9. Working with Styles
Lesson Overview
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:
• Create and apply paragraph styles.
• Create and apply character styles.
• Nest character styles inside paragraph styles.
• Create and apply object styles.
• Create and apply cell styles.
• Create and apply table styles.
• Globally update paragraph, character, object, cell, and table styles.
• Import and apply styles from other InDesign documents.
• Create style groups.
This lesson will take about 1 hour to complete.
Download the project files for this lesson from the Lesson & Update Files tab on your Account page at www.peachpit.com and store them on your computer in a convenient location, as described in the “Getting Started” section of this book.
Your Account page is also where you’ll find any updates to the chapters or to the lesson files. Look on the Lesson & Update Files tab to access the most current content.
With Adobe InDesign, you can create styles—sets of formatting attributes—and apply them in one step to text, objects, tables, and more. Any changes to a style automatically affect all of the text or objects to which the style is applied. Styles offer a quick, consistent method for formatting layouts.
Getting started
In this lesson, you’ll create and apply styles for a few pages of a catalog for the Expedition Tea Company. Styles are collections of attributes that allow you to consistently apply formatting across documents in one step. (For example, a Body Text paragraph style specifies attributes such as font, size, leading, and alignment.) The catalog pages here contain text, tables, and objects that you will format and then use as the basis for creating styles. Later, if you were to place more catalog content, you could format the new text, tables, and objects with one click using styles.
Note
If you have not already downloaded the project files for this lesson to your computer from your Account page, make sure to do so now. See “Getting Started” at the beginning of the book.
1. To ensure that the preference and default settings of your Adobe InDesign program match those used in this lesson, move the InDesign Defaults file to a different folder following the procedure in “Saving and restoring the InDesign Defaults file” on page 3.
2. Start Adobe InDesign. To ensure that the panels and menu commands match those used in this lesson, choose Window > Workspace > [Advanced], and then choose Window > Workspace > Reset Advanced.
To begin working, you’ll open an existing InDesign document.
3. Choose File > Open, and open the 09_Start.indd file, in the Lesson09 folder, located inside the Lessons folder within the InDesignCIB folder on your hard disk. If the Missing Fonts dialog box displays, click Sync Fonts.
4. Choose File > Save As, rename the file 09_Styles.indd, and save it in the Lesson09 folder. Scroll to view all the pages.
5. To display the document at a higher resolution, choose View > Display Performance > High Quality Display.
6. If you want to see what the finished document will look like, open the 09_End.indd file in the same folder. You can leave this document open to act as a guide as you work. When you’re ready to resume working on the lesson document, click its tab in the upper-left corner of the document window.
Basic styles
Applying styles
Tip
Keyboard shortcuts are especially handy for formatting text. A quick way to remember shortcuts is to sync them up to the style names and usage. For example, if you create a paragraph style named “1 Headline” with the shortcut Shift+1, it’s easy to remember the shortcut because it’s often the first style you apply.
Overriding manual formatting with styles
Modifying and redefining styles
Sharing styles
Creating and applying paragraph styles
Paragraph styles let you apply and globally update text formatting to speed up production and create a more consistent overall design. Paragraph styles incorporate all elements of text formatting, including character attributes such as font, size, style, and color, along with paragraph attributes such as indents, alignment, tabs, and hyphenation. They differ from character styles in that they are applied to entire paragraphs at once, not just to selected characters.
Tip
When working on longer documents, such as books and catalogs, using styles can save hours of time in manual formatting. A common way to get started is to select all the text in a document and apply a “body text” paragraph style with one click. You can then go through the text and apply heading paragraph styles and character styles with keyboard shortcuts.
Creating a paragraph style
In this exercise, you’ll create and apply a paragraph style to selected paragraphs. First, you will format the text in the document locally (that is, not based on a style). Then, you will have InDesign pick up this existing formatting and build it into a new paragraph style.
1. Choose Layout > Next Page to display page 2 of 09_Styles.indd in the document window. Adjust the view scale so you can easily see the text.
