Paragraph Styles both ensure that the text is formatted consistently and help define the structure of a document. This check confirms that all the text in an InDesign document has a Paragraph Style applied.
To see a list of all the styles available to use in the document choose InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph Styles
Fix this problem by selecting text that hasn't been formatted with a Paragraph Style (also known as styled with local formatting) and selecting the appropriate Paragraph Style name in the list.
Tip: To apply a Paragraph Style AND remove local formatting option/alt-click the appropriate Paragraph Style name in the list.
The [Basic Paragraph] style can cause problems when its underlying formats affect other Paragraph Styles and moving text between different InDesign documents. If this has been edited or other styles have been created based on it chaos and confusion may ensue when copying and pasting text between documents that have different definitions of the style.
Unfortunately, you can't delete [Basic Paragraph], but it is best practice to avoid it: never use it, never edit it, and never base other styles on it.
This GreenLight check looks for strikethrough text — text that is styled with the strikethrough attribute inside the InDesign document, and will appear on the page.
Strikethrough text is typically used whilst the text of a document is being edited, often to indicate that it should be deleted or is 'placeholder' text, and is not expected in the final output.
The GreenLight check will take you to the location on the page where strikethrough text can be found and highlight it.
Fix strikethrough text issues by either removing the strikethrough or deleting the strikethrough text. To remove the formatting, highlight the text, choose InDesign Window menu > Control and click the Strikethrough button:
You can also choose InDesign Window menu > Type & Tables > Character and press its panel menu to access Strikethrough.
Note: this check will not flag deleted text that is marked as strikethrough text in the Story Editor when the Track Changes feature is used.
The efficient use of Paragraph and Character Styles greatly improves consistency and speeds up formatting in InDesign, especially for long or complex documents.
When a text style is applied to the words on the page it is still possible to modify the text manually e.g. by modifying the font, size or styling.
If text has been altered by hand in this way InDesign refers to it as a style override {aka ‘local formatting’). You can see where style overrides occur in an InDesign document by choosing InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph Styles or Character Styles and using the Style Override Highlighter button. Any such text become highlighted with cyan as a result:
With this check, GreenLight can take you to place on the page where overridden text can be found and highlight it.
It is a good idea to convert Paragraph Style overrides to Character Styles — again for consistency and efficiency. This process can be sped up using Find/Change.
If you want to remove overrides from the selected text, click the Clear Overrides button in Paragraph and Character Style panels.
There are also other options covered in the InDesign Help document at the end of this article.
GreenLight offers a Clear all text style overrides tool to remove text overrides throughout a document in one click (from GreenLight Tools menu > Typography tools panel > Clear all text style overrides).
Adobe InDesign help on applying and removing text style overrides
The efficient use of Paragraph and Character Styles greatly improves consistency and speeds up formatting in InDesign, especially for long or complex documents.
When a text style is applied to the words on the page it is still possible to modify the text manually e.g. by modifying the font, size or styling.
If text has been altered by hand in this way InDesign refers to it as a style override (aka ‘local formatting’). You can see where style overrides occur in an InDesign document by choosing InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph Styles or Character Styles and selecting the Style Override Highlighter button. Any such text become highlighted with cyan as a result:
With this check, GreenLight can take you to the location on the page where overridden text is to be found and highlights it. Exceptions can be made where required.
Fix this by converting Paragraph Style overrides (such as emboldening or italicising text) to Character Styles where possible — again for consistency and efficiency. This process can be sped up using Find/Change from InDesign Edit menu > Find/Change.
Alternatively you can remove overrides from the selected text by clicking the Clear Overrides button in Paragraph and Character Style panels.
GreenLight offers a Clear all text style overrides tool to remove text overrides throughout a document in one click (from GreenLight Tools menu > Typography tools panel > Clear all text style overrides).
Adobe InDesign help on applying and removing text style overrides
The efficient use of Paragraph and Character Styles greatly improves consistency and speeds up formatting in InDesign, especially for long or complex documents.
When a text style is applied to the words on the page it is still possible to modify the text manually e.g. by modifying the font, size or styling.
If text has been altered by hand in this way InDesign refers to it as a style override (aka ‘local formatting’). You can see where style overrides occur in an InDesign document by choosing InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph Styles or Character Styles and selecting the Style Override Highlighter button. Any such text become highlighted with cyan as a result:
With this check, GreenLight can take you to place on the page where overridden text can be found (aside from tracking) and highlight it. Because tracking is by definition an exception, it is considered acceptable: like breaking eggs to make that tasty omelette!
It is a good idea to convert Paragraph Style overrides (such as emboldening or italicising text) to Character Styles where possible — again for consistency and efficiency. This process can be sped up using Find/Change from InDesign Type menu > Find/Replace Font.
If you want to remove overrides from the selected text, click the Clear Overrides button in Paragraph and Character Style panels.
GreenLight offers a Clear all text style overrides tool to remove text overrides throughout a document in one click (from GreenLight Tools menu > Typography tools panel > Clear all text style overrides).
Adobe InDesign help on applying and removing text style overrides
The efficient use of Paragraph and Character Styles greatly improves consistency and speeds up formatting in InDesign, especially for long or complex documents.
When a text style is applied to the words on the page it is still possible to modify the text manually e.g. by modifying the font, size or styling.
If text has been altered by hand in this way InDesign refers to it as a style override (aka ‘local formatting’). You can see where style overrides occur in an InDesign document by choosing InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph Styles or Character Styles and selecting the Style Override Highlighter button. Any such text become highlighted with cyan as a result:
With this check, GreenLight can take you to the location on the page where overridden text can be found (aside from tracking) and highlight it. Exceptions can be made where required.
It is a good idea to convert Paragraph Style overrides (such as emboldening or italicising text) to Character Styles where possible — again for consistency and efficiency. This process can be sped up using Find/Change from InDesign Type menu > Find/Replace Font.
If you want to remove overrides from the selected text, click the Clear Overrides button in Paragraph and Character Style panels.
GreenLight offers a Clear all text style overrides tool to remove text overrides throughout a document in one click (from GreenLight Tools menu > Typography tools panel > Clear all text style overrides).
Adobe InDesign help on applying and removing text style overrides
Basing InDesign paragraph styles on others can be a useful way to control hierarchy and to quickly make changes to multiple styles.
The [Basic Paragraph] style is the default style present in every InDesign document and by basing all other styles on it you can make global changes to text for styling and production reasons.
This check looks at every Paragraph Style and flags when there are styles that are not based on the [Basic Paragraph] Style.
When investigating further a list of all is shown and can be saved as a text file for later reference and sharing with others.
Fix this problem by removing unused styles and altering Paragraph Styles to be based on [Basic Paragraph] styles.
Choose InDesign Window menu > Styles > Paragraph Styles, select a style name and from the panel menu select Style Options...
In the Style Options dialog from the Based On dropdown menu change e.g. [No Paragraph Style] to [Basic Paragraph]
Tip: We would recommend that if using [Basic Paragraph] as the basis for your styles you set up the styles beforehand rather than re-attributing 'Based On' afterwards.
