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#1
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What about character styles?
Although I use paragraph styles religiously, I have never used character
styles. Is there anything to be gained generally by using them, or do users invoke them only for special purposes? Stephen R. Diamond |
#2
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What about character styles?
Character styles can be used to apply character formatting (font,
size, etc.) to part of a paragraph. Like paragraph styles, character styles help you apply consistent formatting to text. And of course, modifying a character style immediately reformats any text where that style is applied. There are also built-in character styles. For example, apply the built-in Emphasis character style to format important terms in italic. A downside to character styles is that there is no way to "revert to character style". In other words, there is nothing which corresponds to Ctrl+SpaceBar (which clears font formatting not in the paragraph style). -- Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP "srd" wrote in message newsp.tb3rdlsitfv13d@jq0arm4... Although I use paragraph styles religiously, I have never used character styles. Is there anything to be gained generally by using them, or do users invoke them only for special purposes? Stephen R. Diamond |
#3
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What about character styles?
You're probably using them already, albeit unknowingly: Word's default
handling of hyperlinks uses the Hyperlink and FollowedHyperlink character styles. "srd" wrote in message newsp.tb3rdlsitfv13d@jq0arm4... Although I use paragraph styles religiously, I have never used character styles. Is there anything to be gained generally by using them, or do users invoke them only for special purposes? Stephen R. Diamond |
#4
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What about character styles?
Character styles can also be used with StyleRef fields. See
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/StyleRef.htm. -- Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP "Stefan Blom" wrote in message ... Character styles can be used to apply character formatting (font, size, etc.) to part of a paragraph. Like paragraph styles, character styles help you apply consistent formatting to text. And of course, modifying a character style immediately reformats any text where that style is applied. There are also built-in character styles. For example, apply the built-in Emphasis character style to format important terms in italic. A downside to character styles is that there is no way to "revert to character style". In other words, there is nothing which corresponds to Ctrl+SpaceBar (which clears font formatting not in the paragraph style). -- Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP "srd" wrote in message newsp.tb3rdlsitfv13d@jq0arm4... Although I use paragraph styles religiously, I have never used character styles. Is there anything to be gained generally by using them, or do users invoke them only for special purposes? Stephen R. Diamond |
#5
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What about character styles?
I believe that Word 2007 offers a way to revert to character style; at least
this was one of the scenarios we discussed with Stuart Stuple. I forget where to find the dialog in Word 2007, but there is a dialog that allows you to clear formatting selectively. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Stefan Blom" wrote in message ... Character styles can be used to apply character formatting (font, size, etc.) to part of a paragraph. Like paragraph styles, character styles help you apply consistent formatting to text. And of course, modifying a character style immediately reformats any text where that style is applied. There are also built-in character styles. For example, apply the built-in Emphasis character style to format important terms in italic. A downside to character styles is that there is no way to "revert to character style". In other words, there is nothing which corresponds to Ctrl+SpaceBar (which clears font formatting not in the paragraph style). -- Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP "srd" wrote in message newsp.tb3rdlsitfv13d@jq0arm4... Although I use paragraph styles religiously, I have never used character styles. Is there anything to be gained generally by using them, or do users invoke them only for special purposes? Stephen R. Diamond |
#6
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What about character styles?
Users are advised to use paragraph styles as opposed to direct formatting
not only because it's easer to apply and change complex formatting that way but also because various problems arise from direct formatting. Most infamous are the problems in directly applying numbering to a list. Do similar warnings apply to using direct character formatting? Here's one such warning that I encountered recently, at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/FastTables.htm . Applying manual formatting is very resource-hungry – apply predefined styles instead. This isn't exactly analogous to the warnings about direct paragraph formatting, because the adverse consequences affect the functioning of the computer rather than the outcome. Still, it's a good reason not to use direct formatting in tables. Is this stricture limited to tables? When should the user be wary of applying direct character formatting? Stephen Diamond On Mon, 03 Jul 2006 01:10:21 -0700, Stefan Blom wrote: Like paragraph styles, character styles help you apply consistent formatting to text. And of course, modifying a character style immediately reformats any text where that style is applied. |
#7
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What about character styles?
This is good news.
-- Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... I believe that Word 2007 offers a way to revert to character style; at least this was one of the scenarios we discussed with Stuart Stuple. I forget where to find the dialog in Word 2007, but there is a dialog that allows you to clear formatting selectively. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Stefan Blom" wrote in message ... Character styles can be used to apply character formatting (font, size, etc.) to part of a paragraph. Like paragraph styles, character styles help you apply consistent formatting to text. And of course, modifying a character style immediately reformats any text where that style is applied. There are also built-in character styles. For example, apply the built-in Emphasis character style to format important terms in italic. A downside to character styles is that there is no way to "revert to character style". In other words, there is nothing which corresponds to Ctrl+SpaceBar (which clears font formatting not in the paragraph style). -- Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP "srd" wrote in message newsp.tb3rdlsitfv13d@jq0arm4... Although I use paragraph styles religiously, I have never used character styles. Is there anything to be gained generally by using them, or do users invoke them only for special purposes? Stephen R. Diamond |
#8
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What about character styles?
Well, since paragraph styles apply both character and paragraph
formatting, the need for direct character formatting should be limited. But, in cases where direct character formatting *is* needed, I honestly doubt that it would be relevant (to the document structure) whether it was applied as direct formatting or as a character style. Still, if you want to encourage users to apply character styles, a good start would be to attach the Emphasis and Strong character styles to the Ctrl+I and Ctrl+B shortcuts, respectively. -- Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP "srd" wrote in message newsp.tb5d1ssitfv13d@jq0arm4... Users are advised to use paragraph styles as opposed to direct formatting not only because it's easer to apply and change complex formatting that way but also because various problems arise from direct formatting. Most infamous are the problems in directly applying numbering to a list. Do similar warnings apply to using direct character formatting? Here's one such warning that I encountered recently, at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/FastTables.htm . Applying manual formatting is very resource-hungry - apply predefined styles instead. This isn't exactly analogous to the warnings about direct paragraph formatting, because the adverse consequences affect the functioning of the computer rather than the outcome. Still, it's a good reason not to use direct formatting in tables. Is this stricture limited to tables? When should the user be wary of applying direct character formatting? Stephen Diamond On Mon, 03 Jul 2006 01:10:21 -0700, Stefan Blom wrote: Like paragraph styles, character styles help you apply consistent formatting to text. And of course, modifying a character style immediately reformats any text where that style is applied. |
#9
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What about character styles?
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:
I believe that Word 2007 offers a way to revert to character style; at least this was one of the scenarios we discussed with Stuart Stuple. I forget where to find the dialog in Word 2007, but there is a dialog that allows you to clear formatting selectively. Yes, it's in the style inspector (Styles pane, bottom, middle button. Then the last button in the "Style Inspector" dialog). It's also a new built-in command (available for customization or keyboard shortcut): RestoreCharacterStyle. The other three new commands on the style inspector: ParagraphRemoveStyle (applies Normal style, similar to "NormalStyle" Ctrl+N, but does *not* clobber manual character or paragraph formatting), RestoreParagraphStyle (seems to do pretty much the same as "ResetPara" Ctrl+Q, or reapplying the style: removes manual paragraph formatting), CharacterRemoveStyle (removes character styles including their formatting from the selection, but leaves manual font formatting). I'd hoped for a way to delete/remove character styles without changing the formatting (that is, turning it into manual formatting), and similarly a way to delete/apply a different paragraph style without changing the formatting. Maybe in the next version? Or maybe something for Add-In developpers? At least in Word2007, if you delete a paragraph or a character style, you can choose that the text should revert to the base style (that is, it won't necessarily revert to Normal, or DPF, as in previous versions). Kudos for that! Greetings, Klaus |
#10
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What about character styles?
Coming rather late to the party, but reasons I often use character styles
include: 1. They always stay applied when you change paragraph style, instead of possibly being wiped, dependent on how much direct formatting was applied (over 50% and it's hosed, I think). 2. They allow you to apply more complex font changes than just bold or italic or a change of size as one package - particularly useful for special fonts for "computer text" quotes, for instance. 3. They allow you to combine formatting with "no proofing" (or indeed other language formatting) as one package - useful for "computer text" again. 4. They allow you to separate semantic from appearance - useful if you might get a House Style change late in production, and find you have to modify appearance of all your italicised titles, but not your italicised parameters, for instance. One annoying feature is that if you apply a character style to a field, it doesn't automatically add the "MERGEFORMAT" flag (direct formatting generally does) - though Charformat would generally be more appropriate for references anyway. I am really, really pleased about the restore character style - that's been on my wish list for a while - and also the more sensible ways of removing styles in 2007. May not be enough to get me past the ribbon though. -- Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP Syntagma partnership site: http://www.syntagma.co.uk Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.word.mvps.org "srd" wrote in message newsp.tb3rdlsitfv13d@jq0arm4... Although I use paragraph styles religiously, I have never used character styles. Is there anything to be gained generally by using them, or do users invoke them only for special purposes? Stephen R. Diamond |
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