default Paragraph styles

[DavidSweeneyBear]

Hi all,

I understand that if I define a set of paragraph styles with no document open, they will become the default styles for all new documents.

Presumably: if I then make changes to a paragraph style within a document and "redefine style" it will only redifine the style within that particular document, is that correct?

If so, is there any way to redefine the default stlyes from within a particular document, on-the-fly?

Thanks.

[Derek Cross]

When you set the font size and leading, and some other items, without any document open, they become the default bsic style for new documents. You still have to set-up or import any additional styles you may want.

[DavidSweeneyBear]

Thanks, 

I'm compiling a book comprising a series of short stories. I find it more manageable to have each of the stories as a seperate indesign document at first, but of course if I make paragraph style chages in one, that change doesn't reflect in the others.

The closest workaround I've found is to create a folder of Paragraph styles as a "master" which is applied to an empty document. As long as I keep the "master" updated with any chages, I can then load the styles from the empty document into any particular story I'm working on and swap the styles for the updated ones. A fairly cumbersome task!

[SJRiegel · Accepted solution]

This is exactly the sort of thing that an InDesign Book file is intended for. 

Set up all of your documents, and compile them in an InDesign book. This gives you the convenience of separate documents while allowing you to have Contents, Index and page numbering that span documents, and to synchronize text and object styles across documents. 

In the case you describe, once you have made changes to the styles in one document, you can designate it as the source for syncing, and then apply the changes across all of the book documents.