful options for finding and changing text. GREP styles use the same expressions to change formatting of specific text. In the following exercise, you’ll modify an existing style so that certain numbers are formatted in bold, making them easier to read.

1. In the Pages panel, double-click the right page in the Spread, page 73, to center this page in the document window.

2. Click within any of the bottom four paragraphs in the Molasses Gingersnaps recipe.

3. In the Paragraph Styles panel, right-click the rec_steps paragraph style and choose Edit “rec_steps”. The Paragraph Style Options dialog box is displayed.

4. Click on the GREP Style category on the left side of the dialog box, and then click the New Grep Style button. A new entry is created in the GREP Style section of the dialog box. Options for applying a style to specific text are then listed in the dialog box.

5. Next to Apply Style, click [None] and choose New Character Style from the drop-down menu. Name the Style Myriad Bold, and then click to select the Basic Character Formats section and set the Font Family to Myriad Pro and the Font Style to Bold. Click OK. The new character style you created now displays next to Apply Style, indicating this style will be applied to text specified using GREP. Keep the Paragraph Style Options dialog box open.

Creating a Character Style dynamically from within the Paragraph Style Options dialog box.

6. Click the area to the right of To Text and delete any content that is there. Click on the @ symbol to the right and choose Wildcards > Any Digit. This will search for any digit, or number, within the text that has the rec_steps Paragraph Style applied to it. Click the @ symbol again and choose Repeat > One or More Times. This GREP expression looks for any digit that occurs one or more times in a row within the rec_steps styled text. Click OK.

Building a GREP expression in the Paragraph Style options dialog box.

Note that any numeric character that appears within the recipe steps is now bold and uses the font Myriad Pro to make it easier to identify key areas in the steps of the recipe that need special attention.

This GREP Style formats any numerical digit that exists within this Paragraph Style, applying Myriad Pro Bold to the number.

7. Choose File > Save to save your work, and then choose File > Close.

Congratulations! You have finished the lesson.

Self study

To practice creating styles, create your own layout using your favorite family recipes. Import the styles from this lesson and apply them to the text and frames in your own recipes. Import the object styles as well.

Review

Questions

1. What is the difference between character and paragraph styles?

2. What is a nested style and why is it used?

3. What is the keyboard shortcut to access the Quick Apply option?

4. If there are multiple styles in a document and scrolling becomes tedious, how can you organize the styles?

Answers

1. Paragraph styles apply to all text between paragraph returns, while character styles apply only to selected text. Character styles do not include paragraph attributes such as indenting, alignment, or tabs.

2. A nested style is a paragraph style that also includes one or more character styles, that formats specific areas of a paragraph style. Nested styles allow you to combine multiple formatting steps into a single click.

3. You can apply the Quick Apply option by pressing Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Command+Return (Mac OS).

4. You can use style groups to organize your styles. They allow you to group together styles and determine which styles are displayed or hidden.