2. Using the Type tool (
), drag to select the “Loose Leaf Teas” subhead, which follows the introductory paragraph on page 2.
Tip
The easiest way to create a paragraph style is to format a sample paragraph using local (not style-based) formatting, and then create a new style based on that sample paragraph. Effectively, this lets you see the style before you build it. You can then efficiently use the new style in the rest of the document.
3. If necessary, click the Character Formatting Controls icon (
) in the Control panel. Specify the following:
• Type Style: Semibold
• Size: 18 pt
Leave all other settings at their defaults.
4. In the Control panel, click Paragraph Formatting Controls (
), and increase the Space Before (
) to p3.
Now you’ll create a paragraph style using this formatting so that you can use it to format the other subheads in the document.
5. Make sure that the text insertion point is still in the text you just formatted. If it’s not already visible, open the Paragraph Styles panel by choosing Type > Paragraph Styles.
The Paragraph Styles panel already has a few styles provided for you, including the default, [Basic Paragraph].
6. In the Paragraph Styles panel, create a new paragraph style by choosing New Paragraph Style from the panel menu. The New Paragraph Style dialog box opens, displaying the formatting you just applied to the subhead in the Style Settings section.
Tip
If you change the Based On style—for example, by changing the font—the changes update all styles based on that style. Unique characteristics of styles based on other styles are maintained. Basing styles on other styles is helpful when creating a series of related styles, such as Body Copy, Bulleted Copy, and so on. If the font of the Body Copy style changes, all related styles will have the font updated as well.
In the New Paragraph Style dialog box, notice that the new style is based on the Intro Body style. Since Intro Body was applied to the subhead when you created the style, the new style is automatically based on Intro Body. By using the Based On option in the General section of the New Paragraph Style dialog box, you can use an existing style as a starting point for a new style.
7. In the Style Name box at the top of the dialog box, type Head 2 to name this style as the second largest headline.
To speed up text formatting while typing in InDesign, you can specify a Next Style for a paragraph style. Each time you press Enter or Return, InDesign automatically applies the Next Style. For example, your headline style might automatically be followed by your body paragraph style.
8. Select Intro Body from the Next Style menu, because this is the style used for the text following each Head 2 headline.
You can also create keyboard shortcuts for easily applying styles in InDesign.
Note
If your keyboard lacks a numeric keypad, you can skip this step.
9. Click in the Shortcut box, hold down Shift (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and press 9 on the numeric keypad of your keyboard. (InDesign requires the use of a modifier key for style shortcuts.) Note that in Windows the Num Lock key on the keypad must be down to create or apply style shortcuts.
10. Select Apply Style To Selection to apply this new style to the text you just formatted.
Tip
If you don’t select Apply Style To Selection, the new style appears in your Paragraph Styles panel, but it is not automatically applied to the selected text you used to create the style.
11. Click OK to close the New Paragraph Style dialog box.
The new Head 2 style appears in the Paragraph Styles panel and is highlighted to indicate that it’s applied to the selected paragraph.
12. In the Paragraph Styles panel, click the arrow next to the Heads style group to open it. Then, drag the Head 2 style up between Head 1 and Head 3.
13. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Applying a paragraph style
Now you’ll apply your paragraph style to other paragraphs in the document.
1. If necessary, scroll to the right to see the right-facing page of the spread.
2. Using the Type tool (), click to place an insertion point anywhere within “Tea Gift Collections.”
Note
You can use the keyboard shortcut you defined earlier (Shift+9 or Command+9) to apply the Head 2 style as well. To apply styles in Windows, be sure the Num Lock key on the keypad is down.
3. Click once on the Head 2 style in the Paragraph Styles panel to apply the style to the paragraph. The text attributes change to reflect the paragraph style.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to apply the Head 2 style to “Teapots and Tea Accessories” on page 3.
5. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Creating and applying character styles
In the previous exercise, paragraph styles allowed you to apply character and paragraph formatting to text with a single click or a keystroke. Similarly, character styles are a way to apply multiple attributes—such as font, size, and color—to text using a single action. Unlike paragraph styles, which format the entire paragraph, character styles apply formatting to selected characters such as a word or phrase.
