Object Styles

Part of the natural evolution of global formatting, Object Styles takes the concept of Paragraph and Characters styles and applies it to text and graphic frames as well as to lines and pen paths. Within one style name, you can save such attributes as fill color, stroke weight, stroke color, the number of columns in the frame, drop shadow, etc. You can also incorporate into the Object Style definition the Paragraph Style that should be applied to the text inside the frame. By using the Next Style option it is possible to apply paragraph styles sequentially to more than one paragraph.You get to control which settings the Object Style affects by including or excluding a category in the style definition.

Just like Paragraph and Character styles, you can base one Object Style on another, creating a parent-and-child relationship so that when you change the base or parent style, the "child" style changes as well.

Tip

When you create a Style Sheet you may not be the only person who uses it. Or you may find yourself returning to Style Sheets that you created weeks, months, even years before. So that you and the other members of your team don't get confused by Nested Styles, adopt a naming convention that is transparent. For example, append "_nested" after the style name.

Each document begins its life with a [Basic Text Frame] and a [Basic Graphics Frame] Object Style. By default these styles are applied respectively to any text or graphic frames you create. Just as with the [Basic Paragraph] style you can edit these [Basic] styles, but you can't delete them. If you want to change these default styles for a text frame, choose Default Text Frame Style or Default Graphics Frame Style from the Object Styles palette fly-out menu, and then select from your available Object Styles.