Take advantage of InDesign styles
5. Apply multiple styles
When you create paragraph styles, you can tell InDesign to apply a different style to the next paragraph as you type by specifying a style name in the Next Style pop-up menu in the General pane of the Paragraph Style Options dialog. But what about when applying styles to existing text? That, too, is easy: Select the paragraphs to apply the styles to, then in the Paragraph Styles palette, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the name of the style to be applied to the first paragraph. From the contextual menu, choose the Apply [“your style name”] then Next Style option, and InDesign will apply all the styles in sequence.
With the paragraphs selected, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the name of the style in the Paragraph Styles palette to be applied to the first paragraph, and then choose Apply [“your style name”] Then Next Style from the pop-up menu.
6. Selectively import styles
Often, you’ll have a style created in another document that would be perfect in your current one—or you may have an updated version in another document you want to bring into the current document. InDesign CS2 lets you selectively import such styles. In the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles palette, choose Load All Styles from the palette’s flyout menu, then choose the source InDesign file and click Open. After InDesign has processed the file, you’ll get a dialog that lets you choose which paragraph, character, and object styles to import—just make sure the ones you want are checked.
The Load Styles dialog box lets you choose which paragraph, character, and object styles to import.
7. Don’t forget the OpenType
InDesign styles offer many, many options—and you may forget to take advantage of them when you create your styles. One worth double-checking is the OpenType Features pane when editing paragraph or character styles. It’s usually a good idea to enable Contextual Alternates and Fractions. (If your font doesn’t support enabled attributes, your text will be formatted normally.)
The OpenType Features pane of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box.
8. Build in numbers and bullets
New to InDesign CS2 is a feature to automate bullets and numbering. Paragraph styles also have this capability, making it easy to apply them to text. In the Bullets and Numbering pane when creating or editing styles, select Bullets or Numbers from the List Type pop-up menu, then choose the appropriate settings for your layout.
Note: One limitation of InDesign’s numbering is that it doesn’t let you right-align numerals along the decimal, so there’s no way to have lists with 10 or more items indent the first nine entries so the decimals align with the rest of the entries.
The Bullets and Numbering pane of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box.
9. Use styles with objects
Styles are very powerful, so it’s about time you can create them for objects as well as text. InDesign’s object styles let you apply consistent formatting to frames, lines, and other objects using the familiar styles mechanism. To open the Object Styles palette, press Control+F7 (Windows) or Command+F7 (Mac OS). Creating, editing, and applying object styles works the same as for paragraph and character styles with one difference: Uncheck any effect that you don’t want an object style to change on a frame when applied.
The Drop Shadow & Feather pane in the Object Styles palette.
10. Ensure consistent alignment
Many documents have mouse-positioned text frames, so text doesn’t quite align across the page. InDesign’s new baseline options for individual frames can prevent that, especially when applied as part of an object style—which guarantees that all like frames use the same baseline options.
The Text Frame Baseline Options pane in the Object Styles palette.
Galen Gruman (www.indesigncentral.com) has authored or co-authored 20 books on desktop publishing, covering InDesign, QuarkXPress®, and Adobe® PageMaker®. His latest are “QuarkXPress to InDesign: Face to Face” and “Adobe InDesign CS2 Bible” (both Wiley Publishing). He also reviews publishing tools for Macworld magazine.