Tip
Character styles are helpful for lead-in characters such as bullets, numbers in numbered lists, and drop caps. They are also useful for emphasizing text within body copy—for example, the names of stocks are often in bold and small caps.
Creating a character style
Now you will create and apply a character style to selected text in the document. This demonstrates how character styles can make your work more efficient and consistent.
1. On page 2, scroll to view the first paragraph.
2. If it’s not already visible, open the Character Styles panel by choosing Type > Character Styles.
The only style listed in this panel is the default, [None].
As you did with the paragraph style in the previous section, you’ll build a character style based on existing text formatting. This approach lets you see the formatting before you create the style. In this case, you’ll format the Expedition Tea Company name and build it into a character style, so that it can be reused efficiently throughout the document.
3. Using the Type tool (), select the words “Expedition Tea Company” on page 2.
4. In the Control panel, click Character Formatting Controls ().
5. From the Font Style menu, choose Semibold, and then click Small Caps (
).
Now that the text is formatted, you’ll create a new character style.
6. Click Create New Style at the bottom of the Character Styles panel.
7. Double-click the new Character Style 1 that displays in the Character Styles panel. The Character Style Options dialog box opens.
8. In the Style Name box at the top of the dialog box, type Company Name to define the style’s purpose.
As you did for the paragraph style you created, now you’ll create a keyboard shortcut for easy application of this style.
Note
If your keyboard lacks a numeric keypad, you can skip this step.
9. Click in the Shortcut box, hold down Shift (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and press 8 on the numeric keypad of your keyboard. In Windows, be sure that the Num Lock key on the keypad is down.
10. Click Basic Character Formats in the list at the left to see what the character style includes.
Tip
Character styles only include differences, such as All Caps, from the attributes specified in the paragraph style. You can apply this character style to text formatted with any paragraph style, with any character attributes, and All Caps will be applied. This means you can have a single character style for Bold text, for example.
11. Click OK to close the Character Style Options dialog box. The new Company Name style appears in the Character Styles panel.
12. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Applying a character style
You’re ready to apply your character style to selected text already placed in the document. As with paragraph styles, using character styles prevents you from having to manually apply multiple type attributes to each instance of text.
1. Scroll to the right to view the right-facing page of the first spread.
To maintain a consistent look for the company name, you’ll apply the Company Name character style.
2. Using the Type tool (), select the words “Expedition Tea Company” in the first paragraph of body text.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut you defined earlier (Shift+8 or Command+8) to apply the Company Name style.
3. In the Character Styles panel, click once on the Company Name style to apply it to this text. You should see the text change to reflect the character style you created.
4. Using either the Character Styles panel or the keyboard shortcut, apply the Company Name style to the words “Expedition Tea Company” in the second body paragraph as well.
Leave the Character Styles panel open for the next exercise.
5. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Applying Styles with Quick Apply
Nesting character styles inside paragraph styles
To make the use of styles more convenient and powerful, InDesign lets you nest character styles within paragraph styles. These nested styles allow you to apply distinct character formatting to specific portions of a paragraph—such as the first character, the second word, or the first line—at the same time you apply a paragraph style. This makes nested styles ideal for creating run-in headings, where the first portion of a line or paragraph is styled differently from the rest of the line or paragraph. In fact, anytime you can define a pattern of formatting within a paragraph, such as applying italic type style until reaching the first period, you can probably automate the formatting with a nested style.
Tip
You can use the incredibly powerful nested styles feature to automatically apply different formatting within a paragraph according to a specific pattern. For example, in a table of contents, you can automatically apply bold to the text, change the tracking in the tab leader (the dots that lead to the page number), and change the font and color of the page number.
Creating character styles for nesting
To create a nested style, you need to first create both a character style and a paragraph style in which to nest it. In this section, you’ll create two character styles for nesting, and then nest them within the paragraph style Tea Body, which already exists.
