Paragraph styles wrongly getting applied to next and previous paragraph

[dzgnr89]

I am using Indesign 2022 v17.2

I am trying to apply paragraph styles to questions and a set of answers in Indesign. Unfortunately, when I try to apply one style to the questions, it applies the same style to the set of answer options.

Similarly, if I try to apply a particular style to the first option, i.e. option A, then it applies the same style to the question.

What should I do to prevent this from happening?

I am going to apply this specific formatting to a set of more than 250 questions and their answer options, so I am trying to find out a solution to this issue.

I have enclosed the the indd and idml files

Here is a video that shows exactly what I am facing.

[jmlevy · Accepted solution]

You have used soft returns instead of paragraph returns, and the first part of the answer is actually in the same paragraph than the question. Soft returns do not create a new paragraph.

I also noticed that you have a blank line with a soft return, which is absolutely useless. Use space after the paragraph style question if you want extra space between the question and the answer.

Other point: on your video, I see that you select the whole paragraph to apply the paragraph style. You don't need to do this: simply put the cursor in the paragraph and apply the style.

You also could use the “next style” feature to apply both the paragraph styles “question” and “answer” in a single click.

https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-how-to-use-the-next-style-attribute/

[dzgnr89]

Thanks a lot! Toggling on the hidden characters and then using them in GREP based find/replace helped a lot. How can I integrate usage of  “next style” feature in GREP based find/replace?

[jmlevy]

How can I integrate usage of  “next style” feature in GREP based find/replace?

I don't think it is possible to do this.

[Willi Adelberger]

Next style cannot be integrated with GREP, but it can be used as part of Object Styles and when you apply a Paragraph Style via the Pargraph Style Panel, right mous click on any paragraph style, where next style is different to the selected one.