Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator use slightly different methods for applying named colors. Illustrator lets you specify a named color as either global or nonglobal, and InDesign treats all unnamed colors as nonglobal, process colors.

The InDesign equivalents to global colors are swatches. Swatches make it easier to modify color schemes without having to locate and adjust each individual object. This is especially useful in standardized, production-driven documents like magazines. Because InDesign colors are linked to swatches in the Swatches panel, any change to a swatch affects all objects to which a color is applied.

The InDesign equivalents to nonglobal swatches are unnamed colors. Unnamed colors do not appear in the Swatches panel, and they do not automatically update throughout the document when the color is edited in the Color panel. You can, however, add an unnamed color to the Swatches panel later.

Named and unnamed colors only affect how a particular color updates in your document, never how colors separate or behave when you move them between applications.