1. Double-click page 4 in the Pages panel, then choose View > Fit Page In Window.
If the body copy is too small to view, zoom in to the first paragraph under the “Black Tea” heading, beginning with “Earl Grey.” In this exercise, you’ll create two nested styles to distinguish the tea name from the country where it was grown. Notice that a set of colons (::) separates the name and country, and a bullet (•) appears after the region. These characters will be important when creating your nested styles later in this section.
2. Using the Type tool (), select the words “Earl Grey” in the first column.
3. If necessary, click the Character Formatting Controls icon () in the Control panel. Choose Bold from the Type Style menu. Leave all other settings at their defaults.
Formatting text by specifying options in the Control, Paragraph, and Character panels—rather than by applying styles—is called local formatting. This locally formatted text is now ready to serve as the basis for a new character style.
4. In the Character Styles panel, choose New Character Style from the panel menu. The New Character Style dialog box opens, displaying the formatting you applied.
5. In the Style Name box at the top of the dialog box, type Tea Name to define the text to which the style will be applied.
To make the tea name stand out a little more, you’ll change the color from black to burgundy.
6. From the categories on the left side of the dialog box, choose Character Color.
7. In the Character Color settings that appear on the right side of the dialog box, select the burgundy color swatch (C = 43, M = 100, Y = 100, K = 30).
8. Click OK to close the New Character Style dialog box. You should see the new Tea Name style appear in the Character Styles panel.
Now you’ll create a second character style for nesting.
9. To the right of the “Earl Grey” text you just formatted, select the text “Sri Lanka.” Using the Character panel (Type menu) or the Control panel, change the Font Style to Italic.
10. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to create a new character style called Country Name. When finished, click OK to close the New Character Style dialog box. The new Country Name style appears in the Character Styles panel.
11. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
You have created two new character styles. Using these along with the existing Tea Body paragraph style, you are ready to create and apply your nested style.
Creating a nested style
When you create a nested style within an existing paragraph style, you’re basically specifying a secondary set of rules for InDesign to follow while formatting a paragraph. In this exercise, you’ll build a nested style into the Tea Body style using one of the two character styles you created in the previous exercise.
Tip
In addition to nested styles, InDesign provides nested line styles. These let you specify formatting for individual lines in a paragraph—such as a drop cap followed by small caps, which is common in the lead paragraphs of magazine articles. If the text reflows, InDesign adjusts the formatting to encompass only the specified lines. The controls for creating nested line styles are in the Drop Caps And Nested Styles panel of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box.
1. If necessary, position page 4 in the center of the document window.
2. If the Paragraph Styles panel is not visible, choose Type > Paragraph Styles.
3. In the Paragraph Styles panel, double-click the Tea Body style to open the Paragraph Style Options dialog box.
4. From the categories on the left side of the dialog box, select Drop Caps And Nested Styles.
5. In the Nested Styles section, click the New Nested Style button to create a new nested style.
A nested style that applies the [None] character style through 1 Word appears.
6. Click the [None] style to display a menu. Select the Tea Name character style; this is the first nested style in the sequence.
7. Click the word “through” to reveal another menu. This menu contains only two choices: Through and Up To. The Tea Name character style needs to be applied up to the first colon (:) after Earl Grey, so select Up To.
8. Click the number 1 next to Up To to activate a text box into which you can type a number. The number defines how many elements the style applies through or up to. Although there are two colons, you only need to reference the first colon, so leave this as the default, 1.
9. Click Words to reveal another text box and menu. Click the menu button to the right of the box to view elements to which the style can be applied, including sentences, characters, and spaces. Select and delete the word “Words,” and then type a colon (:) in the box.
10. In the lower-left corner, select Preview and move the Paragraph Style Options dialog box so that you can see the columns of text. The name for each tea should be bold and burgundy up to (but not including) the first colon. Click OK.
11. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Adding a second nested style
Now you’ll add another nested style, but first you need to copy a bullet character from the page. Within the nested style you are creating, the formatting switch takes place up until a bullet character is encountered—but you cannot always type a bullet within a dialog box, so you may need to paste it.
