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A
Anonymous
March 28, 2011
Answered

Analogy for Paragraph vs. Character styles?

  • March 28, 2011
  • 4 replies
  • 25997 views

Hello,

I have a beginner skill level in InDesign and i'm always confused when I should use paragraph or character styles. I like to use analogies to help me understand complicated things. Can anybody craft an interesting analogy to help me understand the difference between the two and when I should use one or the other?

Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer marcusstringer

    Paragraph Styles for Formatting Paragraphs.

    eg

    Centered Paragraph Style

    Text tex tex tex hjfkdlshjklf hsdfd

    gfdgfd gfd gfdsgfds gfd gfd gfdsgfd

    gfd gfd gfds gfds gfds gfds gfds gfd

    gfds gfd gf dg fds gfds gfd sgfdsgfds.

    Character Styles for formatting words or letters within a paragraph

    Character Style Bold

    Character Style Italic

    Text tex tex tex hjfkdlshjklf hsdfd

    gfdgfd gfd gfdsgfds gfd gfd gfdsgfd

    gfd gfd gfds gfds gfds gfds gfds gfd

    italic gfd gf dg fds gfds gfd sgfdsgfds.

    4 replies

    Peter Spier
    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    March 29, 2011

    So presumably you've got the difference down now?

    macinbytes
    macinbytes
    Inspiring
    March 29, 2011

    Walking the dog:

    Paragraph styles dictate what your route is, how fast you are going and frequency of breaks. Character styles handle picking up the poop, holding the chain tight if you see another dog or shiny car in the course of the walk.

      Jongware
      Jongware
      Community Expert
      March 29, 2011

      Building a house:

      Paragraph styles are the bricks & mortar, characters styles the paint & wallpaper.

        A
        Anonymous
        March 29, 2011

        Hi all. thanks for the responses! I was secretly hoping for a food-related analogy and delighted that I got it.

        Peter Spier
        Peter Spier
        Community Expert
        March 28, 2011

        You use a paragraph syle for making toast, a character style to add the raisins when making raisin bread toast.

        All paragraphs have text formatting of some sort associated with them. The formatting defined in the paragraph style is the general, or default, case for the paragraph. You use a character style when some special bit of text inside the paragraph needs to be different from the the overall paragraph format.

          Scott Falkner
          Scott Falkner
          Community Expert
          March 28, 2011

          Only use Character Styles to format text that is part of a paragraph, but never for the entire paragraph. A paragraph is any text between carriage returns, including headlines; subheads; and, of course, paragraphs.

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