Adobe InDesign CC 2015 - Manual (Page 303)

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Styles
Last updated 6/6/2015
Open the Paragraph Styles panel
❖ Choose Type > Paragraph Styles, or click the Paragraph Styles tab, which appears by default on the right side of the
application window.
Open the Character Styles panel
❖ Choose Type > Character Styles, or click the Character Styles tab on the right side of the application window.
Add paragraph and character styles
If the styles you want already exist in another InDesign, InCopy, or word-processing document, you can import those
styles for use in your current document. If you are working with a stand-alone story, you can also define character and
paragraph styles in InCopy.
Define paragraph or character styles
1 If you want to base a new style on the formatting of existing text, select that text or place the insertion point in it.
If a group is selected in the Styles panel, the new style will be part of that group.
2 Choose New Paragraph Style from the Paragraph Styles panel menu, or choose New Character Style from the
Character Styles panel menu.
3 For Style Name, type a name for your new style.
4 For Based On, select which style the current style is based on.
Note: The Based On option lets you link styles to each other, so that changes in one style ripple through the styles that
are based on it. By default, new styles are based on [No Paragraph Style] for paragraph styles or [None] for character
styles, or on the style of any currently selected text.
5 For Next Style (Paragraph Styles panel only), specify which style is applied after the current style when you press
Enter or Return.
6 To add a keyboard shortcut, position the insertion point in the Shortcut box, and make sure Num Lock is turned
on. Then hold down any combination of Shift, Alt, and Ctrl (Windows), or Shift, Option, and Command (Mac OS),
and press a number on the numeric keypad. You cannot use letters or non-keypad numbers for defining style
shortcuts. If your keyboard does not have a Num Lock key, you cannot add keyboard shortcuts to styles.
7 If you want the new style to be applied to the selected text, select Apply Style To Selection.
8 To specify the formatting attributes, click a category (such as Basic Character Formats) on the left, and specify the
attributes you want to add to your style.
When specifying a Character Color in the Style Options dialog box, you can create a new color by double-clicking
the fill or stroke box.
9 For character styles, attributes you do not specify are ignored; when the style is applied, text will retain the paragraph
style formatting for that attribute. To remove an attribute setting from a character style:
• From a setting’s menu, choose (Ignore).
• In a text box, delete the option text.
• In a check box, click until you see a small box (Windows) or a hyphen (-) (Mac OS).
• For a character color, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) and click the color swatch.
10 When you’ve finished specifying the formatting attributes, click OK.