Note
On a Mac, you can copy and paste the bullet or you can press Option+8 to insert a bullet in the field.
1. In the first column under “Black Tea,” navigate to the bullet character after “Sri Lanka.” Select it and choose Edit > Copy.
2. In the Paragraph Styles panel, double-click the Tea Body style. In the Drop Caps And Nested Styles section of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box, click the New Nested Style button to create another new nested style.
3. Repeat steps 6 through 9 of “Creating a nested style” to set up your new nested style with the following formatting:
• First option: Choose Country Name.
• Second option: Choose Up To.
• Third option: Leave as the default, 1.
• Fourth option: Select and delete “Words” and enter the bullet character by pasting the bullet you copied (Edit > Paste).
4. If necessary, select Preview in the lower-left corner. Drag the Paragraph Style Options dialog box out of the way so you can see that each country name is italicized. Notice that the two colons between the tea name and country are also italicized—formatting not specified in the design.
To fix the italicized colons, you’ll create another nested style that applies [None] to the colons.
5. Click the New Nested Style button to create another nested style.
6. Repeat steps 6 through 9 of “Creating a nested style” to set up your new nested style with the following formatting:
• First option: Choose [None].
• Second option: Choose Through.
• Third option: Type 2.
• Fourth option: Type : [colon].
You now have a third nested style, but it needs to be placed between the Tea Name and Country Name nested styles to be in the proper position sequentially.
7. With the [None] nested style selected, click the Up Arrow button once to move the style between the other two.
8. Click OK to accept these changes. You have now finished creating a series of nested styles that apply the Tea Name and Country Name character styles to any paragraph styled with the Tea Body paragraph style.
Tip
As you can see, using nested styles automated some very tedious formatting. When making style decisions for longer documents, think about establishing a pattern that will enable automatic formatting through nested styles.
9. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Creating and applying object styles
Object styles let you apply and globally update formatting to graphics and frames. Combining formatting attributes—including fill, stroke, transparency, and text wrap options—into object styles helps create a more consistent overall design and speed up tedious production tasks.
Tip
All of the InDesign Styles panels (Character, Object, Table, and so on) let you group similar styles in folders called style groups. To create a style group, click the Create New Style Group button, at the bottom of the panel. Click in the group’s folder to name it. You can drag styles into the folder to organize them, and you can drag styles up and down in the list to organize them.
Formatting an object for a style
In this section, you will create and apply an object style to the black circles containing the “etp” symbols on the second spread of the catalog. (The “etp” stands for Ethical Tea Partnership.) You’ll base the new object style on the formatting of the black circle. So you’ll start by changing the circle’s color and adding a drop shadow to it; then you can define the new style.
1. Double-click page 4 in the Pages panel to center the page in the document window.
2. Select the Zoom tool (
) in the Tools panel and increase the magnification to better view the etp symbol near English Breakfast.
To format the symbol, you will fill it with a burgundy color and apply a Drop Shadow effect. To make this task easier, the type and circle for all the etp symbols have been placed on separate layers—the type on the layer called Etp Type and the circles on a layer called Etp Circle.
3. Choose Window > Layers to view the Layers panel.
4. Click the empty box to the left of the Etp Type layer’s name to display a lock icon (
). This locks the layer so you cannot accidentally change the text while editing the object.
5. With the Selection tool (
), click the black etp symbol next to English Breakfast.
6. Choose Window > Color > Swatches. In the Swatches panel, click the Fill button and then click the burgundy color swatch (C = 43, M = 100, Y = 100, K = 30).
7. With the etp symbol still selected, choose Object > Effects > Drop Shadow. In the Position section, decrease the X Offset and Y Offset to p2.
8. Select Preview to see the changes.
9. Click OK. The symbol should now have a drop shadow. Leave the symbol selected for the next exercise.
10. Choose File > Save.
Creating an object style
Now that the object is formatted properly, you are ready to create the object style from its formatting. Keep the etp symbol selected to base the new object style’s formatting on it.
