Datasheet

n
Text variables (see Chapter 23)
n
Sections of page numbers (see Chapter 5)
n
Color definitions (see Chapter 8)
n
Hyphenation and justification (see Chapter 18)
n
Libraries (see Chapter 7)
Styles and master pages are the two main global settings that you can expect to
override locally throughout a document because although the layout and typographic
functions that styles and master pages automate are the fundamental components of any document’s
look they don’t always work for all of a publication’s specific content.
Local tools include:
n
Frame and shape tools (see Part III and Chapters 27 and 28)
n
Character and paragraph tools (see Chapters 17, 18, 19, and 20)
n
Graphics tools (see Part VI)
In many cases, it’s obvious which tool to use. If, for example, you maintain certain layout standards
throughout a document, then using master pages is the obvious way to keep your work in order.
Using styles is the best solution if you want to apply standard character and paragraph formatting
throughout a document. When you work with special-case documents, such as single-page display
ads, it doesn’t make much sense to spend time designing master pages and styles it’s easier just
to format one-of-a-kind elements on the fly.
In other cases, deciding which tool is appropriate is more difficult. For example, you can create a
drop cap (a large initial letter set into a paragraph of type, like the one that starts each chapter in
this book) as a character option in the Character panel, or you can create a character style (format-
ting that you can apply to any selected text, ensuring the same formatting is applied each time)
that contains the drop-cap settings and apply that style to the drop cap. The method you choose
depends on the complexity of your document and how often you need to perform the action. The
more often you find yourself doing something, the more often you should use a global tool (such
as character styles).
Fortunately, you don’t have to decide between global and local tools right away while designing a
document. You can always create styles from existing formatting later or add elements to a master
page if you find you need them to appear on every page.
Another situation in which you can choose between local or global controls is specifying measure-
ment values. Regardless of the default measurement unit you set (and that appears in all dialog
boxes and panels), you can use any unit when entering measurements in an InDesign dialog box.
If, for example, the default measurement is picas, but you’re accustomed to working with inches,
go ahead and enter measurements in inches.
Chapter 3 covers how to apply measurement values and how to set your preferred
defaults.
CROSS-REF
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