A

Anonymous

Answered

Do paragraph styles go in documents or templates?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
November 26, 2021
6 replies
3138 views

If paragraph styles don't belong in templates, what kinds of things do belong in templates so you're set up for success when you create a new document?

Thanks!

How to

Correct answer Barb Binder

A template should include assets that you can build on to complete your project. This includes but is not limited to:

defining the paper size, margins, bleed and trim
defining styles (paragraphs character, object, table and cell )
defining master pages/parent pages
adding placeholder frames, if using
adding variable definitions, if using
adding condition tags, if using

Basically everything you need to create the document so that you can just drop in and style the content.

~Barb

Lukas Engqvist

Community Expert

It may seem intimidating at first, but when you get that last minute chage you are glad you have a solid structure.

When you make the Paragrah styles, also tag them for export so you are on a good start to accessibility.

Also you can import Text styles from the Paragraph Style Menu. You may even want to have a stylesheet template as a start to the templates you make.

Giving people the building blocks helps them build consistent documents and in my opinion a templates should be a part of a branding kit (brand manual).

A

Anonymous

I will have to look into export tags. I'm not sure what they are. Thanks!

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

To be fair, 95% of designers will never use them on 99% of projects. They are a low-level way to tweak how styles are exported to PDF and EPUB (and have one very useful feature hidden in the list for that!) But in general you can set them to defaults and take them out of most simple export processes. But you can do useful tricks and a lot of technical "clean up" by using them in more complex export projects.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

What kind of document are you working on Rachel? As per my list of the benefits of using styles, number 2 is uniformity across the document. A subhead on page 2 will be formatted the same way as the subhead on page 222, without you having to remember the settings. You will lose that if you override the styles. In some documents—books, annual reports and catalogs that uniformity is standard. In shorter files like newsletters, mixing it up and fitting content to the page is more the norm.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

A

Anonymous

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks! Essentially I'm trying to make a template for a document that already exists. My hope is that it's easier for the next person who deals with it. It's a pretty long document.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

I've attached a PowerPoint that I did to cover the features you might run into with long documents.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Intro_to_long-document_publishing.pptx

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi Rachel:

I start adding paragraph styles as soon as I add text to an InDesign document. When introducing paragraph styles to my students, I tell them that they are a collection of formatting attributes that are saved under a short, clear name. For example, my Title style might set my titles to Myriad Pro Bold, 30/32, Align center, Space after 15 pts.

Paragraph styles offer three distinct benefits:

1.) One click application of multiple attributes to a single paragraph (like my Title example above),

2.) Uniformity (all my Titles use the exact same definition so they will look exactly the same), and most importantly

3.) You can edit the style definition and it will be InDesign's job (and not ours) to locate and update all occurences of that style.

I do understand this statement: "To me it seems you need to click every paragraph in the document individually and assign it a style, and that just doesn't seem efficient...", and yes you will need to assign styles to each paragraph. But it is much easier to click once to assign a style with multiple attributes to a paragraph than to assign multiple individual attributes to the same paragraph manually.

Good luck with your learning, and come back when you have more questions for us.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

A

Anonymous

Hi Barb,

Thank you for breaking this down; I appreciate it!

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

I can't add a lot to the excellent responses so far, except to say what I say to a lot of students and clients who come from things like Word, where styles are a nice but often ignored feature.

Styles in a professional tool like InDesign aren't a gloss or an add-on; it's not like building a house and then painting it. Mastery of styles and learning to use them consistently is more like choosing the exactly right pieces to build something; when you're done, it's both built AND painted all in one operation. More formally, styles are not a purely visual touch, but a whole system of document construction, management and formatting. You will find it VERY worthwhile to take some online courses and the like to learn and master them.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Is there ANY difference between a document and a template, except that the latter is saved under a different extension and forces a copy when opened? Some apps draw greater distinctions, but AFAIK, you could have a full dictionary as an ID template and open it to create a document with one word changed.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

You are correct--most applications that use templates just have a different file extension causing them to open as an untitled document. Usually, you can simply change the extension at the desktop.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Just out of curiosity, who told you that paragraph styles do not belong in templates?

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

A

Anonymous

I guess I'm not sure where and when to add paragraph styles in the design process. I'm still learning about paragraph styles, and they really confuse me. I've been through a few InDesign documents where the paragraph styles have been set up, and I don't understand them. For example, some headers throughout the document that are the exact same use different styles, and it doesn't make sense to me. To me it seems you need to click every paragraph in the document individually and assign it a style, and that just doesn't seem efficient...

Still learning!

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

To me it seems you need to click every paragraph in the document individually and assign it a style, and that just doesn't seem efficient...
By @1975992

That is exactly what designers should do!

And that makes the workflow incredibly efficient, not inefficient.

Have you taken classes from a good instructor, someone knowledgeable about design and the publishing workflow?

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

Barb Binder

Correct answer

Community Expert

A template should include assets that you can build on to complete your project. This includes but is not limited to:

defining the paper size, margins, bleed and trim
defining styles (paragraphs character, object, table and cell )
defining master pages/parent pages
adding placeholder frames, if using
adding variable definitions, if using
adding condition tags, if using

Basically everything you need to create the document so that you can just drop in and style the content.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

A

Anonymous

Thank you!

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