Tip
Just as with paragraph and character styles, you can base an object style on another object style. Changes made to the Based On style update all object styles based on that style. (Unique characteristics of styles based on other styles are maintained.) The controls for basing a style on another are in the General panel of the New Object Style dialog box.
1. Choose Window > Styles > Object Styles to open the Object Styles panel.
2. In the Object Styles panel, hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key while you click Create New Style in the lower-right corner.
The New Object Style dialog box opens automatically so you can fine-tune the object style settings. The selected boxes on the left side of this dialog box indicate which attributes will be applied when this style is used.
3. In the Style Name box at the top of the New Object Style dialog box, type ETP Symbol to describe the purpose of the style.
4. Select Apply Style To Selection, and click OK.
The new ETP Symbol style appears in the Object Styles panel.
When you modify a style, the text, table, or objects to which the style is applied update automatically. If you have a specific instance of text, a table, or an object that you do not want to update, you can break its link to the style. Each styles panel (Paragraph Styles, Cell Styles, and so on) has a Break Link To Style command in the panel menu.
Now you’ll change the color of the drop shadow and update the object style. You do not need to finalize design decisions before you create and apply styles because styles are easy to update based on new formatting.
5. With the symbol still selected, choose Object > Effects > Drop Shadow.
6. In the Blending area, click the color swatch and then choose the pale yellow (C = 4, M= 15, Y= 48, K = 0), and click OK.
7. Click OK to close the Effects dialog box.
8. Choose Redefine Style from the Object Styles panel menu. This updates the style to match the new formatting.
9. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Applying an object style
Now you’ll apply your new object style to the other circles on the second spread. Applying the object style changes the formatting of the circles automatically; you don’t have to manually apply the color and drop shadow to each circle individually.
1. With pages 4 and 5 displayed, choose View > Fit Spread In Window.
Tip
Once you have even a rough idea of how you want text, objects, and tables to look, you can start creating styles and applying them. Then, as you experiment with a design and make changes, you can simply update the style definitions using the Redefine Style option—this automatically updates the formatting of anything to which the style is applied. The panel menus for all of the InDesign Styles panels, such as Paragraph Styles and Table Styles, provide the Redefine Style option.
To quickly select the etp objects, you will hide the layer containing the text.
2. Choose Window > Layers. In the Layers panel, click in the visibility box to the far left of Layer 1 to hide this layer.
3. Select the Selection tool () and choose Edit > Select All.
4. With all of the etp circles selected, click the ETP Symbol style in the Object Styles panel.
5. In the Layers panel, click in the column to the far left of Layer 1 to display the layer again.
6. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Creating and applying table and cell styles
Table and cell styles let you format tables with the same convenience and consistency you get from styling text with paragraph and character styles. Table styles let you control the visual attributes of the table, including the table border, space before and after the table, row and column strokes, and alternating fill patterns. Cell styles let you control cell inset spacing, vertical justification, individual cell strokes and fills, and diagonal lines. You’ll learn more about creating tables in Lesson 11, “Creating Tables.”
In this exercise, you’ll create and apply a table style and two cell styles to tables in the catalog document, to help distinguish the different descriptions of tea.
Creating cell styles
You’ll begin by creating cell styles for both the header row and body rows of the table at the bottom of page 3. Later, you’ll nest these two styles inside the Table style, a process similar to how you nested character styles inside a paragraph style earlier in this lesson. You’ll now create two cell styles.
1. Double-click page 3 in the Pages panel, and then choose View > Fit Page In Window.
2. Using the Zoom tool (), drag around the table at the bottom of the page to make it easily visible.
3. Using the Type tool (), drag to select the first two cells in the header row, containing the words “Tea” and “Finished Leaf.”
4. Choose Table > Cell Options > Strokes And Fills. For Cell Fill, select the pale yellow color swatch (C = 4, M = 15, Y = 48, K = 0). Click OK.
5. With the cells still selected, open the Cell Styles panel by choosing Window > Styles > Cell Styles.
6. From the Cell Styles panel menu, choose New Cell Style.
The cell formatting you applied to the selected cells is displayed in the Style Settings box. You’ll also notice additional cell formatting options on the left side of the dialog box. In this exercise, however, you are only going to set the desired paragraph style to use for the text within the header row.
