Quick Apply with Next Style

I did a google search and didn't find anything on how to do this. A few minutes later i stumbled on a way however and thought i would share.
Create an Object style that only specifies paragraph style and check the next style box...
Assign a hotkey

Hi Fred,
I think the problem exists also with CS6 on Windows 8. The new CC SciptUI is completely rewritten, and was probably tested on Windows 8 as well.
If you've got Windows 8 installed and ID CS5 or CS6, you should be able to test this and see what, if anything, can be done.
I doubt that Adobe are going to fix it, of course, because as far as they're concerned CC is probably the "fix" they want people to use!
Actually, Microsoft are probably the people to blame, as their aim is always backwards compatibility with new Windows releases, and this is broken for ScriptUI.

Similar Messages

Problem with Next Style in Paragraph Style

The "Next Style" function is not working for me anymore! As an example, when I make a subhead with a first paragraph specified as the Next Style, the specification for that paragraph does not take effect upon specifying the subhead in the previous paragraph. Anybody else having this problem, or am I just losing it, which is entirely possible! Thanks. DL

Hi,
Are you expecting it as some kind of dinamic tool?
As far as I know it works in at least 2 situations.
1. If you are typing text with paraStyle, defined with filled "Next Style" field, and you press "Enter" ==> next para will be formatted (during typing) with "Next Style".
2. If your textFrame is set by ObjectStyle, and its textFrame.paragraphStyle property is choosen, and "next Style" checkbox is checked
==> you can build a logic chain of paraStyles which will be automatically applied to textFrame contents, when placed into.
thanks

Help with applying "Next Style"

Is there anyway to assign a keyboard shortcut that would apply a paragraph style and it's associated next style? Or, alternatively, is there a way to create a paragraph style that ALWAYS applies the next style assigned to it?
In short, I'm really just looking for a faster way to accomplish this than highlighting three graphs, then right clicking and choosing from a context menu over and over again. I'm working on a list of businesses, with contacts, phone numbers, address, websites, etc. all included, and can't set up a loop (or don't know of a way to do one) because the length of the list is variable at times (some don't have a fax number, some don't have a website, some have multiple phone numbers, etc.). So I'm just looking for a more efficient way to do this than having to go through the context menu for each of the 500 entries.
thanks in advance,
~k
Message was edited by: kris.clifford (fix typo)

kris.clifford wrote:
The data was placed from an excel spreadsheet, then I used find and replace to replace each tab stop (new cell) with a hard return, replaced soft returns with hard returns, and removed multiple returns and multiple spaces. All the data now is in the right order, it's just a matter of formatting.
I probably could find a way to do it using soft returns and nested styles, but I think making sure all the soft returns were in the right places and setting up the nested style options would take as much time as just going through applying next style manually through the context menu.
I've done more research since first posting, and it doesn't look like what I'm hoping for is possible without a script. Obviously I can create a shortcut for the first of the styles in each block (which I have), I just wish there was a way of telling it to apply the next style every time it's used. Oh well. Maybe in future versions. Thanks for the help though!
~k
If there's a consistent, unique, and identifiable feature in each paragraph, a multiple GREP search-and-replace operation might work. For example, if each line is labeled, like fax, phone, zip, etc, these can be found by GREP and a paragraph can be applied with the replace. If there are no labels, perhaps content might work. For example, names would have at least two consecutive capitalized words, with the exception of celebs like Bono, Madonna, Sade, etc. Addresses would begin with a number, single or multiple digits, then perhaps at least one capitalized word or capitalized initial for direction (North, N, etc,) and/or end in designators like Av., Ave., Avenue, Street, Lane, Terrace, etc. Phone numbers fit a pattern. If phones always precede fax numbers, and there's only one phone, thats a findable pattern. Zipcodes, also.
Look into the FindChangeByList.jsx sample script included with InDesign; in the Scripts folder, findchangebylist.txt has detailed instructions. If you're not familiar with using ID scripts, search Google for "indesign scripts how to use tutorials" without quotes, for resources. If you're not familiar with GREP, search Google for "indesign find replace GREP" without quotes.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that FindChangeByList.jsx can certainly do the multiple manual operations you've described.
HTH
Regards,
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Applying a shortcut to "Apply "style" then next style"

