Design System Tools

Change style attributes

Design System Tools
Take the attributes of an existing Paragraph Style and apply them to another

When a document contains text with Paragraph Styles applied, this tool can quickly take the styling attributes from one Paragraph Style and add them to another.

This can be important when InDesign Paragraph styles have already been applied across a document, but without any agreed naming and hierarchy in place such as from a Design System or Theme.

The correct styles from the Design System or Theme to modify need to already exist in the document or be introduced. See Introduce Core Styles to document for more.

To apply current styling from one Paragraph Style to an another:

  1. In the InDesign document edit and update a Paragraph Style as required
  2. Click the InDesign Type Tool in the updated styled paragraph
  3. Choose GreenLight Tools menu > Type Tools panel
  4. Click Apply current styling to existing style
  5. On first use, you may be required click OK to give permission for Circular Software tools to link to your macOS and apps
  6. Choose the Paragraph Style to be updated from the list displayed.
  7. Click Apply styling to paragraph style

The selected Paragraph Style will be updated and the new attributes applied to all associated text.

Bear in mind that any styles based on the altered style will also be affected.

Updating a Paragraph Style “body” with the attributes from generic "Paragraph Style 1"
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Design System Tools

Create Font Style styles

Design System Tools
Create Character Styles for each Font Style used in the InDesign document

Type Tools > Create Font Style styles

Where a change of character styling is used to convey meaning, the relevant semantic Character Style should be used to apply that meaning for accessibility.

The use of character level styling on the page for purely visual or decorative reasons does not need to be reflected in this way, but should still be applied with a Character Style if required to be included in digital exports.

When using a Core Set of styles, common font styles such as bold and italic are included but many professional fonts have more font styles included, e.g. Oblique and Semibold.

By using the Create Font Style styles tool, new Character Styles will be created for each font style present in the document to enable them to be applied quickly, cleanly and consistently and tagged correctly for output to EPUB.

  1. Open (or create) the InDesign document requiring the Font Style styles
  2. Choose GreenLight Tools menu > Type Tools
  3. Click Create Font Style styles
  4. On first use, you may be required click OK to give permission for Circular Software tools to link to your macOS and apps
  5. In the Character Styles panel a new Font Styles Style Group folder is created with the type styles within.
Character Styles panel with new Font Styles Style Group folder
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Design System Tools

Create Language Shift styles

Design System Tools
Create Character Styles for each specified language to enable them to be tagged correctly for accessibility

Type Tools > Create Language Shift styles

Accessible EPUB documents require that each shift of language is identified wherever it occurs, so that screen-readers can correctly pronounce the text correctly.

By applying these Language Shifts using Character Styles the requisite tags will be created on export.

  1. Open (or create) the InDesign document requiring the Language Shift styles
  2. Choose GreenLight Tools menu > Type Tools
  3. Click Create Language Shift styles
  4. If required click OK to give GreenLight permission to access InDesign or macOS on your Mac
  5. Choose the styles you need from the panel that appears
  6. Click Add selected languages
  7. In the Character Styles panel a new Language Shifts Style Group folder is created with the chosen languages within. Select and apply the named language styles as required
Choose one or more languages to be created for applying as Character Styles in the document

Tip: One way of checking whether languages have been marked using the Control panel (which won’t be retained for EPUBs) or Character Styles (which will) is to click the Style Override Highlighter button [a+] at the top of the Character Styles panel. All language shifts specified using local formatting will be highlighted in Cyan:

The Style Override Highlighter marking locally formatted text in Cyan

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Design System Tools

Create style mapping import preset

Design System Tools
Create a preset to help import Word documents into InDesign as efficiently as possible

When importing a Word document into InDesign using (InDesign File menu > Place) the program will use its default settings unless its Import Options specify otherwise.

You can choose to either change the settings manually or choose a preset at this point.

The preset created using Fresh Page Tools consists of our recommended settings, as explained below.

Creating the preset

  1. Open or create an InDesign document that already has the styles to map to present. If using the Fresh Page system the Introduce Core Styles to document tool with do this for you.
  2. Choose GreenLight Tools menu > Fresh Page tools panel
  3. Click Create style mapping import preset
  4. On first use, you may be required click OK to give permission for Circular Software tools to link to your macOS and apps
  5. Type a name for the preset
  6. Click OK
Creating and choosing a name for the preset

The Fresh Page import settings

The saved preset consists of the following settings:

Table of Contents text to OFF as this process will be handled later in the workflow.

Footnotes and Endnotes to ON as the notes will be maintained and the reformatting is relatively straightforward.

Index to OFF as this will generally be handled by InDesign.

Import as Static Text to OFF as solely relates to Endnotes and solutions created before InDesign added its own Endnotes feature.

Use Typographer’s Quotes to ON (to convert straight inch " and feet ' symbols to true quotation marks “” ‘’)

Preserve Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables to ON.

Manual Page Breaks to No Breaks to allow InDesign to specify.

Import Inline Graphics to OFF for any images in the Word document to be imported conventionally into InDesign.

Track Changes to OFF. Whilst InDesign does support the feature to a degree with the Story Editor, it is recommended to import ideally a final, edited version of the Word document.

Import Unused Styles to OFF.

Customize Style Imports. This automatically maps the Word styles to the equivalent style to ensure InDesign’s formatting for the styles are applied, rather than retaining Word’s.