Tip
You can create new styles from any InDesign Styles panel (Character, Object, Table, and so on) by choosing New Style from the panel menu or clicking the Create New Style button, at the bottom of the panel.
7. In the Style Name box at the top of the New Cell Style dialog box, type Table Head.
8. From the Paragraph Style pop-up menu, choose Head 4. This paragraph style was already created in the document. Click OK.
Now you will create a new cell style for the body rows.
9. Using the Type tool (), select the first two cells of the second row of the table. They contain the words “White” and “Soft, grayish white.”
10. From the Cell Styles panel menu, choose New Cell Style.
11. In the Style Name box, name this style Table Body Rows.
12. From the Paragraph Style pop-up menu, choose Table Body. This paragraph style was already created in the document.
13. Click OK. The two new cell styles appear in the Cell Styles panel. Choose Edit > Deselect All.
14. Choose File > Save.
Creating a table style
Now you’ll create a table style that not only formats the overall look of the table, but applies the two cell styles you just created to the header and body rows.
1. With the table still easily visible onscreen, select the Type tool (). Click to place an insertion point anywhere in the table.
2. Choose Window > Styles > Table Styles. From the Table Styles panel menu, choose New Table Style.
3. In the Style Name box, type Tea Table.
4. In the Cell Styles section, choose the following options:
• Table Head from the Header Rows menu.
• Table Body Rows from the Body Rows menu.
You’ll now set up the table style to apply alternating rows of color to the body rows.
5. Select the Fills category on the left side of the New Table Style dialog box.
6. Choose Every Other Row from the Alternating Pattern pop-up menu. The options for alternating rows appear.
7. Specify the following Alternating options:
• For Color, select the pale yellow color swatch (C = 4, M = 15, Y = 48, K = 0).
• For Tint, type 30%.
8. Click OK. The new table style, Tea Table, appears in the Table Styles panel.
9. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Applying a table style
Now you’ll apply the table style you just created to the two tables in the document.
Tip
If you create a table from existing text (using Table > Convert Text To Table), you can apply a table style as you convert the text.
1. With the table still easily visible onscreen, select the Type tool (). Click to place an insertion point anywhere in the table.
2. In the Tables Styles panel, click the Tea Table style. The table is reformatted with the table and cell styles you created.
3. Double-click page 6 in the Pages panel, then choose View > Fit Page In Window. Click to place an insertion point anywhere in the Tea Tasting Overview table.
4. In the Table Styles panel, click the Tea Table style. The table is reformatted with the table and cell styles you created.
5. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Globally updating styles
There are two ways to update paragraph, character, object, table, and cell styles in InDesign. The first is simply to open a style options dialog box and make changes to the formatting options. Because there’s a link between the style and the text to which it’s applied, all the text is updated to reflect any changes you make to the style.
The other way to update a style is to use local formatting to modify some text, and then redefine the style based on the updated formatting. In this exercise, you’ll make a change to the Head 3 style to include a rule below it.
1. Double-click page 4 in the Pages panel, then choose View > Fit Page In Window.
2. Using the Type tool (), drag to select the “Black Tea” subhead at the top of the first column.
3. If necessary, click the Character Formatting Controls button () in the Control panel. Type 13 in the Font Size box and press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS).
4. Choose Type > Paragraph to display the Paragraph panel. Choose Paragraph Rules from the panel menu.
5. In the Paragraph Rules dialog box, choose Rule Below from the menu at the top of the dialog box, and select Rule On. Make sure that Preview is selected, and move the dialog box so you can see “Black Tea” on your screen.
6. Format the rule using the following settings:
• Weight: 1 pt
• Color: C = 4, M = 15, Y = 48, K = 0 (pale yellow swatch)
• Offset: p2
Leave all other settings at their defaults.