In CS2, is there a way to apply a keyboard shortcut to the "Apply 'style name' then next style" command in the paragraph styles menu.
thanks
jon

Gerald,
I retrieved the script for CS2 which I've copied below. I changed the name of the tag to fit my book but I have a problem running it. When it gets to the line:
if (app. selection. length> 0) {
I get an error: undefined is not an object
Can you offer any quick help? Thanks very much. Script below:
/ FirstAndNextStyles.jsx
var myFirstPStyle = "X Appendix Co. Name";
Object.prototype.isText = function()
switch(this.constructor.name)
case "InsertionPoint":
case "Character":
case "Word":
case "TextStyleRange":
case "Line":
case "Paragraph":
case "TextColumn":
case "Text":
case "TextFrame":
return true;
default :
return false;
if (app.selection.length > 0) {
var myDoc = app.documents[0];
for (oneSel = 0; oneSel < app.selection.length; oneSel++) {
if (app.selection[oneSel].isText()) {
// apply paragraph style to the first of selected paragraphs
try {
app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs[0].appliedParagraphStyle = myDoc.paragraphStyles.item (myFirstPStyle);
catch(e){
// apply paragraphs next style to the following paragraphs
if (app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs.length > 1) {
for (oneP = 1; oneP < app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs.length; oneP++)
app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs[oneP].appliedParagraphStyle = app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs[oneP-1].appliedParagraphStyle.nextStyle;
else if ((app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs.length == 1) && (app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs[0].insertionPoints[-1].paragraphs[0])) {
app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs[0].insertionPoints[-1].paragraphs[0].appliedParagraphSty le = app.selection[oneSel].paragraphs[0].appliedParagraphStyle.nextStyle;

Using "Next style" with the same paragraph style for more than one paragraph

Hi.
I have been using paragraph styles with the "next style" option, it's a huge help. But I need a bit more. So I have the following paragraph structure: ABCCCABCCCAB...
I defined paragraph styles for each kind of paragraph, then in paragraph style A, I added paragraph style B as the next style, and so on. However, when I get to paragraph style C I reach a dilemma. Should I define the next style as the same, or define three paragraph C styles (C1, C2 and C3), link them to each other with next style, and then loop the C3 style into the A style again?
My hope is that there is a way, something like the nested style options, that allows me to define that style C should be used for 3 paragraphs and then the next style becomes style A again.
Thanks.

You just need two styles, almost identical, you can duplicate one. The only
difference is one has the next paragraph c and one has the next paragraph
a. After that I don't see the problem.

How do I (or can I) apply alternating para styles (using "next style") to existing text?

I am trying to apply background shading to alternate lines of text by creating two paragraph styles and naming each as the "next style".
This works when manually entering text - but I can't figure out if it is possible to apply it to existing copy with out applying the styles to each line individually.
Thanks for any help
d

Select multiple paragraphs of text, then right-click on the name of your first style in the Paragraph Styles panel. "Apply Style, Then Next Style" should be one of the options.

How to get info from a layer which is applied with styles ?

How to get info from a layer ? such as   ( apply style or not , which effect have applied on it etc..)
I really can't solve it , Who can hlep me.. By the way , I 'am using CS version.

