Not able to apply styles

[777bbbbq]

I'm a newbie who has read up on this topic a bit, but I seem to be missing something that is so basic that no one mentions it in their tutorials.

I can't figure out how to apply a paragraph style to an unstyled frame. I highlight the unstyled frame and then click on a style in the style box.  And yet the frame text does not change to reflect the style when I click and/or double-click on the style.  And I do not see any option to "apply style" in the style panel, even when I right click on the style name in the style panel.  I can give a style to a new frame and then copy that frame to retain the style.  But I so far cannot figure out how to assign a pre-existing paragraph style to a pre-existing frame that has no style.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Steve Werner · Accepted solution]

I think you're confusing paragraph styles with object styles if I'm understanding what you're trying to do.

To apply a paragraph style, use the Type tool, and click in or highlight the paragraph(s) you want to include.

You don't highlight the frame. Highlighting the frame wit the Selection tool could be used for applying an object style. You could use this to add a drop shadow to the frame (NOT the text), for example.

[777bbbbq]

Thanks. That's solved the immediate problem.  I now can assign a style to the text.  I'm still a little confused about the fact that some of my text frames seem to have a paragraph style associated with them (because a style becomes highlighted in the frame panel when I select such frames) and some my text frames don't have a style associated with of them ("no style" appears in frame panel when I select them).  But that's probably a discussion for another thread -- and it's something that I'll hopefully figure out soon as I work with it a bit.

[jmlevy]

@Steve Werner  I am not sure of your answer: it is possible to apply paragraph styles by selecting a frame with the selection tool, but it will apply the same style to all the paragraphs of the frame.

@777bbbbq I think you are confusing paragraph styles and character styles. The “no style ” information does not exist in the paragraph style panel, but only in the character style panel.

[BobLevine]

Worth noting that applying the paragraph to the frame, IIRC, will only work with a single frame, not a threaded frame.

[Steve Werner]

You are correct, jmlevy, about applying paragraph styles from a frame (with the limitation that Bob mentioned).

But as a teacher, I try to make the distinction for a beginner because they need to understand the distinction between paragraph styles and object styles. Gets them into the right way of working from the beginning. At least, that's the way I approach it.

It's also important as a teacher to get them to use paragraph styles for all the text in a paragraph, and character styles for a selection of text within a paragraph. It's just a good practice to create clean and edtable layouts.

[jmlevy]

I absolutely agree with you, Steve (and by the way, I am a former InDesign instructor…)