Apply an updated text style to whole doc with that Text style name?

[Chris26]

Hallo,  I simply could not believe that I can not find this in the affinity help, anywhere.  I updated one of my text styles to a very long documnent.  Yet the update does not automatically take effect.  I still have to go through each paragraph to update it, and right now I have stopped because this will take forever.  I am sorry, but I seriously can not find this in the Help menu anywhere.  I actually assumed this would have been such an easy an obvious thing to do.

Thank you

[walt.farrell]

It's automatic. When you update a Text Style anything using that style changes immediately. The only thing I can think of off-hand is that you have some local override applied that is counteracting the change you're trying to make.

If that's not happening for you, then something odd is happening.

OS? Affinity app and release level?

Can you replicate this in a document that you can share?

[Chris26]

52 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It's automatic. When you update a Text Style anything using that style changes immediately. The only thing I can think of off-hand is that you have some local override applied that is counteracting the change you're trying to make.

If that's not happening for you, then something odd is happening.

OS? Affinity app and release level?

Can you replicate this in a document that you can share?

EDIT, sorry, I have affinity One still on Windws 10

 

Hallo Walt, here are two screenshots.  My original header was 16 pt, I simply went ot 'Edit Style' and changed the font to 14 pt.  This is the only change I made.  This first screen shot is the manually applied Header style AFTER the edit.  The second screen shot is what the Header Style became AFTER the edit and remains at 16 pt, nothing changed globally.

Have no idea why I have TWO 'no style' styles?  They have been there forever.

 

[walt.farrell]

27 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Have no idea why I have TWO 'no style' styles?  They have been there forever.

Look at the icons. One is Paragraph, the other Character.

Changing a Text Style would not update those fields in the Context Toolbar. What would update is the actual text that has the text styles applied. I would need to see an actual Affinity document (.afpub, .afdesign, .afphoto) that demonstrates the problem, I think. Or at a minimum, full window screenshots with the text cursor in some text that should have changed. But an actual document would be better.

[Chris26]

34 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Changing a Text Style would not update those fields in the Context Toolbar. What would update is the actual text that has the text styles applied. I 

Hi Walt, thank you for replying.  I will go ahead and change it all manually, It will take 6 or 8 minutes, but I have spent over an hour trying to solve it - so logic dictates the absolute  silliness of worrying about a little piece of software that has not changed a font size.  However Please could you, Walt, explain this sentence, you have lost me.  Changing a text style will not update the field but the text would update - I am sorry - you have really lost me on this one.  What on earth is the difference between a field and text?  All I see is a field containing text, definitions needed here I think. Thank you Walt. I have changed text styles before globally, and the context tool bar has reflected those changes when I have clicked on the relevant text, so what on earth do you mean?

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Changing a text style will not update the field but the text would update - I am sorry - you have really lost me on this one

Those fields in the Context Toolbar either:

• Show what characteristics will apply to the next text you type using your current text tool. Or
• Show what characteristics the text has where the cursor is in the text (assuming the cursor is in a text object).

They are not themselves part of a text style.

[Old Bruce]

3 hours ago, Chris26 said:

I updated one of my text styles to a very long documnent.  Yet the update does not automatically take effect.  I still have to go through each paragraph to update it, and right now I have stopped because this will take forever.

Do you not have Text > Reapply Text Styles and or Text > Reapply Base Styles? I would think that selecting all the text (I am assuming you have linked text frames) and hitting the latter will give you what you want.

Or you could search for the Paragraph Style using Find and Replace's Paragraph Style in the Find section and then in the Replace section choose the same Paragraph Style.

[Chris26]

Hi Bruce, I have changed everything by hand so to speak.  Thanking you for your input.  Nevertheless 'reapply text styles' seemed a pretty scary command that I did not want to use having read the Help menu, I was more confused than ever about what it really is going to do having read all the instructions - so I avoid it.  Detach styles speaks for itself, but the rest is just too complicated to grasp.

[Chris26]

On 1/27/2023 at 5:00 PM, anto said:

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Hallo Anton, I know, this is how it SHOULD work.  I have had no problems before with changing and updating text styles, but this one particular style applied specifiaclly within a box in the Master page gave me a headache.  All solved the olde fashioned way 

[walt.farrell]

37 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

but this one particular style applied specifiaclly within a box in the Master page

I don't think you said you were doing this on a Master Page, but perhaps I missed it. 

Changes to the format of a text frame made on a Master Page won't affect the existing text on the document pages. 

You would need to do that but selecting the text and making the changes to the text not the frame. Or by using text styles as I thought you were doing.

[Chris26]

On 1/28/2023 at 5:46 PM, walt.farrell said:

I don't think you said you were doing this on a Master Page, but perhaps I missed it. 

Changes to the format of a text frame made on a Master Page won't affect the existing text on the document pages. 

You would need to do that but selecting the text and making the changes to the text not the frame. Or by using text styles as I thought you were doing.

Hallo Walt, you are right, I failed to mention that in my posts.  Sorry.  I had not expected that to be any issue since it is a text style on a master page, one assumes from logic that it would have changed everything within the document where the master page applied.  

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Hallo Walt, you are right, I failed to mention that in my posts.  Sorry.  I had not expected that to be any issue since it is a text style on a master page, one assumes from logic that it would have changed everything within the document where the master page applied.  