xtools/xlib/Styles.js has a set of functions for working with layer styles. I do not know if it works with CS. I wrote it several years ago for either CS or CS2. If this doesn't work, then nothing will. The script retrieves a layer's style by saving it to disk then parsing the file for the desired ActionDescriptor.
There is a function at the bottom of the file that tests the Styles.js API.
Styles.test = function() { var doc = app.activeDocument;
var layer0 = doc.artLayers[0];
var gdesc = Styles.getLayerStyleDescriptor(doc, layer0);
if (!gdesc) {
    alert("There is no layer style associated with the layer");
    return;
//   this will set the layer style to another layer.
//   var layer1 = doc.artLayers[1];
//   Styles.setLayerStyleDescriptor(doc, layer1, gdesc);
if (!gdesc.hasKey(cTID('FrFX'))) { // look for a stroke effect
    return;
var frfx = gdesc.getObjectValue(cTID('FrFX'));
if (!frfx.hasKey(cTID('Clr '))) {   // look for the color
    return;
var clr = frfx.getObjectValue(cTID('Clr '));
// we should really check that the objectType is RGBC
var r = clr.getDouble(cTID('Rd '));
var g = clr.getDouble(cTID('Grn '));
var b = clr.getDouble(cTID('Bl '));
if (r == 0 && g == 0xFF && b == 0xFF) {
    return;
clr.putDouble(cTID('Rd '), 0);
clr.putDouble(cTID('Grn '), 0xFF);
clr.putDouble(cTID('Bl '), 0xFF);
frfx.putObject(cTID('Clr '), cTID('RGBC'), clr);
gdesc.putObject(cTID('FrFX'), cTID('FrFX'), frfx);
Styles.setLayerStyleDescriptor(doc, layer0, gdesc);

Index level 4 para style - why keep with next line?

When InDesign generates an index in the usual way, it creates a default paragraph style for each level. The first line indent of each level is 7 pts. greater than the one that precedes it. In addition to that formatting, the fourth and final level has a keep option: keep with next line (1 line). Can anyone explain the rationale for that? Am I missing something obvious again?

[Jongware] wrote:
I've created a couple of indexes, but I don't think I've ever ventured as far south to include a fourth level.
Besides. Huh ... relying on InDesign to create default paragraph styles? I handcraft mine before I need'em.
Me too, I was just re-creating index generation via scripting, and for checking and user-familiarity wanted exactly the same formatting as you get when you generate an index in the usual way. I couldn't see what purpose was served by that keep option in level 4.
I suppose there might be some situations in which all four levels are used, especially if you follow the rule of thumb than there shouldn't be more than six locators for each index entry. Maybe a big book on taxonomy? As I recall, Microsoft Word allows up to six levels.

How to apply bold character style with grep

finding bold characters in a particular paragraph style
I want to apply a character style
app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;
app.findGrepPreferences.string = String.Bold;
if (app.findGrepPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle == myPar) {
app.changeGrepPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = myCar1;
app.activeDocument.changeGrep();
app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;

Try this,
app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;
app.findGrepPreferences.fontStyle = "Bold";
app.findGrepPreferences.appliedParagraphStyle = "myPar";
app.changeGrepPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = "myCar1";
app.activeDocument.changeGrep();
app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;
Vandy

Problems with a style sheet in InDesign CS3

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone had any clue as to what the holy heck is happening to me.
I am attempting to standardize our documents and use style sheets--hey, what a concept, right? So I'm going through a recently completed document and grabbing text and using that to create paragraph style sheets and character based style sheets.
With one paragraph style sheet, the text is set to Janson Text Lt Stnd 55 Roman. However, when you apply the style sheet to a paragraph, the first word sets to a missing font. The rest of the paragraph is OK. It's only the first word. The paragraph style sheet does not have a "+" next to it. Highlighting the individual word and reapplying the paragraph style sheet does not change this.
I went to the character style palette, thinking that there was an override. Nope, the character style was set to "None." I clicked on "Override" to apply the paragraph style, and again, the first word is stubbornly refusing to change.
What gives? I am stumped!
Best,
Chryss

Styles based on Basic paragraph are a nightmare because every document starts with a basic paragraph style, and there's no guarantee that it will be the same from document to document. When you import styles based on Basic Paragraph from some other document, different attributes will be overridden depending on what is the same, and what is different.
The best way to deal with this is to either import the basic paragraph stle along with everything else, or put all the docs in one book file and pick one to use as the master, then synchronize the styles.
It sounds like your first word problem could be an applied character style, though, or less likely, a nested style.
Peter

