An object style that aligns center the text without changing the font

For anyone else who might need it.

A script that applies an object style that centers the text horizontally and vertically

when a text frame is selected.

// Get the active document
var doc = app.activeDocument;

// Define the object style name to be applied
var objectStyleName = "Centered TextBox Style";

// Check if the object style exists
var targetObjectStyle;
try {
    targetObjectStyle = doc.objectStyles.itemByName(objectStyleName);
    // Accessing name property to ensure it exists
    targetObjectStyle.name;
} catch(e) {
    // If the object style doesn't exist, create it
    targetObjectStyle = doc.objectStyles.add({name: objectStyleName});
    // Set your desired properties for the new object style here if needed
}

// Function to center text vertically and horizontally
function centerTextFrame(textFrame) {
    // Apply the object style
    textFrame.appliedObjectStyle = targetObjectStyle;

    // Loop through all paragraphs in the text frame
    for (var j = 0; j < textFrame.paragraphs.length; j++) {
        var paragraph = textFrame.paragraphs[j];

        // Center the text horizontally
        paragraph.justification = Justification.centerAlign;
    }

    // Center the text vertically by setting vertical justification
    textFrame.textFramePreferences.verticalJustification = VerticalJustification.CENTER_ALIGN;
}

// Check if any text frame is selected
if (app.selection.length > 0 && app.selection[0] instanceof TextFrame) {
    var selectedTextFrame = app.selection[0];
    centerTextFrame(selectedTextFrame);
   
} else {
    alert("Please select a text frame.");
}

A script that selects only the text frames with Object Sytle 1 applied

and aligns the texts horizontally in the center.

// Get the active document
var doc = app.activeDocument;

// Define the object style to target
var targetObjectStyle = doc.objectStyles.itemByName("Object Style 1");

// Loop through all text frames
for (var i = 0; i < doc.textFrames.length; i++) {
    var textFrame = doc.textFrames[i];

    // Check if the text frame has the target object style applied
    if (textFrame.appliedObjectStyle === targetObjectStyle) {

        // Loop through all paragraphs in the text frame
        for (var j = 0; j < textFrame.paragraphs.length; j++) {
            var paragraph = textFrame.paragraphs[j];

            // Change the alignment to center
            paragraph.justification = Justification.centerAlign;
        }
    }
}

// Message to indicate the script has run successfully
alert("Text frames with 'Object Style 1' applied have been center-aligned without changing the font.");

I hear you, but this is how all page layout applications work:

A paragraph style is used to define an entire paragraph, and a character style is used to differentiate words that need to look different from the rest of the text within that paragraph.

Whether we time-travel back to the early mid-late 80s and return to working in PageMaker or Ventura Publisher, or leap forward again to modern-day InDesign and FrameMaker, paragraph styles are used to define all aspects of each type of paragraph (title, subtitles, body copy, bullets, footnotes, etc) and then we may add character styles for the words that need to be emphasized or differentiated (perhaps a font or style or color change) within the paragraph. I am never one to suggest using overrides, but if you have that many titles and don't want to uses styles then, that's my recommendation.

Now if you think this is something that others would benefit from, you can log a feature request at https://indesign.uservoice.com/ . The more votes a feature request gets, the more attention it will draw from the InDesign engineering team. Please note that the community forums are geared towards users (like those of us addressing your question) helping other users (like you) figure out how to work within the bounds of the existing application. Like you, we don't work for Adobe and we can't re-engineer the software. We can offer explanations and workflow tips but that's about it.

~Barb

Hi @raldrald:

A paragraph style will define all attributes of a paragraph, so no, a paragraph style cannot lack a Font Family designation.

See if this visual explanation is helpful:

• The vertical alignment is controlled by the Object Style—in my demo, that's all it is doing.
• The font/size/style/horizontal alignment is controlled by the paragraph style. Personally, I'd go with @Dave Creamer of IDEAS 's approach—one paragraph style per frame. Alternatives—neither considered a best practice but if you have a bazillion of these, maybe it is best for you—is add overrides or assign a full-paragraph character style. (Since you seem averse to multiple styles, I'd say go with the font overrides.)

Even after any of the font modifications, the object style still controls the frame-level commands like vertical justification and the paragraph style still controls everything except for the Font Family:

~Barb

As @Peter Spier said, you will need to attach a paragraph style. It reads as if you have used different fonts in the objects. In that case, you would need to create multiple paragraph styles and then attach each one to its own object style. Of course, you could always apply a single object style and then apply the appropriate paragraph style as an override.

Paragraph alignmnet is, indeed, a parpagraph level attribute and as such would be controlled by the Paragraph Style, but that doesn't mean you have to change the font.

Create a new Paragraph Style, based on your existing style that has the attributes you want, then change only the paragraph alignment in that style.