InDesign‘s Microsoft Word Import Options dialog with a Fresh Page preset selected
Find out more about using a Design System and Cores Styles here (coming soon…)
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Design System Tools

Introduce Core Styles to document

Design System Tools
Adds a core set of consistent styles and classes for sharing between Word, InDesign and output to EPUB or PDF

One of the key considerations for efficient creation, editing and also output to EPUB or PDF is using a set of styles that will function quickly, cleanly and consistently wherever used, whether that be:

  • In the original manuscript in Microsoft Word
  • In the page layout program, Adobe InDesign
  • In the final EPUB or PDF document with extra accessibility functionality

Use of a set of Core Styles gives us that ability.

Find out more about using a Design System and Cores Styles here (coming soon…)

To add the Core Styles to the document

  1. With the InDesign document open, choose Greenlight Tools menu > Fresh Page tools panel
  2. Click Introduce Core Styles to document
  3. At the first use, you may be required to click OK to give permission for Circular Software tools to link to your macOS and apps
  4. Click OK when prompted by the GreenLight panel that the Paragraph, Character and Object Styles have been created successfully
  5. Save the document
GreenLight dialog confirming the Paragraph, Character and Object Styles have been synced successfully

A series of Paragraph and Character Styles are added to your InDesign document in Style Group folders (InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph or Character Styles)

Paragraph Styles panel showing “00_base” Style Group styles created
Character Styles panel showing Style Groups created

Object, Table and Cell Styles may also be added if present in the Core Style set.

Note: If the Core Set of styles is updated then reusing this tool will sync and confirm on its next use.

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Design System Tools

List all text styles on pasteboard

Design System Tools
Create a formatted list of all Character and Paragraph Styles used in the document

Having a list of all the styles available in the document in their respective formats can be helpful for checking all the requisite styles are present and have been applied correctly.

This can also be a useful step in starting a Word template for a workflow mapping Word text to InDesign styles on import.

With the InDesign document open choose GreenLight Tools menu > Fresh Page tools panel

  1. Click List all text styles on pasteboard
  2. On first use, you may be required click OK to give permission for Circular Software tools to link to your macOS and apps
  3. A dialog appears confirming the number of Paragraph and Character Styles present added to the pasteboard. Click OK
  4. A new text frame is created to the left of the document’s first spread:
  • Paragraph Styles are followed by Character Styles in the same named sequence as they appear in their respective panels
  • To ensure the style names fit within the allocated text frame the text is scaled to fit, although all other formats such as font, type style and colour are applied
  • If you wish remove the scaling you can highlight the text and choose InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph Styles > Paragraph Styles panel menu > Clear Overrides
Dialog confirming the number of Paragraph and Character Styles added to the pasteboard
Find out more about using a Design System and Cores Styles here (coming soon…)

Note: If using this tool independently of the Fresh Page System the styles must be placed into Style Group folders

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Design System Tools

Make and apply New Styles

Design System Tools
Guides users through the creation of a Paragraph or Character Style based upon a text selection.

Styles ensure consistent formatting and make allow users to edit documents more efficiently

Choose a style name from a predefined list, or create a custom named style. Once the style has been created, it can be automatically applied to all text in the document with the same formatting.

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Design System Tools

Sort all style panels

Design System Tools
This tool sorts the names of InDesign’s Character, Paragraph and Object Styles alphanumerically

This useful tool can help you manage and keep track of the styles you’re using and will even sort Style Group folders alphanumerically where present, as well as sorting the respective styles within!

  1. In the InDesign document choose Tools menu > Fresh Page tools panel
  2. Click Sort all style panels
  3. If applicable click OK to any dialogs requesting permissions for InDesign or The Finder on your Mac

Choose InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph, Character or Object Styles to confirm changes.

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Design System Tools

Using a style mapping import preset

Design System Tools
This ensures imported Word documents will be correctly imported, including Paragraph and Character Styles mapped to InDesign styles

The style mapping preset becomes active when using Show Import Options on placing a Word document into your InDesign document:

  1. Open or create an InDesign document that already has the styles present to map to. If using the Fresh Page system the Introduce Core Styles to document tool can do this for you.
  2. In the InDesign document choose InDesign File menu > Place.
  3. Locate and select the Word document (.docx)
  4. Select Show Import Options and click Open.
  5. Select appropriate Preset from the dropdown menu at the top of the dialog.
  6. Click OK and place in the InDesign document.

Tip: Hold down the Shift key when selecting a Word document to avoid making Show Import Options the default setting and presenting its dialog box every time you Place a new document from this point.

The Fresh Page import settings

The settings consist of the following options:

Table of Contents text to OFF as this process will be handled later in the workflow.

Footnotes and Endnotes to ON as the notes will be maintained and the reformatting is relatively straightforward.

Index to OFF as this will generally be handled by InDesign.

Import as Static Text to OFF as solely relates to Endnotes and solutions created before InDesign added its own Endnotes feature.

Use Typographer’s Quotes to ON (to convert straight inch " and feet ' symbols to true quotation marks “” ‘’)

Preserve Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables to ON.

Manual Page Breaks to No Breaks to allow InDesign to specify.

Import Inline Graphics to OFF for any images in the Word document to be imported conventionally into InDesign.

Track Changes to OFF. Whilst InDesign does support the feature to a degree with the Story Editor, it is recommended to import ideally a final, edited version of the Word document.

Import Unused Styles to OFF.

Customize Style Imports. This enables the mapping of Paragraph and Character Styles in the Word document to their equivalent in the InDesign document. If using the Fresh Page system this mapping will automatically be set up for you..

InDesign‘s Microsoft Word Import Options dialog with a Fresh Page preset selected
Find out more about using a Design System and Cores Styles here (coming soon…)
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Design System Tools