Numpad 789 and 123 not working in Quick Apply[ctrl+enter] window. [CC2014.1]

Hi guys,
We recently switched to CC2014 from CS5.5 and one of the feature we had been using a lot before was the Quick Apply window. However when we want to use the Quick Apply feature in CC2014.1 with the numpad, the numbers 789 and 123 don't work, while 456 work without problem. Our style name has numbers in them and it's super practical to have the numpad and Quick Apply working together at 100%.
Can anyone shed some light on this problem?
Thanks you.

you might have already tried this – but try is resetting the InDesign preferences on the workstation that is having issues. (Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt on startup).
I haven't but I just tried and it didn't fix it.
remove any third party plug-ins you might have installed in InDesign as well.
The Only 3rd party plug-in we use is Math Magic, I have just removed it, reset the preferences and it still don't work.
Is there a chance you are able to update the version of InDesign CC you are running to the latest release build 11.0.0.22? (2014.1.0 Release), and repeat the tests in that?
I think at this point it seems to be the only solution left and to cross our finger this will work, but updating PC's is a little tricky because it needs to go through IT software packaging and those affected PC are off the grid in a secret environment.
when you create a new InDesign document and import the styles from the 'problem' document (Paragraph Styles panel menu: Load All Styles), are you able replicate the issue in the new document?
New document, with or without our styles have the same behavior.
when you create a new document in InDesign and add a few new styles with numbers, can you replicate the issue?
You know in the quick apply you can type anything and normally even if you don't have a style with the entered character it will be inserted in the search box, but we don't get to this point with the 7,8,9 and 1,2,3 from the numpad.
Is this an issue you can replicate on other computers / keyboards in the company?
Actually they are not laptop, Dell also sell desktop PC. My computer is an HP Laptop with an external keyboard and I have the same issue they are describing me.
I wish I could test at my end for you, but unfortunately I only work on laptop-keyboards hopefully someone else out there is willing to test for you – so we know if it's an issue that can be replicated.
So on your end when you go to the quick apply window (ctrl+enter) and use the numpad key 7,8,9 and 1,2,3 you see them been displayed in the search box?

How to use Edit/Quickly Apply?

How does the command "Quickly Apply" work?
I have paragraph styles that I made earlier and that show up when I select "Quickly Apply" but I have tried to apply it to marked text or just when selecting a textframe - neither worked. I marked the text and then I clicked the paragraph style in the Quickly Apply-box. I thought I could quickly reformat a text with this command. What am I doing wrong?
Help...

It doesn't sound as if you are **** anything wrong. Do you have locally applied formatting, or a character style which might be interfering with the paragraph style? Will it apply properly from the paragraph styles panel?
Peter

Conditional build tags with character styles and ignored text

RoboHelp HTML v8.0.2.208
Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 3 with 2 GB of RAM
Output: WebHelp and HTML Help
I have recently moved my projects from RH HTML X5 to RH HTML 8 and this is when the following problem appeared. I use lots of conditional build tags within the help projects. Some of these tags are for my own use for reference and I combine these with character styles containing a coloured background (highlight) so that they show up in the WebHelp or HTML Help output (e.g. text to identify the software version that the field/feature/text was added, reminders to check details, insertion of bug ID numbers, design document names, etc.). These areas of text are stripped out of the final build for customers by using a conditional build expression.
What I have noticed is that if a paragraph contains text with a conditional build tag applied AND that tagged text has a character style applied AND an unknown word within the conditional build tag is ignored (with the HTML tag <?rh-ignored text="word_to_be_ignored" ?>), saving the topic, closing it, then re-opening it shows that the conditional build text has stretched to the next conditional build tag, or to the end of the topic if there aren’t any other conditional build tags. This also happens by switching from Design View to HTML View. Note that this doesn’t happen if Ignore All is applied to the unknown word.
This doesn’t just apply to projects converted from RH X5. I created a new test project in RH8 and the same behaviour was observed. Similar behaviour occurred very occasionally in RH X5 but that seemed to be down to HTML tags being nested incorrectly.
The largest project contains around 1200 topics and with many hundreds of conditional build text areas this now causes a problem. I’ll probably have to locate every ignored word in an area of conditional text within each project, set it to Ignore All and then manually remove and re-apply the conditional build tags, unless someone can come up with something clever. Can anyone else replicate this and should it be logged as a bug?