7. Click OK. A thin yellow line now appears below “Black Tea.”
8. If it’s not already visible, choose Type > Paragraph Styles to view the Paragraph Styles panel.
In the Paragraph Styles panel, notice that the Head 3 style is selected, indicating that it is applied to the selected text. You will also see a plus sign (+) next to the Head 3 style name. This indicates that the selected text has local formatting applied to it, which is overriding the applied style.
9. Point at the Head 3 paragraph style to see how the current formatting differs from the original paragraph style.
Now you’ll redefine the paragraph style so that the local change is incorporated in the paragraph style definition and automatically applied to all the headlines previously formatted with the Head 3 style.
10. In the Paragraph Styles panel menu, choose Redefine Style. The + should no longer appear next to the Head 3 style name. All headlines in the document that have been styled with Head 3 should globally update to reflect the changes you made.
Note
You can use the process in step 8 to redefine any type of style based on local formatting.
11. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Loading styles from another document
Styles appear only in the document in which you create them. However, it’s easy to share styles between InDesign documents by loading, or importing, styles from other InDesign documents. In this exercise, you’ll import a paragraph style from the finished document 09_End.indd and apply the style to the first body paragraph on page 2.
1. Double-click page 2 in the Pages panel, then choose View > Fit Page In Window.
2. If it’s not already visible, choose Type > Paragraph Styles to view the Paragraph Styles panel.
3. Choose Load All Text Styles from the Paragraph Styles panel menu.
4. In the Open A File dialog box, double-click 09_End.indd, in the Lesson09 folder. The Load Styles dialog box appears.
5. Click Uncheck All; you do not need to import all the styles, as they already exist in this document.
Tip
Because the selected paragraph style uses the Drop Caps And Nested Style feature to automatically apply the Drop Cap character style, this style is also selected.
6. Select the paragraph style Drop Cap Body. Scroll down to Drop Cap and make sure it is selected as well.
7. Click OK to import both styles.
8. Using the Type tool (), place an insertion point in the second body paragraph, which starts with “We carry,” and select the new Drop Cap Body style in the Paragraph Styles panel. The initial “We” should become an italicized burgundy drop cap.
9. Choose Edit > Deselect All, then choose File > Save.
Finishing up
As a final step, you’ll preview the document in its finished state.
1. At the bottom of the Tools panel, select Preview.
2. Choose View > Fit Page In Window.
3. Press Tab to hide all of the panels and review the results of your work.
Congratulations! You have now completed this lesson.
Exploring on your own
When you’re creating a long document or a template to use as the basis for other documents, you want to take full advantage of all styles features. To fine-tune the styles further, try the following:
• Rearrange styles in the Paragraph Styles panel. For example, drag the new Drop Cap Body style into the Body Text group.
• Experiment with modifying formatting and redefining styles, including object, table, character, and paragraph styles. For example, change the background color of a table cell and update the cell style.
• Create additional character styles that change only one attribute of formatting—such as creating a character style that applies only a different color.
• Add more keyboard shortcuts to the existing styles.
Review questions
1. How can using object styles speed up your workflow?
2. What must you have created previously in order to create a nested style?
3. What are the two ways to globally update a style you’ve applied in an InDesign document?
4. How would you import styles from another InDesign document?
Review answers
1. Object styles save time by letting you keep together a group of formatting attributes that you can quickly apply to graphics and frames. If you need to update the formatting, you don’t have to change each frame formatted with the style individually. Instead, you can simply modify the object style to automatically update all the frames to which it is applied.
2. The two prerequisites for creating nested styles are that you have first created a character style, and that you have built a paragraph style in which to nest it.
3. There are two ways to update styles in InDesign. The first is to edit the style itself and make changes to the formatting options. The other is to use local formatting to change an instance, and then redefine the style based on that instance.
4. Importing styles is easy. Simply choose the appropriate Load Style option from the Object Styles panel menu, Character Styles panel menu, Paragraph Styles panel menu, Table Styles panel menu, or Cell Styles panel menu, and locate the InDesign document from which you want to load them. The styles are then loaded into the respective panel and are immediately available for use inside your document.