A character style is a collection of character formatting attributes that can be applied to text in a single step. A paragraph style includes both character and paragraph formatting attributes and can be applied to a paragraph or range of paragraphs. Paragraph styles and character styles are found on separate panels. Paragraph and characters styles are sometimes called text styles.

A named grid format can be applied to a frame grid in the Frame Grid format settings. (See Named Grids panel overview.) You can also use create an object style with grid characteristics. (See About object styles.)

When you change the formatting of a style, all text to which the style has been applied are updated with the new format.

You can create, edit, and delete styles in stand-alone Adobe InCopy documents or in InCopy content that is linked to an Adobe InDesign document. When the contents are updated in InDesign, new styles are added to the InDesign document, but any style modifications made in InCopy is overridden by the InDesign style. For linked content, it is best to manage your styles in InDesign.

[Basic Paragraph] styles

By default, each new document contains a [Basic Paragraph] style that is applied to text you type. You can edit this style, but you can’t rename or delete it. You can rename and delete styles that you create. You can also select a different default style to apply to text.

Character style attributes

Unlike paragraph styles, character styles do not include all the formatting attributes of selected text. Instead, when you create a character style, InDesign makes only those attributes that are different from the formatting of the selected text part of the style. That way, you can create a character style that, when applied to text, changes only some attributes, such as the font family and size, ignoring all other character attributes. If you want other attributes to be part of the style, add them when editing the style.

Next Style

You can automatically apply styles as you type text. If, for example, your document’s design calls for the style “body text” to follow a heading style named “heading 1,” you can set the Next Style option for “heading 1” to “body text.” After you’ve typed a paragraph styled with “heading 1,” pressing Enter or Return starts a new paragraph styled with “body text.”

If you use the context menu when applying a style to two or more paragraphs, you can cause the parent style to be applied to the first paragraph and the Next Style to be applied to the additional paragraphs. (See Apply styles.)

To use the Next Style feature, choose a style from the Next Style menu when you’re creating or editing a style.

Jeff Witchel provides a video tutorial about using the Next Style feature at Using the Next Style feature.

Styles panel overview
Use the Character Styles panel to create, name, and apply character styles to text within a paragraph; use the Paragraph Styles panel to create, name, and apply paragraph styles to entire paragraphs. Styles are saved with a document and display in the panel each time you open that document.

When you select text or position the insertion point, any style that has been applied to that text is highlighted in either of the Styles panels, unless the style is in a collapsed style group. If you select a range of text that contains multiple styles, no style is highlighted in the Styles panel. If you select a range of text to which multiple styles are applied, the Styles panel displays “(Mixed).”

Open the Paragraph Styles panel
Choose Type > Paragraph Styles, or click the Paragraph Styles tab, which appears by default on the right side of the application window.

Open the Character Styles panel
Choose Type > Character Styles, or click the Character Styles tab on the right side of the application window.

Add paragraph and character styles
If the styles you want exist in another InDesign, InCopy, or word-processing document, you can import those styles for use in your current document. If you are working with a stand-alone story, you can also define character and paragraph styles in InCopy.