Skip to content

Find the images you need to make standout work. If it’s in your head, it’s on our site.

See pricing
Blog Home Tips & Tutorials Save Time in Adobe InDesign with Paragraph Styles
Save Time in Adobe InDesign with Paragraph Styles

Save Time in Adobe InDesign with Paragraph Styles

Use InDesign’s paragraph styles to save and quickly apply pre-set formatting to your text in a single click.

If you’re working with a moderate-to-large amount of text that you need to be consistently format with headlines, subheads, bullets, etc., then styling is for you! Plus, if you’re using character styles in conjunction with paragraph styles, the sky’s the limit for creating consistent, sophisticated typography with ease.


How to Create a Paragraph Style

Like many Adobe InDesign features, there are multiple ways to create a paragraph style. To start from scratch, go to the Paragraph Styles Panel (Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles), click on the hamburger menu and select New Paragraph Styles. The New Paragraph Styles window will pop up. From there, you can start building your style. I tend to start with the type treatments for my main text (a.k.a. body copy), so we’ll name this first style Body

New Paragraph Styles
If you’re not familiar with this menu, the number of options here can feel overwhelming.

The most important attributes you’ll want to style are in the Basic Character Formats submenu. Here, you can determine what font you want to use (Font Family / Font Style), its Size, its Leading (space between lines), Tracking (space between characters), and more. I also usually choose to uncheck Hyphenate in the Hyphenation submenu.

Click OK. Now, you’ll see your new style in the Paragraph Styles menu. To apply it, select the paragraph or text frame you desire and click on the style in the menu. 

Another way to create a new paragraph style is to make the formatting selections using your preferred method, then select the type you just styled and go to the Paragraph Styles Panel (Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles). Click on the hamburger menu, then select New Paragraph Styles. You’ll see the Basic Character Formats submenu is pre-populated with your selections.

Paragraph Styles
In this example, under General, my new paragraph style is Based On the Body style. This parent/child relationship can come in handy when building a series of nested styles, or you can have this style be completely independent by changing Based On to [No Paragraph Style].

My designs have a minimum of three levels of text hierarchy: headline, subhead, and body copy. Now that I’ve made styles for all three, I can quickly apply them to my design. Any time I want to try a new look, I can update the formatting in the Paragraph Styles menu and the changes will apply everywhere. This is a massive timesaver if you have recurring projects that you want to refresh in the future. 

Paragraph Styles
You can update an entire book in a few clicks if it’s already been set up with styling!

Automate Spacing Using Styling

When it comes to designing multipage layouts, the fewer moving and manually formatted parts the better. This applies to the formatting of indents and spaces, as well. Right now, my document has redundant paragraph breaks (¶) between each paragraph. It would be more efficient and reduce my risk of spacing inconsistencies if I replaced those manual returns with style. To the Paragraph Styles Panel

Paragraph Breaks
Go to Type > Show Hidden Characters to see paragraph breaks () and other hidden characters. 

I’ve selected my body style and now in the Indents and Spacing submenu, I’m going to add some Space After. This automatically adds as much padding below the paragraph as I want. Since my styles are all Based On the body style, the spacing is applied universally. 

Space After
I decided to remove the Space After in the subhead style to create what you see here. 

Stop Drawing Lines Under Text – Paragraph Rules Rule!

Many designers manually draw lines under headlines or subheads for emphasis, but styles are superior for quick and accurate line placement. In my example, I’ll add a line under my headline first by going to the Paragraph Rules submenu. In the dropdown, I’ll choose Rule Below and check the Rule On box. 

Preview Box
Since the Preview box on the bottom-left is checked, I can see my rule applied immediately. 

The default rule is a bit bland, so I’m adjusting the WeightTypeWidth, and Offset (distance from the text’s baseline).

Spacing Submenu
I also went back into the Indents and Spacing submenu to add more Space After to my headline style.

You can also use Paragraph Rules to create a highlight/container for your text by having a thick size and a negative offset with the width set to Text. If you don’t have columns set up and set the width to Column, it’ll stretch the entire text frame. 

Apply Indents
Apply a negative left and right indent to balance out your highlight effect.

What About Character Styles?

It’s important to know that Paragraph Styles apply to all of the text that precedes that paragraph break. If you want to consistently style individual words, letters, or groups of words within a paragraph, then you’ll need to create a Character Style. Character Styles coexist with Paragraph Styles and can work together to create wonderfully complex styling systems. 

To create a new Character Style, open the Character Styles Panel (Window > Styles > Character Styles) and select New Character Style from the hamburger menu. A window similar to the Paragraph Style menu will appear, but with far fewer options. 

Paragraph Styles
Format, apply, rinse, repeat.

How to Format a Bullet List with Styles

A cool way to use Character Styles in tandem with Paragraph Styles is with formatting bulleted lists. After all, default bullets just aren’t fancy enough. First, I’ll create a Character Style that will determine the appearance of my individual bullets.

Bullet Colors
At the very least, I like to make my bullets a different color from the text.

Then, I’ll create a Paragraph Style to determine the appearance of the list itself. In the Paragraph Style Options menu, I’ll go to Bullets and Numbering where I can pick out a bullet character or adjust spacing and alignment. In the Character Style dropdown menu here, I’ll select the one I just made for bullets and it’ll apply instantly.

Typefaces
Pro tip: You can Add new Bullet Characters from different typefaces (Wingdings, anyone?) to spice up your list.  

Now You Have Style AND Substance

Text styles are a powerful tool for any designer that deals with large chunks of text. This function is what makes Adobe InDesign the superior tool for multi-page layouts, and we’ve only just started unpacking its capabilities in this article. So, fire up Adobe InDesign, test out these techniques, and experiment with all the options this amazing program offers!

Looking for a simple place to start? Shutterstock Create has you covered with over 400,000 assets, 1,500 templates, 500 fonts, and countless free tools to help you design like a pro.


For more InDesign fun, check out these articles:

Recently viewed

Share this post

Recently viewed