Help content: missing "Next style" / "Next level" (paragraph style)

[thomaso]

Am I too distracted or impatient - or does Affinity Help really not cover the Next Style and Next Level paragraph style properties?

In particular I want to know how "Next level" can be used (or whether it is for bullets/numbering only?).

The Help search seems unable to search for combined words / expressions:

 

 

 

[Dan C]

6 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Am I too distracted or impatient - or does Affinity Help really not cover the Next Style and Next Level paragraph style properties?

I wouldn't dare say you're either!  

This information is in the help file - but it's certainly not easy to find and took me a few 'trial and error' searches/scanning of pages.

Under 'Creating and Managing Text Styles' it shows the options, where there is a brief description for these two - 

"Next style—for paragraph styles, this determines the text style automatically applied to the following paragraph. This is only activated when you press the Return key when typing text.
 Next level—For multi-level paragraph styles (e.g., those that use 1, 1.1 and 1.1.1 auto-numbering prefixes) this determines the style that is for the subordinate level."

I hope this is what you were looking for - I'll raise this point with our documentation team that this, and other more niche features can be hard to search for specifically

[thomaso]

Thank you Dan, that's it indeed!

14 minutes ago, Dan C said:

 Next level—For multi-level paragraph styles (e.g., those that use 1, 1.1 and 1.1.1 auto-numbering prefixes) this determines the style that is for the subordinate level."

Still I am not sure to understand "Next level" entirely: It says  "e.g. (...) auto-numbering"  which sounds like auto-numbering is just an example here and there maybe other use cases. Or does it mean to say  "auto-numbering, e.g. 1, 1.1 and 1.1.1"  (where only the specific numbers are examples, but automatic numbering is mandatory) ?

[Dan C]

Glad to hear it

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Still I am not sure to understand "Next level" entirely: It says  "e.g. (...) auto-numbering"  which sounds like auto-numbering is just an example here and there maybe other use cases. Or does it mean to say  "auto-numbering, e.g. 1, 1.1 and 1.1.1"  (where only the specific numbers are examples, but automatic numbering is mandatory) ?

I believe that the 'e.g' is referring to the style of the multi-levelled auto-numbering - as the automatic numbering is mandatory, but this can be in any style such as;

1, 1.1, 1.1.1

or

I, I.I, I.I.I

or

A, A.1, A.1.1

etc

With auto-numbering enabled, where there are multiple levels to your numbering, you can have the text style automatically change, based on the certain 'level' that's currently being added.

For example, "1." could be using a body style, then "1.1" would automatically change the text style in use, based on your Next Level setting, and so on with "1.1.1" etc.

[Fixx]

47 minutes ago, Dan C said:

"Next style—for paragraph styles, this determines the text style automatically applied to the following paragraph. This is only activated when you press the Return key when typing text.

Not very useful.. it would be nice if feature could be applied to autostyling, or successive styles when applying styleset to a mass of imported text.

[thomaso]

11 minutes ago, Dan C said:

I believe that the 'e.g' is referring to the style of the multi-levelled auto-numbering - as the automatic numbering is mandatory,

Okay, thanks. So I was simply confused by the general expression "For multi-level paragraph styles" in combination with the position of "e.g." which currently appears to include "auto-numbering" as an example use case only – not as the condition for "Next level".

Finally, do I understand right that a "multi-level paragraph style" always and exclusively is a bullet/numbering style?
But not, for instance, a paragraph style which maintains its "Next style" over a certain, customisable number of paragraphs before it switches to its defined "Next style".

[thomaso]

5 minutes ago, Fixx said:

53 minutes ago, Dan C said:

"Next style—for paragraph styles, this determines the text style automatically applied to the following paragraph. This is only activated when you press the Return key when typing text.

Not very useful.. it would be nice if feature could be applied to autostyling, or successive styles when applying styleset to a mass of imported text.

I think here the Help should additionally mention the option to make a "Next style" become active after typing by choosing it from the Text Styles panel:

 

[Dan C]

18 hours ago, thomaso said:

Finally, do I understand right that a "multi-level paragraph style" always and exclusively is a bullet/numbering style?

As far as I understand this feature, that's correct in regards to the Next Level option 

18 hours ago, thomaso said:

I think here the Help should additionally mention the option to make a "Next style" become active after typing by choosing it from the Text Styles panel:

This could definitely be more clear, I'll be sure to let the documentation team know!