Add paragraph style to all files in a book

[Susan Culligan]

I have to add a paragraph style to all the chapters in a book, and I'm wondering if there's a way to do this as a batch rather than "Load paragraph styles" chapter by chapter.

Any ideas?

[Michael Bullo · Accepted solution]

Hi Susan. It sounds like you have an InDesign file for each chapter of your book. Are you using the Book feature (File > New > Book) within InDesign to bring all of these files together into your final book? This method allows you to set a document as the Style Source. Pressing the Synchronize button then copies and adds styles across all of the other files.

[Susan Culligan · Accepted solution]

Yow!!! That's terrific! That will save me so much time. Thank you!!

[Michael Bullo]

Thank you. Happy to hear this will help you out 🙂

[bkepl]

What if I modify a style in another book (this happens rather often)? How do I get it in the document I've designated as the style source?

[leo.r]

Is that what you're looking for? In the Paragraph Styles panel menu:

[bkepl]

Thanks—that popped into my head a little while after sending this question. I think it's what I did before, but the last time I worked on an InDesign book was over 10 years ago, so my memory is a little fuzzy. 

Thanks, I'll give this a try. 

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Sure. No worries. Please try and let us know if that works.

Thanks,

Harshika

[Laubender]

Hi together,

the benefit of using "Load Paragraph Styles…" is that you can single-out individual styles and also you can determine in case of a "clash" if the incoming should overwrite the one that is present in the target document.

Not so with the synchronize styles feature of a book file.

There it's all or nothing…

( Also check what else other than paragraph styles will synch with that feature before. )

Kind regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )