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Is there a way (a setting or a shortcut) in InDesign to reset a character style to None after the end of a paragraph? Paragraph styles have the option for Next Style, but this does not apply to character styling.

Currently I'm using Quick Apply (ctrl+return+None) after each paragraph to reset the character style, but it is very time consuming if you have many lines with two or more different character styles.

NOTE: I'm using character styling because as far as I know you cannot have two different paragraph styles on the same line. See screenshot below for use example.

enter image description here

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  • Can you please provide more detail on how you are using the character style and why you don't use a paragraph style in your case?
    – Const
    Commented Feb 11, 2013 at 15:50

1 Answer 1

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In your case I would have maybe used GREP styles shown on the image below.

enter image description here

Here ~h stands for End Nested Style Here character which serves as a style divider (visible in special characters mode as a backslash). If you feel more comfortable with any other character feel free to replace all the ~h-s with anything you like from the drop-down menu.

The application order of the styles matters. Here are the expressions so that you could copy them:

For Style 2: ~h.*

For Style 1: ~h[^~h]*~h?

In case you are interested in regular expressions used in GREP styles, here's how the above construction works:

First we apply Style 2 to everything from the first End Nested Style Here character (inclusive) to the end of the paragraph. . means any character, .* means any characters, any times which basically means all characters. So, the whole expression means ENSH character and everything after.

Then we apply Style 1 to everything between two ENSH characters (inclusive). [^~h] means anything but a ENSH character. Thus, [^~h]* means anything but an ENSH character, any times or, to put it simpler, everything until an ENSH character. So, ~h[^~h]* will mean everything starting from an ENSH character until the next ENSH character.

If we now leave the second expression as it is, the Style 1 will be applied to EVERY “ENSH + text” pair. But if we include the following ENSH characher into this group too, the text AFTER the second ENSH will not meet the condition, just as needed. So we add ~h to the end of the expression and change it to ~h? to indicate that this ENSH is optional (as on line 3 on the example image).

You can learn more about the GREP syntax on any website that describes regular expressions like this one.

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  • I have tried adding the GREP style to my numbered bullet style, but it doesn't seem to have the expected effect, in fact it seems to have no effect at all. Now, I must admit I've never used GREP styles before so I might be doing something wrong. I didn't understand the part where you say: "If you feel more comfortable with any other character", isn't this ~h character specifically intended to end a nested style?
    – HappyTorso
    Commented Feb 11, 2013 at 22:20
  • Yes, ~h means the end of nested style character. This means that such GREP style will take the End of Nested Style character as a delimiter. I meant that if you feel like there is something more appropriate to be used as a delimiter, like non-breaking space, you can substitute each ~h occurence with ~S
    – Const
    Commented Feb 11, 2013 at 22:31
  • Oh, and maybe I should have pointed out that you should yourself include ENS characters in your text to indicate points where styles change.
    – Const
    Commented Feb 11, 2013 at 22:42
  • Here's what the docs say about the ENS character: "to insert this character, choose Type > Insert Special Character > Other > End Nested Style Here". Wouldn't this be as time consuming as hitting CTRL+return+None? I was looking for a method that allowed style resetting after the end of paragraph. What about making the End of Paragraph symbol the end of the nested style? Is that possible?
    – HappyTorso
    Commented Feb 12, 2013 at 9:21
  • And how do you apply your character styles now? What I suggest is choosing Type > Insert Special Character > Other > End Nested Style Here once, copying this character to the clipboard and then pasting it once or twice per paragraph - not to bother about end of paragraphs
    – Const
    Commented Feb 12, 2013 at 9:42

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