InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Creating Paragraph Styles

The fastest way to create a new style is to click the Create New Style button at the bottom of the Paragraph Styles palette (Figure 54-1). InDesign adds a style cleverly named "New Style," based on the formatting of the currently-selected text. It's usually advisable to hold the Option/Alt key when clicking to customize the style's name and attributes as the style is created. You can also select New Style from the palette's flyout menu.

The Modify Paragraph Style Options dialog box lets you set up or edit the style (see Figure 54-2). Select any of the panels along the left side of the dialog box to enter attributes for the style.

In general, all the options available in QuarkXPress' Edit Paragraph Style Sheet dialog box are available in InDesign's Modify Paragraph Style Options dialog box, but the layout is very different. InDesign uses 12 panels in the dialog box. However, InDesign has the advantage that you can preview a style while modifying it; turn on the Preview option to do this.

All character attributes can be made part of a paragraph style, but unlike XPress, a character style can't be part of a paragraph styleInDesign paragraph and character styles co-exist independently. However, you can create similar functionality by making a paragraph style where only character attributes are specified, and then base other paragraph styles on that parent style.

When you're done setting up a style, click OK and the new style name appears in the Paragraph Styles palette. We cover applying styles in Chapter 56.

Duplicating Paragraph Styles

You can use an existing paragraph style as the foundation for a new style by dragging the name of the original style on top of the New Style icon at the bottom of the palette. InDesign duplicates the style and appends "Copy" to the style's name. We discuss editing styles in Chapter 57.

However, in many cases it may be better to simply base a new style on an existing style (its "parent") and change only the attributes that are different. As in XPress, this can simplify production because the attributes in common between the parent and child styles update automatically when they're edited in the parent style. In XPress, you would accomplish this using the Based On option in the Edit Paragraph Styles Sheet dialog box; InDesign uses the same name for the option and you'll find it in the General panel of the New Paragraph Style dialog box.