Can I format a paragraph in illustrator, with multiple text sizes?

Question

Hi,
I have a number of paragraphs in illustrator that have the following...
a title = Arial bold 18 pt.
body text =Arial reg 14 pt.
and indents with bullets
It seems that illustrator only supports one font, size, color, etc. for each Paragraph style. I would like to be able to set the title to Arial bold, 18pt, Blue, and the body text to Arial regular, 14pt, white, with different leadings, within the same style setting. Does anyone know if this can be done?
Thank you in advance.
Knewt

Answer 1

What are you guys talking about? Since when does InDesign support multiple text attributes for a single Paragraph Style? At least in CS3 InDesign's Paragraph Styles have settings for nested Character Styles and drop caps, but you still define one set of text attributes for the Paragraph Style itself.
In principle it's basically the same in Illustrator. If you want to actually have multiple text treatments in one paragraph, you apply Character Styles to text ranges within the paragraph. Illustrator's implementation of it is pure crap in that inheritance and style redefinition does not work correctly, but the fact remains you certainly can have multiple text treatments in one paragraph, but it is not done with a single Paragraph Style. If using Styles (as you should) it is a matter of nesting Character Styles within paragraphs that have Paragraph Styles applied.
But I strongly suspect that what Mr. Harley is describing is not really a single paragraph at all. He wants different text sizes, different indents, and bullets. That clearly involves multiple paragraphs.
Harley, in part of your description of what you want, you seem to be referring to a single textframe object as a "paragraph." A paragraph is a range of text separated by a carriage return. When you define and apply a Paragraph Style, the carriage return defines the range of the Style. When you define and apply a Character Style, the selected range of characters define the range of the Style. You can use multiple Character Styles within a paragraph that has a Paragraph Style applied.
But you are talking about the need to define several Paragraph Styles to use in one block of text, or "story" (one or several textframe objects). You just need to define three Paragraph Styles:
Heading: Arial Bold 18 pt.
Body: Arial Regular 14 pt.
BodyBullet: Same as Body, but with different indents. Set a tab at the bullet location and at the left indent. (You type your bullet characters; you don't just select "bullets" from a setting.)
Type all your text, using carriage returns as you would expect. Each carriage return marks the beginning of a new paragraph. (This is as true in Illustrator as it is in InDesign, Word, or anything else.) Click inside a paragraph and apply the appropriate Paragraph Style.
Now suppose you want to use a convention within your document that emphasizes certain words or phrases by painting them magenta instead of whatever color is defined in the Paragraph Style. Create a Character Style. Name it Emphasis. In that Style, set the character color to magenta. Now swipe across a word in one of your paragraphs and apply the Emphasis Character Style. The whole paragraph still has the Paragraph Style you applied to it. But now the color of a few characters is overridden by the Character Style you have applied to those characters.
Again, like many things in Illustrator, its implementation of Paragraph Styles and Character Styles is very sloppy compared to other programs. But it is not true that 'InDesign can apply multiple text treatments in a single Paragraph Style, and Illustrator can't.' At least not up to CS3.
JET