How to Update Paragraph Styles in InDesign?

You can quickly update a paragraph style in InDesign by redefining it based on manual formatting changes made to existing text. This is a very quick way to apply formatting overrides to the style itself.

Quickly Update a Paragraph Style by Redefining

One of the fastest ways to update an existing paragraph style to match formatting you've applied manually is to use the "Redefine Style" feature. This is particularly useful when you've tweaked the appearance of text that already has the style applied and want to make those changes permanent for all paragraphs using that style.

Here’s how to do it, based on the provided method:

1. Apply Manual Formatting: First, make the desired changes (like font size, color, indentation, etc.) to a paragraph that currently has the style you want to update applied.
2. Select Text: Select part of the new style (the text you just manually formatted). You don't need to select the whole paragraph, just a portion of the text exhibiting the formatting overrides.
3. Open Paragraph Styles Panel: Go to the Window menu, then Styles, and select Paragraph Styles (or press F11).
4. Redefine the Style: With the text selected, look at the Paragraph Styles panel. Click on the icon in the top-right corner of the Paragraph Styles panel. This icon is often a small menu or a dropdown indicator.
5. Choose Redefine Style: From the menu that appears, select Redefine Style.

All the paragraphs that had that Paragraph Style applied are instantly updated like magic. The style definition is permanently changed to include the formatting overrides you applied manually.

Why Use Redefine Style?

• Speed: It's the quickest way to incorporate manual changes into a style.
• Experimentation: You can experiment with formatting directly on the page and then easily update the style.
• Consistency: Ensures that manual tweaks become part of the style, maintaining consistency across the document.

Other Ways to Update (Not in Reference, but for context)

While the "Redefine Style" method is fast for incorporating manual changes, you can also update a style by directly editing its settings:

1. Open the Paragraph Styles panel (F11).
2. Double-click on the name of the style you want to edit.
3. This opens the Style Options dialog box, where you can adjust every aspect of the style (Basic Character Formats, Indents and Spacing, Rules, etc.).
4. Make your changes and click OK. All text using that style will update automatically.

This second method is better when you know exactly which settings you want to change without applying them manually first.