Formatting multiple tables in Indesign at the same time

[Pin_Digital]

I'm doing a large catalogue design and I've created tables for the information/pricing of products. I've used a stroke on all the tables with a specific colour for each category of products but i need to change the colours for all the category's. Is there a way to change all the colours at the same time? I've tried using find/change but don't seem to be an option for table strokes?

[Eric Dumas]

Hi,

Can you confirm which version of InDesign and OS you are using? It would help if you included a screenshot.

You can create Styles for Cells and Tables which would allow you to apply the formatting you require rapidly using shortcuts (extended keyboard). I am not aware of any conditional formatting that would be clever enough to react automatically to: 'If category X then apply formatting Y'. A suggestion for a custom script or new feature?

more at Table and cell styles in InDesign

[Pin_Digital]

Thank you for your reply, i'm using Adobe InDesign CC 2018 on Windows. Unfortunately this was my first real time using tables in Indesign so i never applied table styles but i will look into this. The answer from Abambo has temporarily fixed my problem by changing the colour swatch itself that was applied to the table strokes. It would be good if InDesign had a find/change feature for table strokes though.

[Mike Witherell]

That is what Cell Styles are for. If you need to change the many; edit the one Cell Style.

[Pin_Digital]

Thank you, i will look into Cell styles.

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

By chance you did not use table and cell styles? There is a reason for those.

Did you use swatches for your colours? If so, changing the colour of the attributed swatch changes the colour for all elements with the same colour.

Just change the colour in the swatches panel and the elements with that colour attributed change...

[Pin_Digital]

Thank you for your reply! This has fixed the issue i was having, i can't believe i never thought of this before!