Paragraph/Character not working properly

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Hello, I placed a word Doc to create a magazine. I have tried to apply paragraph and character styles to my document, but it is as if the program did not capture all the formatting and it only captures the formating of the first line, not the group of lines. I'm working against a deadline, what can be causing this issue?

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Oderay26789584ky85:

In an English class, a paragraph is 3 to 5 sentences. On a computer, a paragraph is any text terminated with a hard return. (¶)

You posted your screenshot without showing us your hidden characters (Type > Show Hidden Characters), but I would have to assume (without seeing them) that the first two lines are two separate paragraphs. Each of the ingredients is its own paragraph. And the 1.) is the beginning of yet another paragraph. If not, they should be. It's possible there are line breaks but again, we can't tell unless you show us the hidden characters.

The document you are showing us will need four paragraph styles: one for the title, one for the contributor, one for the ingredients and one for the instructions. There is no need for any character styles—used to emphasize words within a paragraph—within your screen shot.

~Barb

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Hello, Barb.

This is for a cookbook at my employer. I wanted to use paragraph styles and character styles to format the document and not have to apply the same format manually. Isn’t the styles supposed to do that?

Sent from Mail<> for Windows

[Barb Binder]

I wanted to use paragraph styles and character styles to format the document and not have to apply the same format manually. Isn't the styles supposed to do that?

Yes, but you still have to:

1. create the styles, and
2. assign the styles.

Once created and assigned, the benefit of using paragraphs styles are as follows:

1. 1-click to assign a paragraph style to an entire paragraph (i.e., the next and subsequent recipe titles)
2. uniform formatting across the document (i.e., all the recipe titles are formatted the exact same way because they rely on the defined paragraph style definition), and 
3. you can edit the style definition and all paragraphs using the style will update (i.e., change the recipe title style definition to blue, and it is up to InDesign—not us—to locate and update every single recipe title in the entire document.)

Again, you did not demonstrate a need for character styles in your screen shot. You might need them elsewhere, but not on the text you shared with us. 

You might find it helpful to stop and learn the basics of using styles before returning to the project. InDesign is a very complex application, and all of us need to spend time getting up to speed on the features we are using for the first time. It's not the type of application you can open up and teach yourself in a few hours. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/paragraph-character-styles.html

~Barb

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Ma'am, you are not even reading what I'm saying. What part of "InDesing does not capture the formating of the paragraph in the paragraph or character style" is not clear. I know how to create a style, but InDesing' paragraph/character style is not capturing the format I'm applying to the paragraph. It only captures the first line, not the rest.

thanks!

[Robert Tkaczyk]

It's possible that part of your text in the paragraph have local formatting applied - you need to CLEAR OVERRIDES - keep Alt key and re-apply ParaStyle.

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/indesign/using/paragraph-character-styles.html

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Thank you, Robert!

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Oderay26789584ky85:

I am reading your posts carefully.

I think it would be very helpful if would post the exact same same screen shot you posted yesterday, but with the Hidden Characters Visible. Choose Type > Show Hidden Characters. 

~Barb

[Barb Binder]

Hi Oderay:

I have to run—but let me leave with this video as way of showing visually you what I was saying in my first response. A paragraph is anything up to 1 hard return (the blue ¶s). The recipe as you have shared so far will need four paragraph styles: one for the title, one for the contributor, one for the ingredients and one for the instructions. 

It's possible that the file was provided to you with line breaks, so that the entire recipe is presenting as a single paragraph, and that is why I requested a screen shot with the hidden characters visible. If that is the case, remove the line breaks and add the paragraph breaks. 

I know that you are frustrated. Please remember that we are here to help.

~Barb

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Thank you, Barb. Seeing it helps. You are probably right. Someone gave me a word file that I placed in the Document. Since then, I have had problems non stop with text jumping to the next page every time I hit enter and also with the styles. things are clearer now. Now, is there any way to create a paragraph style containing different formating for a whole page? One that is not a master page?

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Thank you for your patience and help. Oderay

[Robert Tkaczyk]

If your text is jumping to the next page:

1) you are hitting numeric keypad Enter

2) you have set "start on the new page" or "start in the next text frame" option in your ParaStyle definition. 

What do you mean "for the whole page"? 

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Please see attached. That is a page that I finished. I would like to repeat the formatting of the whole page with a paragraph style instead of creating a Master if possible.

[Robert Tkaczyk]

No offence, but all your questions are about basic stuff 😞 you need to use help, Google, watch some videos - free or paid tutorials 😞

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Wow, yeah thanks for assuming that I didn't do my research or learn the program before. I have done all those things, but InDesing is given me a miriad of issues, google didn't clear them up and that is why I'm here just to be embarrased for reaching out for help. Thanks!

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Oderay26789584ky85:

Are you hoping to assign paragraph styles to an entire page, and not one at a time or as a multi-line selection, the way I showed in the first video? There is a feature called Next Style that can assigned cascading styles to a range of text, but unfortunately it isn't going to get you where you want to go in this document, based on your screen shot. 

As for text moving to the next page, most keyboards have two Enter keys. In most applications, they do the same thing—they start a new paragraph. In InDesign the Enter key to the left starts a new paragraph, the one on the right adds a column break and pushes the text that follows it to the next column or page. Are you perhaps hitting the one on the right?

If not, there are keep options at play that are pushing the text to the next page automatically. 

~Barb

[Oderay26789584ky85]

Barb, thank you for the explanation. I was unaware of that difference, but the answer is no. I have been using the enter on the left all the time and I do not have another option (that I know off) that will make the paragraph jump as it does. Regarding the "Next Style" option, cool. I will check it out, and thank you for answering my question. It has been really frustrating working with InDesing, I love the program, but it has giving me a miriad of issues, for example: I created a drop cap style, after this, it applied it to anything I copied and pasted. No idea how to make it stop. Another example, the images that I have put as background, despite they are set to be on the back of the page and behind text, cover the pg numbers in some pages and it does not in other pages.The set up is the same on both. Master is set up to show the pg numbers front of the pg., so again, no idea about that issue as well. 

[Robert Tkaczyk]

The answer to your problems with Page Numbers covered by graphics - Layers.

Whatever you put on the MasterSpread - will be covered by the objects placed on the normal page - so you need to create Layer - call it "Top" - and place all objects that needs to be over everything that you put on normal pages.

Then lock this layer so you won't put anything on this layer on the normal pages.

[Peter Spier]

It sounds like you selcted your drop cap style without any text selected. That's how you set a default style..

[Barb Binder]

Hi Oderay:

It has been really frustrating working with InDesing, I love the program, but it has giving me a miriad of issues

Are you teaching yourself InDesign or have you attended training? As I have tried to gently point out, InDesign has a steep learning curve and it's not intuitive for a new user trying to figure it out on their own.

I highly recommend seeking out training. Yes, it will take time away from your layout, but it will address these questions (and so many more) and will minimize your frustration. If you are on a tight budget, check to see if your local library will give you access to their LinkedIn learning subscription (usually free for the community). Even a day or two of watching the pre-recorded training classes will be life-changing for you.

~Barb

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Oderay26789584ky85:

I see your finished page—great work. There is some confusion on terminology that I'd like to address: a master page (or parent page) is used for repeating items like page numbers, headers and footers. I do not see any of those in your finished-page screen shot. 

To address the subsequent recipe pages, you will need to assign the sames styles that you created to the first page, as you saw in the second column of my animated gif. There is no magical shortcut to assign all those styles at one time. Alternatively, you can copy that page as it stands and change the content, but that's likely to take longer. 

~Barb