Working with styles
InDesign provides paragraph styles, character styles, and object styles for quickly and consistently formatting text and objects and—more important—easily making global changes by simply editing the style. Styles work as follows:
- A paragraph style includes formatting attributes—such as indents—that apply to all the text in a paragraph. You can select a paragraph by simply clicking in it.
- A character style includes only character attributes—such as font and size—that apply only to selected text.
- An object style lets you apply formatting—such as fill and stroke color, stroke and corner effects, transparency, drop shadows, feathering, text frame options, and text wrap—to selected objects.
You will now format the text with paragraph and character styles.
Applying paragraph styles
Because the postcard is almost finished, all the paragraph styles you need are already created. You will first apply the Body Copy style to all the text in the three threaded text frames, and then you will apply the Subhead style to the box headings.
- Using the Type tool (
), click in one of the three text frames containing the newly imported text. - Choose Edit > Select All to select all the text in the threaded frames.
- Choose Type > Paragraph Styles to display the Paragraph Styles panel.
- In the Paragraph Styles panel, click the Body Copy style to format the entire story with the Body Copy style.
- Click a blank are of the pasteboard to deselect all the text.
- Using the Type tool, click in the first line of text in the story: “Pick Your Berry.”
- Click the Subhead style in the Paragraph Styles panel.
- Apply the Subhead paragraph style to “Choose Your Dessert” and “Savor Your Summer” as well.
- Choose File > Save.
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As you can see from the hidden character (the paragraph return) at the end of the line, this line is actually its own paragraph. Therefore, it can be formatted with a paragraph style.
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Formatting text for the character style
Highlighting a few key words in a paragraph can draw readers into the text. For the postcard copy, you will format a few words to make them “pop,” and then create a character style based on those words. You can then quickly apply the character style to other selected words.
- Using the Zoom tool (
), zoom in on the first text frame in the lower-left quadrant of the postcard. This frame contains the head “Pick Your Berry.” - Using the Type tool (), select the words “favorite seasonal berries” in the fourth line of the body copy.
- Display the Type Style menu on the far left side of the Control panel. Select Bold Italic, leaving the font as Myriad Pro.
- If necessary, click the Character Formatting Controls icon (
) in the Control panel. Click the arrow next to the Fill menu and choose Berry Red. - Click once to deselect the text and view your changes. Choose File > Save.
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Creating and applying a character style
Now that you have formatted the text, you are ready to create a character style based on that formatting.
- Using the Type tool (), select the words “favorite seasonal berries” again.
- Choose Type > Character Styles to display the Character Styles panel.
- Hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key and click the Create New Style button, at the bottom of the Character Styles panel.
- In the Style Name box, type Red Bold Italic.
- At the bottom of the New Character Style dialog box, select Apply Style To Selection, and then click OK.
- Using the Type tool, select the words “sample our dessert offerings” and the comma after “offerings” in the middle text frame. Click Red Bold Italic in the Character Styles panel.
- Using the Type tool, select the words “we’ll deliver” in the text frame at the right. (You can drag to select the text even though part of it is obscured by the apple shape.) Click Red Bold Italic in the Character Styles panel.
- Choose File > Save.
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A new character style, named Character Style 1, is created in the New Character Style dialog box. This new style includes the characteristics of the selected text, as indicated in the Style Settings area of the dialog box.
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Because you applied a character style instead of a paragraph style, the formatting affected only the selected text, not the entire paragraph.
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