How do I create and use styles in Adobe® InDesign®?
Creating character and paragraph styles will help you with consistency in font usage in your yearbook. Styles take a few minutes to set up but will save you time all year long - and especially at deadline time.
Style based on existing text
- Create a text block and type your text.
- Format the text by changing the font, size, leading, justification, etc.
- Highlight the text or click the insertion point in the text.
- Click on the Character Styles or Paragraph Styles panel/palette pop-up menu or the Control palette menu.
- Choose New Character Style (Character Styles panel/palette) or New Paragraph Style (Paragraph Styles panel/palette).
- Name the style.
- Click OK.
- The new style will appear in the Character Styles panel/palette or Paragraph Styles panel/palette and the Control palette.

Create a new style or change style formatting
- To create a new style, choose:
- New Character Style from the Character Style palette menu, or
- New Paragraph Style from the Paragraph Style palette menu
- New Character Style or New Paragraph Style from the Control palette menu.
- To change style formatting:
- double click on a style in the Character Style palette or Paragraph Style palette or
- In the Control palette - Windows: Alt + click or Mac: Option + click on the character (A) or paragraph (
) symbol on the right side of the Control palette.
- General section:
- Type a name for the style, if it is a new style.
- Base a style on another style. For example a caption style may be based on body text style. They share the same font but are a different point size.
- Shortcuts can be created for styles.
- Turn Num Lock on.
- Click in the Shortcut field.
- Hold down a Windows key combination of: Shift + Alt + Ctrl, or a Mac key combination of: Shift + Option + Command and type a number on the numeric key pad. The shortcut will be added.
- InDesign CS4 & CS3
- Apply Style to Selection: If this is checked, the style just created will be applied to the selected text.
- Reset to Base: If changes have been made to a style, check this field to reset it back to the original specifications.

- Basic Character Formats section:
- Change these characteristics: Font Family, Font Style (bold, italic, etc.), Size, Kerning, Case, Leading, Tracking and Position.

- Advanced Character Formats section:
- Change the Horizontal Scale, Vertical Scale, Baseline Shift, Skew the text or change the Language.
- Character Color section:
- Text color can be changed to colors in the Swatches palette.
- Open Type section:
- If Open Type fonts are used, their extended features can also be added.
- Underline Options section:
- Change Weight, Offset, Color, Line Type and Gap Color.
- Strikethrough Options section:
- Change Weight, Offset, Color, Line Type and Gap Color.
- Extra options in the Paragraph Style dialog box:
- Tabs
- Paragraph Rules
- Keep Options
- Hyphenation
- Justification
- Drop Caps and Nested Styles
- InDesign CS4 & CS3: Bullets & Numbering
Import styles from another document
- Choose:
- Load Character Styles from the Character Styles palette menu or the Control palette menu, or
- Load Paragraph Styles from the Character Styles palette menu or the Control palette menu, or
- Load All Styles to load both character and paragraph styles.
- Scroll to the file you which has the styles you want to use.
- Double click on the file name.
- The styles will be added to your styles palette and overwrite any existing styles.
Apply styles to text
If your text has already been created:
- Highlight the text
- Click on the Style in the Character Styles palette, Paragraph Styles palette, the Control Palette or use the shortcut created earlier.
- Note:
- Choosing a Character style will remove or reset the character attributes but Paragraph styles will not by default.
- To override previous formatting, in the Paragraph Styles palette in Windows press Alt + Shift or on a Mac press Option + Shift when you click the style name.
- To apply Paragraph styles but keep character styles in Windows, press Alt, or on a Mac, press Option when you click the style name.
- Or create a text block with the Type tool.
- Click on a style in the Character Styles palette, Paragraph Styles palette or the Control palette.
- Type your text.
Delete a style
Click on a style name in the Character or Paragraph Styles palette.
- Do one of the following:
- Select Delete Styles from the Styles palette menu, or
- Click the Trash icon
at the bottom of the palette, or
- Drag the style onto the Trash icon.
- To delete all unused styles
- In the Styles palette menu, choose Select All Unused.
- Click on the Trash can icon.