InDesign

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Define paragraph and 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] or [None], 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.
  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.

Styles you create appear only in the current document. If no document is open, the styles you create will appear in all new documents.