Nested Style Sheets

[clarenceg88901489]

Working on a catalog with 200 individual paragraph entries that need to be styled the same.
There are 3 different styles within each paragraph which consists of 4 lines each.
I have followed the directions in several YouTube tutorials but I'm obviously missing a step somewhere because I can't get them to work. I think the problem may lie in the drop downs for "up to" and "through" as well as the final drop down of choices to finish the line. I have tried to set up both Nested Line Style and Nested Style and neither work for me. I have done this catalog in the past by highlighting each line and selecting the style for it but that is incredibly tedious and time consuming.
Anyone have any pointers?

[BobLevine]

Screenshots of your paragraph styles and the character styles you're assigning within the nested styles would go a long way to helping us to help you.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@clarenceg88901489

Or share a sample INDD document - with a few paragraphs.

[clarenceg88901489]

Thanks for the responses

[clarenceg88901489]

It won't let me upload the font.
Error message reads "Correct the highlighted errors and try again. The attachment's acuminvariableconcept.otf content type (font/otf) does not match its file extension and has been removed."
It's an otf font which is listed as acceptable

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Don't worry about the font.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Pretty much your WHOLE text has [Basic Paragraph] applied.

Everything is "locally formatted":

And you've individual paragraphs - not multiline ones:

So in this case - only Next Style option will help - give me a moment.

[Willi Adelberger]

I would not use nested styles at all. Make for each line with different formatting a specific paragraph style (never based on basic style), incorporate next style, select all and apply paragraph style end next style (with the right mouse click on the first paragraph style in the panel).

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Willi Adelberger 

There are too many inconsistencies in the text - empty Paragraphs - that's easy to fix - but then there are missing rows in the data - and different rows, that might require different formatting.

[Willi Adelberger]

With line styles you end up with even the same problem. With a paragraph style it is easier to solve. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

With line styles you end up with even the same problem. With a paragraph style it is easier to solve. 

By @Willi Adelberger

I'm not talking about Line Styles. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@clarenceg88901489 

Attached is your file - but as you don't have correct structure everywhere - you'll have to "restart" next style from time-to-time - no "Sire":

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@clarenceg88901489 

Or use F/C GREP and apply ParaStyles directly:

1st line - ALWAYS has a word in " ",

2nd line - ALWAYS has a code in ( ),

3rd line - ALWAYS starts with "Sire",

4th line - ALWAYS starts with "Breeders",

5th line - ALWAYS starts with two tabs,

So you could use my INDD file. 

Or, you could use GREP Styles and apply CharStyles - but it wouldn't be a good solution - unless it's "do and forget" type of the job.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@clarenceg88901489 

[...]

Or, you could, use GREP Styles and apply CharStyles:

There is one more GREP Style - for paragraphs starting with "Dam:".

Attached is your file - you'll have to edit CharStyles - set your formatting 😉

[Scott Falkner]

A few problems:

1. You are using a return to separate lines, which makes each line its own paragraph. There is no way to use Nested Styles or Line Styles to format this way since each paragraph is always the first line. Either change the returns to line breaks (Shift + Return) or use different paragraph styles for each line and use the Next Style attribute to assign the next style. You can then select a range of text and right-click on the style for the first paragraph and select Apply [style] then Next Style. To set this up make sure each style has a Next Style attribute in its definition, including having the last style setup to use the first style again.
2. You appear to be using Basic Paragraph Style. This is not well known (and not agreed by power users) but it is my belief that using this style is a bad idea, especially if you also edit the style. Better to never use the style, never change it from the application default, and never base any styles on Basic Paragraph Style. Doing any of these will often cause text copied between documents to change formatting in unwanted and unexpected ways.
3. You are using multiple tabs to align text. Don’t. Use the tab ruler to set tab positions and use one tab. This makes it easier to make adjustments to the position of tabbed text and keep text aligned when formatting or content changes.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Scott Falkner

Not sure if you've seen my replies? 

Next Style solution won't work, as there are "missing" and "alternative" lines. 

[clarenceg88901489]

Thanks everyone for all your help. I thought the formatting might also be affecting it. I get a file sent to me somewhat preformatted in a PDF. Next time I will request it in a proper format.

Thank you all again.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@clarenceg88901489

Your text is "not so bad".

Have you seen my replies and checked last INDD file? 

If you'll have exactly the same data - even plain text file - it will get styled automatically. 

You would have to just apply "All" ParaStyle to the whole contents, apply "[None]" CharStyle - and that's it.

If I've missed more of the "Dam:" type Paragraphs - it can be easily added. 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

If you clean up the formatting a bit, you might be able to use the semi-automatic Next Style settings.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

If you clean up the formatting a bit, you might be able to use the semi-automatic Next Style settings.

By @Dave Creamer of IDEAS

No, it's rather not possible as it would require adding a lot of blank paragraphs - which would be unnecessary work. 

And there are "alternative" paragraphs. 

Is my solution hidden or something? 

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Depending on the data source, keep the blank paragraphs (as long as each listing has the same number of blanks), apply next style, the use GREP Find/Change to remove empty paragraphs. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Depending on the data source, keep the blank paragraphs (as long as each listing has the same number of blanks), apply next style, the use GREP Find/Change to remove empty paragraphs. 

By @Dave Creamer of IDEAS

The problem isn't in KEEPING - but rather in adding - to the current file. 

Yes, if data can be (re)generated differently - Next Style would work.

But it won't on the current file - and it would be too much of extra work. 

Because text has quite "unique" structure - in terms of the contents of each line - GREP Styles work fine. 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/nested-style-sheets/m-p/15251744#M619581