Idea File Fall 2024

InDesign Tutorial | 23

ADOBE ® INDESIGN ® Watch the video tutorial by scanning the QR code to follow along. The written directions below will help with the basics but won’t cover all aspects of Style creation in InDesign.

1. Open the Paragraph Styles and Character Styles panels in InDesign. a. Go to Windows > Styles > Paragraph Styles . b. Do the same for Character Styles . 2. There are many ways to create styles, but I’ll go over the easiest. a. Using the Type tool, create a text box. b. Type your headline and use the Character panel to adjust the font. I used Hello Monday at 78 pt with 64 pt leading. If you can’t locate your Character panel, go to Window > Type and Tables > Character . Do the same for Paragraph . 3. Create your Header Paragraph Style. a. Open your Paragraph Style panel . b. [Basic Paragraph]+ should be the only line displayed. c. At the bottom, click [+] to create a new style. This will generate a style based on the text currently selected. d. Apply that style to your current header by clicking the Paragraph Style 1 style we just created. Single click the style to rename it. 4. Create your Body Copy Paragraph Style. a. In the same textbox, hit Enter or Return on your keyboard to create a new paragraph. b. Notice it’s using the header style. Select the Basic Paragraph style to reset to default. c. Edit your Body copy to your specifications. I used Abel at 14 pt with 16 pt leading. d. Repeat C and D of the previous step to create a Body Copy style. 5. Adjust spacing. a. With your Type tool, click on your header copy. Open your Paragraph panel and increase the Space After value. b. You’ll see a + symbol next to your header copy to indicate the current text does not follow the style format. Right-click your Header copy and select Redefine Style . c. Adjust the spacing on your body copy by adding space before or after, and redefine the style like before. 6. Create a Bold Character Style. a. In your Character Style panel, click [+] to create a new style. b. Double-click the new style to open Character Style Options. c. Rename to Bold and click Basic Character Formats on the left. d. Set Font Style to bold and click Okay at the bottom. e. Now highlight any word you want to bold and apply the Bold Style . Why do this when you can just manually adjust body copy or change a font to bold using the Character panel? Well, if you suddenly need to change the color of every bolded word in your book, simply edit your Character Style’s color in the Option menu, and it will be applied everywhere you’ve used that Character or Paragraph Style . By Zach Field