Hi Daggins,
Thanks - that is good info to have. But as we all agree, that does take away from the point of single-sourcing.
You aren't misunderstsanding exactly... I am doing all my conditional tagging in FM and it works like a charm in terms of the PDFs that I generate from FM, and even the conditionally tagged text in RH shows/hides correctly. The issue is I am also importing my index and TOC from FM... and even if I have an entire file in FM tagged as conditional (all the text is tagged as conditional, I don't know if you can tag a file as conditional), the file name as a heading it still appears in the RH TOC. There is no text... but in my view it shouldn't appear in the TOC either (it looks like just a broken link when I generate my online help) - this is not ideal.

Paragraph style - next style

Hi!
I have a question about paragraph-styles.
For designing a book I receive a lot of unformatted text from different people. Now, of cause I need styles for different cases. One of those is a question-answer-style (interview -> see image below). You normaly can create a paragraph-style with the option to have, after pushing RETURN, another style (I think in english it has to be „use next style“). Okay, my problem is it works ONLY when I start typing the text word by word in Indesign an push RETURN and going on typing... That´s not what I want. My idea was, to copy an paste the whole text from Word (or from wherever) to Indesign and give´em the style it needs.
Doesn´t it work somehow? With „nested styles“ it works neither. You can only make a „soft break“ to use next style. So I must insert it one by one after each paragraph. Not so ...
Nochmal auf Deutsch, falls es missverständlich war:
Also, ich möchte ein Absatzformat erstellen für ein Interview. Da ich die Texte alle nicht selber schreibe ,sondern lediglich fertig geschrieben erhalte und dann am Stück einfüge, würde es Sinn machen, eine Formatvorlage zu erstellen, welche mir bestimmte Schritte automatisch abnimmt. Es gibt diese praktische Einstellung unter "Absatzformatoptionen" -> "Formatvorlagen" -> "Nächstes Format". Das scheint aber nur zu funktionieren, wenn man den Text buchstabenweise in das vorformatierte Feld eintippt. Dann erst bekommt der Absatz nach jedem Umbruch das ausgewählte Format. Wenn ich das aber bei einem komplett eingefügten Text probiere (nach der Frage "Eingabe" drücken), pasiert nichts. Wieso? Wie kann man das hinbekommen, evtl. alternativ?

Ok, I understand both, German and English.
Ok, ich versteh’ beides, deutsch und englisch.
When you select several paragraphs you can go to first paraagraph style in the pargraph style panel and choose with the right mouse click in the context menu:
You can apply:
This selected style
This selected style and delete Overrides and/or Character Styles
This style then next style
This style then next style and delete Overrides and/or Character Styles
Wenn Du mehrere Absätze ausgewählt hast, kannst Du im Absatzformatbedienfeld mit der rechten Maustaste das Absatzformat für den ersten Absatz auswählen und mit der rechten Maustauste aus dem Kontextmenü aus den verschiedenen Varianten wählen. Siehe oben in der Abbildung.
Die Menüvarianten mit nächsten Absatz und Zeichenformate und Überschreibungen (nicht in der Abbildung) sind nur dann im Menü vefügbar, wenn das Absatzformat erstens einen entsprechenden Nächsten Absatz definiert hat bzw. Vorkommnisse von Zeichenformaten und/oder Überschreibungen vorkommen.
PS. Es existiert auch ein deutsches Adobe U2U-Forum.
Addition / Ergänzung:
If the text is in only one frame or in only one cell of a table there exists as well the function next paragraph style. When you apply such an objects style to a text frame or to a cell of a table all text is formated according the first paragraph style choosen in the object style or cell style and the following paragraphs are styled as defined in next paragraph,
Wenn der Text nur in einem Textrahmen oder innerhalb einer Zelle einer Tabelle ist, dann besteht die Möglichkeit, dass im Objekt- bzw. Zellenformat unter Absatzformat erstens dieses aktiviert wird und zweitens, das nächste Absatzformat aktiviert wird. Dadurch werden bei Anwendung des Objekt- bzw. Zellformats der erste Absatz und die darauffolgenden entsprechen mit den definierten Absatzformaten und nächsten Absatzformaten formatiert.
Message was edited by: Willi Adelberger

