Nested Line Style Issue: Small Caps Not Applying Consistently Across Text Boxes

[Susan21139511sv37]

I have built a paragraph style with a drop cap and a nested line style with 1 line of small caps. However, when I try to apply this style, it only works on one text box I've created. The other text boxes throughout the document are only appyling the drop cap, and not the small caps nested line style.

I have reset the style and started from scratch multiple times, and it continues to only work once. What variables could be causing this?

Attached are the paragraph and character style settings, and the two different results. 

<Title renamed by MOD>

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It's working fine for me, albeit with a slightly different font (Baskerville Old Face). I didn't do anything tricky or fancy, just copied a body style, created the character style, and assigned the line style. That's for the line style alone, though. If I add a drop cap... it takes precedence.

With few exceptions, you can use only one (1) of these override styles on a single Paragraph Style. You can't combine Drop Cap, Line Style or GREP Style. I'm not sure there is any workaround for this "choose one" limitation.

That said, Drop Cap and Nested Style seem to work together, but it may be tricky to get it to apply the latter to just the first line. You may have to modify your style to drop cap + highlight 3 or 4 words following, or such. There are other alternatives for Nested Styles, but it will have to be managed manually on each paragraph.

[jmlevy]

You can't combine Drop Cap, Line Style or GREP Style. I'm not sure there is any workaround for this "choose one" limitation.

Hi @James Gifford—NitroPress I am not sure to understand what you mean: there is absolutely no problem to combine drop cap and line style:

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Susan21139511sv37:

I'm not having issues recreating your formatting either so I'm suspecting you have some overrides. Select all of the text, remove the overrides (click the ¶* button at the bottom of the paragraph styles panel) and reassign the paragraph style. And of course make sure you are adding hard returns between the paragaraphs and not line breaks.

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Barb, can you make a drop cap and a line style work simultaneously? It's my experience that only some of these 'automatic styles' work together at all, with most needing exclusive application.

[Barb Binder]

Yes, James—I am showing it in my answer. As did @jmlevy.

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Okay, I'm feeling stupid again here. I was sure we'd established in some recent threads that line/nested/GREP and sometimes DC fought a bit and some combinations were either/or. There may well be some subtle cases of that, maybe involving two commands that oppose each other (color, font weight, override font) but in simple tests they all work and play together nicely.

I did establish that drop cap settings, especially any assigned style, do override all others applied to the first word/line/sentence, but that's to be expected. Need to tinker and see why I confirmed the OP's problem, at least in a quick test.

[Susan21139511sv37]

Unfortunately I'm still having the same issue. I removed the overrides and reassigned the paragraph style as instructed, and it's still not adding the small caps nested line style in all but one of the text boxes I've assigned it to.

My confusion here is that it is working on the first text box I'm using it on, but none of the others:

These are both in the same document, one page apart, with the same paragraph styles applied. I'm using only hard returns between paragraphs.

[Barb Binder]

Susan are you comfortable sharing a page of the file? You can save it under a new name, remove the other pages, put it on dropbox (or other file sharing server) and add the link here (public) or direct message me (private). There is an easy solution but since we hit the most common issues already, that would provide the quickest resolution.

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'm at a loss here, especially as I did replicate part of your problem in the first quick test. However, I set up completely new doc and created three styles with different fonts and colors, one with small caps... and I can make Body (Arno Pro, blue, Regular)+Drop Cap (Myriad Pro, Bold, red)+first line override (Baskerville, Regular, Small Caps, green) work perfectly, in one or several text boxes, and using either the Line Style or Nested Style for the last.

What's more confusing is that I know I've verified the collision between some of these options (especially if a GREP style is added) more than once... but can't replicate those problems with a clean file.

Three thoughts:

• I am beginning to wonder if your doc is corrupted. Have you done the save-to-IDML, open that, save as INDD under a new name 'purge'? That often fixes documents with subtle corruption and faults, especially ones that have been created or edited over many sessions.
• Have you completely cleared the Object Styles assigned to your text boxes, including any defaults that might be being dragged from doc to doc? Set each one to [None] and clear any/all overrrides.
• Have you tried this with other, more standard fonts -Minion, Myriad, TNR, Arial, etc.? Just in case it is some subtle fault in, say, the Baskerville?

But yes, your setup should work, and work anywhere it's assigned. Darn it. 🙂

[Susan21139511sv37]

Thank you both! I tried the purge file saving instructions, but the problem persisted.

James: I'm going to try your other suggestions next (clearing object styles, and trying other fonts).

In the meantime, Barb: I've sent you a message with the excerpted pages. Thank you for offering to take a look!

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi Emma!

Thank you for trusting me with your file. It was an overrides issue, just not the one I addressed initally.

The first time I assigned the style it worked as you described. On closer look, the word (Mixed) appears at the top of the Character panel. I Alt/Opt clicked on [None] to remove character-level overides and reassigned the style. It worked exactly as you hoped. 😊

~Barb

[Susan21139511sv37]

Aha -- amazing! Thank you so much, Barb. 

[Barb Binder]

Emma, we are always happy to help. Come back next time you get stuck!

~Barb

[Susan21139511sv37]

Hi Barb -- Would you mind explaining what the alt function does when alt-clicking [None] in the Character Styles menu for a selection? It's working great but I'm confused about why the alt-click is necessary, and what would be different if I just clicked w/no alt.

Thanks!