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Paragraph styles and hyphenation

Set a story's type from named paragraph styles such as Body and Heading 1. Change a style and every paragraph set in it follows. Turn on hyphenation here.

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A paragraph style is a named set of type settings, such as Body or Heading 1: size, line height, typeface, alignment, colour and spacing. Every paragraph of one kind is set from the same style, so changing a style changes all of those paragraphs at once, on every page. Styles can be based on other styles, so one change to a parent carries through its whole family.

Paragraph styles set the text of a story: text threaded through linked frames, including a document laid out with Redesign. An ordinary text box keeps the font and size you set in the inspector. See Thread text through frames.

Before you start

  • Paragraph styles are on every plan.
  • Open a design in PlexiiDesign, or click inside a Design work widget on a desk. See PlexiiDesign overview.
  • Have some text in a story, so you can see the styles change it.

Open the panel

Choose Layout > Paragraph styles…. The Paragraph styles panel opens above the page, in three parts:

  • Styles: the list of styles, with New style and Delete under it.
  • The selected style's settings.
  • Typesetting, with Hyphenate, Snap to the baseline grid and Keep at least this many lines together, and the What sets what list.

The panel opens on the styles the document is already set in: Body, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Quote, Quote attribution, Caption, List item, Title and Subtitle. It says so: These are the document's current styles. Editing one saves the set into the document. Nothing is saved into the document until you change something, so opening the panel to look changes nothing.

Under each style's name the list shows what it is based on, such as based on Body, and which kinds of paragraph it sets, such as sets every Heading 1.

Change a style

  1. Click a style in the list.
  2. Change its settings. The text on the page sets again as you go.
Setting What it does
Name The style's name.
Based on The style this one takes its other settings from. See Families of styles.
Size The type size.
Line height The distance from one line to the next, as a multiple of the type size, such as 1.4.
Typeface The font.
B and I Bold and italic.
Alignment Left, Centred, Right or Justified.
Colour The colour box beside the alignment list.
Space before and Space after Space above and below each paragraph.
First line How far the first line of each paragraph is indented.
Keep at least this many lines together When a paragraph breaks from one frame to the next, the fewest of its lines kept together, from 1 to 5.

The settings shown are what the style actually sets, including what it takes from its parent. Changing one here sets it on this style.

Families of styles

A style based on another takes every setting it does not set itself from that style, its parent. Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 start out based on Body.

Change a parent and every style based on it changes too, in the settings it takes from the parent. That is the point of styles: turn on Hyphenate for Body, for example, and every style based on Body hyphenates as well, unless you have set it otherwise on that style.

To change what a style is based on, choose another style in Based on. Choose the first option in the list for a style that stands alone. A style cannot be based on itself, or on a style based on it, so those are left out of the list.

Choose which style sets what

What sets what, under Typesetting, lists each kind of paragraph in a story: Title, Subtitle, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Body paragraphs, Lists, Quotes and Captions. Pick a style beside each one, and every paragraph of that kind is set in it.

The kind of a paragraph comes from how you wrote it, such as ### for a heading or > for a quote in the story editor. See Thread text through frames.

Make a new style

  1. Click the style the new one should be based on.
  2. Click New style. A style named such as Style 7 is added, based on the one you selected.
  3. Type a name for it in Name, and change the settings that should differ from its parent.
  4. Under What sets what, choose the new style beside the kind of paragraph it is for.

A new style changes nothing on the page until it is chosen under What sets what, or another style that is chosen there is based on it.

Delete a style

  1. Click the style.
  2. Rest the pointer on Delete to see which styles are based on it. They will be based on its parent instead.
  3. Click Delete.

Body cannot be deleted: every other style resolves down to it, so its Delete button is greyed out.

Hyphenation

Hyphenate, under Typesetting, breaks long words at the ends of lines. In a justified column this is what stops rivers of white: without it, the spaces in each line have to stretch to reach the margin.

To turn it on for a whole story:

  1. Choose Layout > Paragraph styles….
  2. Click Body.
  3. Tick Hyphenate.

Every style based on Body follows. Title and Subtitle are not based on Body, so turn it on for them separately if you want them hyphenated. To keep one style unhyphenated, such as a heading, select it and untick Hyphenate there.

Why it is off to start with

Hyphenation changes where every line breaks. In a design you have already laid out, that can move text from one frame or page to the next, and text at the end of a story may no longer fit. So it stays off until you choose it, and nothing you have already laid out moves on its own. After turning it on, look through the pages, and check Tools > Preflight for print… for text that no longer fits. See Check a design for print with preflight.

Hyphenation works from English word patterns. A word it has no pattern for is not broken, rather than being broken in the wrong place.

Snap to the baseline grid

Snap to the baseline grid, under Typesetting, puts every line of the style on a grid line, so lines of text line up across columns. It needs a baseline grid set under Layout first. See Line text up on a baseline grid.

Common questions

I changed a style and nothing on the page changed. The style may not be chosen for anything under What sets what, and no chosen style is based on it. Or the text is in an ordinary text box, which styles do not set: link it into a story.

I changed Body and my headings changed too. They are based on Body and take that setting from it. To keep a heading as it was, select the heading's style and set that setting on it.

My pages changed after I turned on Hyphenate. That is expected: lines break in new places. Untick Hyphenate, or click Undo, to go back.

Can I delete Body? No. Every other style resolves down to it.

Do I have to use paragraph styles? No. A story is set in the document's current styles whether you open the panel or not.

Still need help? Contact support at [email protected].