Style Sheets don't work anymore

[susan mazur]

Gang,

So I'm highlighting a bit of copy (paragraph) and going to New Style and naming it for the style. But but I go to apply that style in InDesign 2017, it no longer changes the type. I'm doing a calendar of events, so this is VERY frustrating!. I've already trashed my prefs. Has InDesign changed the way stylesheets work? I"m on a MAC. OS 10.10.5. My workload is backing up because of this.... HELP!

[Barb Binder]

No, I'm sure you are up against overrides. Try Alt/Opt clicking on the style name instead of just clicking it. Does that work?

If not show a screen shot of the entire screen with the cursor in the paragraph and the Styles panel open.

[susan mazur]

Hi Barb. No doesn't work.

[Barb Binder]

Can you show me the same view with the Characters Styles panel in front?

[susan mazur · Accepted solution]

[susan mazur]

barb... could it have something to do with the way the previous builder of this file created his stylesheets? the Character sheets seems to work, but not the paragraphs.

[Barb Binder]

So it looks to me, Susan that the paragraph in question has paragraph style assigned called Green Entry, but it also has a character style assigned to the entire paragraph called Calendar Events, which is overriding the paragraph style.

With the entire paragraph selected (as in the last screen shot), Alt/Opt click on [None] at the top of the Character styles list, and you should be good to go. (If not, of course come back and tell us!)

The background: Paragraphs styles should be used to format the entire paragraph, and character styles should be used to emphasize/differentiate words/strings within that paragraph. Trouble starts when a character format is assigned to an entire paragraph.

[susan mazur]

thanks for your help sorting this out Barb. I believe that the guy who originally built the file was using the wrong kind of stylesheet, as you were able to see quickly. I should have thought about that. This gentleman often has a strange way of building files. I'm glad it's not something broken in InDesign! I'm rebuilding the file correctly. Thanks so much for your help. Sometimes you just need a fresh eye on things like this.

[Barb Binder]

I'm glad I could help you, Susan.