Change Default Paragraph Shading Color FOR AN EXISTING DOCUMENT

[keithconover]

I am doing a lot of revision work that requires me to shade changed paragraphs in yellow. I use the Essentials Classic workspace as it meets my needs most of the time and I'm used to it.

It used to be that in InDesign you could start up InDesign and change something in the Control Bar (or what MS calls the Ribbon) with no document open and that would set the default.

Well, I start with no documents open, and of course I now see the Start workspace which doesn't have the control bar. So, without a document open, I go up to the top of the screen on the right, and switch to Essentials Classic and change from dark blue (who wants to highlight a paragraph that's usually in black text with dark blue, anyway?) to yellow. And now whenever I open a new document, the default paragraph shading is yellow. Great!

But how do I change the default for existing documents? Without copying every existing document into a new document? Every time I open a new document it keeps defaulting to that @#%$@#$% blue again!

Appreciate any help. Probably something very obvious.

[Bill Silbert]

Try this. Upon opening an existing document with no text frames selected open the Paragraph Panel, activate the shading option and change the color to what you want. Then uncheck the option and do a save of the document. Then when you select text that you want shaded and reactivate the shading option it should still have the color that you set. It worked for me with CC 2019 on an iMac.

[keithconover]

Thanks for the reply! I am using InDesign 2019 14.0.1 x64 Windows. I find that if I do as you say:

Open an existing document with no text frames selected

Done.

Open the Paragraph Panel

Done.

Activate the shading option and change the color to what you want.

Done, changed to yellow.

Then uncheck the option and do a save of the document.

Done.

Reopened, and as long as a text frame is not selected, the default of yellow is in there.

But as soon as I select any text, it changes back to blue.

I also tried changing the default and exiting InDesign entirely and reopening the document and still doesn't work.

I suspect this may be a bug in the Windows version that isn't there in the Mac version.

[rob day]

I am using InDesign 2019 14.0.1 x64 Windows.

BTW, in the recent versions, the Paragraph Shading for [No Paragraph Style] is set to [Black] and Off. There was a problem in earlier versions with it being set to the default cyan swatch.

[jane-e]

Hi Keith,

The reason I don't like either Essentials or Essentials Classic is that it does not have paragraph, character, and object style. That's why I use the Advanced Workspace.

• Here I started a new document so it only has [Basic. Paragraph] with no overrides.
  
• As soon as I enable Shading [Basic Paragraph] shows an override. Note that I also made the color yellow.
• For me, I don't use Basic Paragraph and I don't base other styles on it. Not ever. So the answer for you depends on what styles you are using. For me Bullets, indents, etc., are all based on Body Text, so I can modify Body text and it will ripple through.

What kind of styles do you have in your document if any?

[keithconover]

I guess I have customized Essentials Classic to be the way I like it, don't remember doing this but must have. Long ago, maybe as far back as switching from Xerox Ventura Publisher, I decided what I want in what order, and whenever Adobe trashes my customized panel, I quickly recreate it and move on. I guess the last time I just customized Essentials Classic and then kept on going without thinking about it much. I do occasionally change what I keep on the right side there, but below is what's there currently.  I guess we could go on and argue about which things should be on here, which I'm sure is different for everyone, but would be an enlightening discussion. Or, which order they should be in, which actually might be the same for most people, given we're talking usability, specifically discoverability, learnability and memorability; sorry, I'm a UX geek. P.S. I do like using [Basic Paragraph] so that I can make very global changes to a document quickly. P.P.S. I have lots of styles, see far below.

For a large family of documents I work on and update regularly (textbooks and governing documents for the Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference, see some of them at http://asrc.net) and below shows most of the styles. I use a Book Panel to keep the styles synchronized between the documents. My collection of styles gets dirty when I have to add something for a particularly problem, but then every now and then I go in there with a broom and clean things up, consolidating some styles.

[jane-e]

Hi Keith,

First, thank you to all of you who do Search and Rescue on the AT. Bear’s Den is just an hour west of me down Rt. 7, and I hope you were all able to drive out on Sunday morning last weekend with all of the snow. Winter hiking is the best!

And Ventura Publisher! I started with VP 1.0 before it was Xerox, and loved it so much!

Now on to your issues:

Once you customize your workspace, use the Workspace switcher or the Window menu to give it a name. Then you can reset it or load it back in or even save over it if you customize it again.

Workspace basics in InDesign

Scroll to Save and Switch Workspaces

If your styles are based on basic, all you need to do is redefine Basic to include the highlight. Otherwise, body might stand alone, and first para and bullet might be based on body. So only body needs to be changed.

Instead of Basic, some people create a similar style with a different name that includes hyphenation, justification, etc., and base styles off of that, while not trusting Basic itself.

Jane

[keithconover]

See my reply below about whether this is a Paragraph Style error, I don't think so.

As far as Bears Den, the driveway there is slightly downhill and then level with one curve that is very wide, so none of us had any trouble getting out with the snow. Several of us stayed after the Board of Directors meeting to snowshoe on the trails a bit. Nice snowy day!\

We've had winter retreats at the Blackburn Trail Center not far away on the Appalachian Trail, but the driveway there is not nearly so good and we've had some trouble with people getting in or out in the snow, even with 4WD; I damaged the side step on my Land Cruiser there two years ago slipping sideways and scraping a big rock. That and the fact that Bears Den has better heat and showers convinced us to switch a few years ago.

[rob day]

I decided what I want in what order, and whenever Adobe trashes my customized panel, I quickly recreate it and move on.

You might look at Window>Workspace>New Workspace..., which lets you arrange and save a custom workspace. From there you can always reset your custom space via Window>Workspace>Reset, or adjust it and re save with the same name.

