selective format copying

[FieryPantone]

A specific task reminds me of a question I've often wondered about but never asked … copying all paragraph styles from file A to file B is simple, but is there no native mechanism for copying just selected styles? I know I can copy a formatted paragraph and then update the paragraph catalog in file B, but sometimes that's a bit fiddly.

If there is an answer, I hope it doesn't involve a plug-in; I'm not allowed those :-{

[Arnis Gubins · Accepted solution]

Niels,

You can use either the Copy Special (Paragraph or Character Format) for single item copies. For more than one style at a time, just use the Delete option in the catalogs to thin out the list to what you want and then import using the File > Import > Formats route. FM will only import the items in the catalog, so the "deleted" (still applied throughout the source document) will stay behind.

If you do not "Save" the source document, simply close it, then the original formats stay behind.

A two-step, safer, approach is to create a truly "blank" FM file by deleting everything in all catalogs and Reference pages. Then save it in the FM Templates folder. Then whenever you need to create/gather new formats, create a new file using the blank template and then import formats many sources as you need into this one to build up the desired styles

[FieryPantone]

Encouraging <g> in that you mention two of the approaches I'd already tried. The one I should have thought of was Copy Special … which I shall now wait for a chance to use :-}

[FieryPantone]

"Working like a charm … and reminds me that you once mentioned the keyboard shortcut for 'create new paragraph style' – I haven't managed to find this in the forum or in the Adobe helps, so could you remind me?"

Close forum, back to FM, speculate, think like FrameMaker … yup, the answer is esc, o, p, n. And to think there are people who find FM unintuitive <rofl>