Help: apply different para styles to several consecutive paragraphs via script

Hi all,
I need to apply different para styles to several consecutive paragraphs via script, something like this (found somewhere on the net):
var myDoc = app.documents[0];
var mySel = app.selection[0];
var myPStyle1 = "A";
var myPStyle2 = "B";
//need to add 6 more styles here:
//var myPStyle3 = "C";
//var myPStyle4 = "D";
//var myPStyle5 = "E";
//var myPStyle6 = "F";
//var myPStyle7 = "G";
//var myPStyle8 = "H";
//the last style not needed in script?
// apply 1st style to 1st paragraph
mySel.appliedParagraphStyle = myDoc.paragraphStyles.item (myPStyle1);
// apply styles to paragraphs after selected
//2nd style
mySel.paragraphs[-1].insertionPoints[-1].appliedParagraphStyle = myDoc.paragraphStyles.item (myPStyle2);
//next style
mySel.paragraphs[-1].insertionPoints[-1].paragraphs[0].insertionPoints[-1].appliedParagrap hStyle = myDoc.paragraphStyles.item (myPStyle2).nextStyle;
I've tried badly, but can't find the way to extend the sequence
Sorry, no skills in scripting yet...
all styles have 'Next Style' option activated, but I can't use 'Apply style, then Next style' or Object styles, because I need four different sequences of those para styles:
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H
A-B-D-E-G-H
A-C-D-F-G-H
A-D-G-H
and I really don't want to create special clones of the same style for each sequence (Keep It Simple, they say ).
I believe it can be done via four slightly adjusted scripts...
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Sorry about being late to the party, I usually pick up stuff like this right away.
How about this one?
1. No separate scripts needed, it uses a tiny dialog where you can choose what style set to use. If I'm correct, you can press a number key on Windows to immediately select one of the items.
2. It works down from the paragraph your cursor is in. It has nothing to do with text frames, though -- consecutive paragraphs inside a story always ignore any text frames.
3. Extensible: you can easily change the names of the styles in the top array, and the number of style groups in the list.
var styleLists = [
          [ "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H" ],
          [ "A", "B", "D", "E", "G", "H" ],
          [ "A", "C", "D", "F", "G", "H" ],
          [ "A", "D", "G", "H" ]
var radiobutts = [];
styleDialog = app.dialogs.add ({name:"Set Multiple Styles",canCancel:true});
with (styleDialog)
          with (dialogColumns.add())
                    with (radiobuttonGroups.add())
                              for (i=0; i<styleLists.length; i++)
                                        // Build radio button string
                                        str = "&"+String (i+1)+". ";
                                        for (j=0; j<styleLists[i].length; j++)
                                                  if (j) str += "-";
                                                  str += styleLists[i][j];
                                        radiobutts.push (radiobuttonControls.add({staticLabel:str, checkedState:false}) );
radiobutts[0].checkedState = true;
if (styleDialog.show())
          for (i=0; i<radiobutts.length; i++)
                    if (radiobutts[i].checkedState == true)
                              break;
          if (i < radiobutts.length)
                    par = app.selection[0].paragraphs[0];
                    for (j=0; j<styleLists[i].length; j++)
                              par.appliedParagraphStyle = styleLists[i][j];
                              par = par.parentStory.paragraphs.nextItem(par);

Quick Apply with Next Style

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