P.S. I do like using [Basic Paragraph] so that I can make very global changes to a document quickly. P.P.S. I have lots of styles, see far below.

I think Jane is right, if most of your styles are based on [Basic Paragraph] is likely the source of your problem. Take a look at this thread:

Re: Why (or why not) use Basic Paragraph style?

Expanding on Jane's overridden example, here I have two paragraphs—the top paragraph is styled with [Basic Paragraph], but was overridden via the Paragraph panel and shows a + sign. The second is defined with a style named Based on Basic, which was based on [Basic Paragraph]

My Based on Basic style doesn't change because [Basic Paragraph] has been overridden, but not Redefined

Redefining [Basic Paragraph] changes my Based on Basic style's Paragraph Shading to the intended color.

[keithconover]

As far as saving customized interfaces, I used to do it with a custom-named "Keith's" but after several upgrades and trying to trace down where the customized ones resided and got left behind during the upgrades, somewhere along the line I just customized one of the builtin workspaces once InDesign allowed this. Also makes it easier to sync the workspaces to from my desktop to my laptop so they are the same on both, I use GoodSync (wonderful program), and sync C:\Users\kcono\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\Version 14.0, C:\Users\kcono\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe PDF\Settings, and C:\Users\kcono\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe\Linguistics\UserDictionaries\Adobe Custom Dictionary\en_US. This syncs all your preferences, including words you add to the dictionary in InDesign as well as any customized PDF output preferences. Works like a charm.

As far as the paragraph shading...

I created a new document with no (zero, nada) styles other than Basic Paragraph.

I made one (1) text frame.

I typed several paragraphs of text into it and made sure they were all [No Paragraph Style].

The default paragraph shading started out as blue (a different shade of blue than those existing documents I was have problems with, I have not the slightest idea what that means).

I shaded one paragraph yellow.

I then carefully deselected the one text frame, and in the Paragraph Panel, changed it from blue to yellow.

I then closed the document and opened it again.

If I then, with nothing on the page selected, look at the Paragraph Panel, the default paragraph shading is yellow.

As soon as I select the text frame, the Paragraph Panel shows a thicklined box (can't click) for paragraph shading, which is as it should be, as one paragraph is shaded yellow, just like in my documents.

If I click in the paragraph that's shaded yellow, the Paragraph Panel and the Control Bar both show yellow. But as soon as I click in any unshaded paragraph in the text frame, the Paragraph Panel and the Control Bar both switch the default back to the original blue.

Again, this is on Windows, not Mac, so there might be a tiny error in the code on the Windows version causing this even if it doesn't work this way on the Mac.

[jane-e]

keithconover  wrote

1. If I then, with nothing on the page selected, look at the Paragraph Panel, the default paragraph shading is yellow.
   
   
2. As soon as I select the text frame, the Paragraph Panel shows a thicklined box (can't click) for paragraph shading, which is as it should be, as one paragraph is shaded yellow, just like in my documents.
   
   
3. If I click in the paragraph that's shaded yellow, the Paragraph Panel and the Control Bar both show yellow. But as soon as I click in any unshaded paragraph in the text frame, the Paragraph Panel and the Control Bar both switch the default back to the original blue.

Again, this is on Windows, not Mac, so there might be a tiny error in the code on the Windows version causing this even if it doesn't work this way on the Mac.

Hi Keith,

Keep your Paragraph panel open when you do these steps. At any point is there an asterisk by the style name to indicate an override? If yes, then update the style from the panel menu.

Also, what happens when you start a new frame instead of clicking in an existing frame?

I’m on Mac, so I can’t test Windows.

I’m glad you got to play in the snow last weekend. Today there are wind gusts of up to 50 mph and that‘s when I worry about tree limbs blowing down on the trail.

~ Jane

[keithconover]

I kept my Paragraph Panel open, and there were no overrides, so that's not it. P.S. The clear overrides is so handy that I assigned a keyboard shortcut to it.

[rob day]

but after several upgrades and trying to trace down where the customized ones resided and got left behind during the upgrades

When you upgrade there is an option to migrate your preferences. If you don't want to migrate the saved workspaces live in the InDesign preferences folder.

On OSX it is here: Users/username/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/Version #/en_US/Workspaces

On Windows it should be: Users/<USER>/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/InDesign/<Version #>/<Language>/Workspaces

I typed several paragraphs of text into it and made sure they were all [No Paragraph Style].

How did you do that?  [Basic Paragraph Style] is based on [No Paragraph Style], but there's no option to choose [No Paragraph Style] in the Paragraph Styles panel.

So here I've altered my [Basic Paragraph Style] (no + sign), and the Options dialog lists the changes I made :

The [No Paragraph Style] style is not editable, and to use it with no alterations, I would have to make a copy of the [Basic Paragraph] style and reset it to the [No Paragraph Style] base—MinionPro Regular, 12pt, auto leading, etc.

I then carefully deselected the one text frame, and in the Paragraph Panel, changed it from blue to yellow.

Because you are using the Paragraph panel, and not the Paragraph Styles panel, you are setting the document's future text frame default, which may or may not include a (overridden) paragraph, character, or object style.

[keithconover]

As to how I typed text in [No Paragraph Style] it's simple. New document with no styles at all, create a rectangle frame and start typing into it.

[rob day]

New document with no styles at all, create a rectangle frame and start typing into it.

The [No Paragraph Style] style is the application root paragraph style–[Basic Paragraph Style] is based on it, and you have to base all of your styles either on [No Paragraph Style] or [Basic Paragraph Style]. You can't edit the [No Paragraph Style] style, and it is not listed in the Paragraph Styles panel

You can use Break Link to Style, but in that case there is no style applied, which is not the same as the root [No Paragraph Style].

[mistra tulip monroe]

Alert people as much as you can I have the secret you wanna see