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InDesign Character Styles: General
Mercedes
Created on May 15, 2024
Character Styles panel serves as a hub for managing and applying character-level formatting across your document. The "General" tab within the Character Styles panel provides essential options for defining and organizing character styles efficiently.
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- Streamline our workflow. It’s easier to manage and update styles as needed when you have a good understanding of what will be affected.
- Make collaboration with the team easier. It’s common to have another person jump in you document. Descriptive names allow everyone to understand the function and usage of each style in the document.
Quick Tip: Style Name
Character Style names should be descriptive AND intuitive, reflecting the purpose or characteristics of the style. When we use clear and consistent naming conventions, we:
Example: If Garver - Red Bold is set to Ctrl+Alt+R, you can select text > Ctrl+Alt+R and the Garver - Red Bold style will be applied without having to open/use the Character Styles window.
When you assign a shortcut to a character style, you can simply select the text you want to format and then use the designated keyboard shortcut to apply the style instantly, without the need to navigate through menus or panels. This can help speed up your workflow, especially when you frequently use specific styles throughout your document.
Shortcut: Explained
Character styles are important! They set you up for success when it comes to nested styles.
Character Styles: A character style should be used for small pieces of the bigger puzzle. The attributes of a character style can be applied to words or individual characters. (i.e. Bold, Italic, Red, CAPS, Highlight)
Paragraph Styles: A paragraph style should be used for "big picture" formatting. It manages the entire paragraph from start to finish.
How do I know which one to use?
Paragraph Style vs. Character Style
Using the "Based On" option lets you build on existing styles without starting from scratch. This means the new style inherits all the attributes (such as font style, tracking, character color, etc.) of the base style. For example, if you have a Blue style and need to create a variation with slightly different attributes (i.e. Blue Bold Italic), you can base the new style on the existing one (Blue) and only modify the few elements that need updating (font style). This feature is just like "Based On" for paragraph styles.