Changes to size or location of text frames would carry over. Or to the stroke or fill of the frames. But things like font or font size or paragraph text style (items in the Context Toolbar) are just defaults to apply to the first or next text you type into the frame. 

Try it on a document page and you'll see. Create a text frame, set those options, and type some text. The options will apply to that text. 

Then change the Context Toolbar options for that frame. New text you type should be affected, but the old text should not be affected. You would have to have selected the text before you made the change. 

It's the same with making those changes on a Master Page.

[Chris26]

On 1/30/2023 at 4:56 PM, walt.farrell said:

Changes to size or location of text frames would carry over. Or to the stroke or fill of the frames. But things like font or font size or paragraph text style (items in the Context Toolbar) are just defaults to apply to the first or next text you type into the frame. 

Walt I hope you understand that I am not even touching the context toolbar and never had to.  I am changing and editing text styles.  This is why I am a bit confused with your replies a little.  When I edit a text style, NOTHING should be complicated here, a simple matter of wherever that text style is applied in a document it should change any paragraph that has had that text style applied, regardless of whether it is on a master page or not - it's that logical.  This is not happening on two of my text styles, I did not bother to mention the other one as, to be honest, I am fed up with trying to solve it and I simply do it by hand the old fashioned way.  Nevertheless, this should have been straightforward but some little piece of programming and code decides not to comply - fine - I will not fight it - it is not worth the headache.

Thank you Walt

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Chris26 said:

I hope you understand that I am not even touching the context toolbar and never had to.

Thanks.

Perhaps I was confused because in your screenshots above you showed the Context Toolbar and showed what it changed to. 

But you also said that you had applied a text style to (in, perhaps?) a Master Page. You shouldn't have document text in the Master Page, only the Text Frame. So perhaps I thought you meant you had selected a Text Frame on the Master Page and applied the text style to it. You would do that using the Context Toolbar. So, another source of confusion for me.

Sorry.

If all you were doing was editing the Text Styles, via the Text Styles panel, then yes, all the text with those styles should have changed automatically. We've agreed on that from the start.

[Chris26]

On 1/31/2023 at 8:17 PM, walt.farrell said:

Thanks.

Perhaps I was confused because in your screenshots above you showed the Context Toolbar and showed what it changed to. 

But you also said that you had applied a text style to (in, perhaps?) a Master Page. You shouldn't have document text in the Master Page, only the Text Frame. So perhaps I thought you meant you had selected a Text Frame on the Master Page and applied the text style to it. You would do that using the Context Toolbar. So, another source of confusion for me.

Sorry.

If all you were doing was editing the Text Styles, via the Text Styles panel, then yes, all the text with those styles should have changed automatically. We've agreed on that from the start.

Yes Hallo Walt, I always present the original problem in a logical well thought out manner, I think.  🙂 However as the conversation progresses I lose that logic and write as if I am having a conversation, hence I understand why I misled you somewhat. But thankyou for the trouble you take to help, it is very much appreciated.

I suppose as an after-thought, just to clear things up, I have a text box on the master page, and have a text style for that box.  On each one of my many pages I insert a different piece of writing and sometimes I have to actually click on the text style but mostly not.  However, things began to go awry when I altered the font size of the text style, nothing updated, so I had to manually click on that text style to change each of my hundred pages so far.  Good news however, as I insert new text into newly added pages into that master page text box, the text style is automatically applied.

Hope to have solved the confusion.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

I suppose as an after-thought, just to clear things up, I have a text box on the master page, and have a text style for that box.  On each one of my many pages I insert a different piece of writing and sometimes I have to actually click on the text style but mostly not.  However, things began to go awry when I altered the font size of the text style, nothing updated, so I had to manually click on that text style to change each of my hundred pages so far. 

Thanks.

That still leaves me confused, because editing aText Style )(via the Text Styles panel) should change all the text that has that style, instantly. If that's how you changed the font size, and it didn't update everything, then (as far as I know) either something is wrong or you haven't setup the document as you've described.

If you can make a sample document of a few pages that shows the problem, and provide that .afpub file, we could look at it and perhaps help you further. But without an actual document that has the problem, I think we'll just have to let it go. If you've got it working satisfactorily now, I suppose that's enough

[Old Bruce]

16 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

... I have a text box on the master page, and have a text style for that box. 

The text in the Text Frame (your text box) takes on the Text Styles, not the Text Frame. You can select a Text frame and apply a Paragraph Style to all of the text in the text frame but it is not a characteristic or attribute of the Text Frame. Observe what happens when you do this with three linked text frames, choose the middle one and apply a Paragraph Style which has a much smaller font size and leading, notice how the text will reflow and paragraphs from the later frame flowing into the middle frame will have the old large size Paragraph Style even though they are now in the middle frame.

Text takes on Text Styles, Text Frames do not.

[Chris26]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Thanks.

That still leaves me confused, because editing aText Style )(via the Text Styles panel) should change all the text that has that style, instantly. If that's how you changed the font size, and it didn't update everything, then (as far as I know) either something is wrong or you haven't setup the document as you've described.

If you can make a sample document of a few pages that shows the problem, and provide that .afpub file, we could look at it and perhaps help you further. But without an actual document that has the problem, I think we'll just have to let it go. If you've got it working satisfactorily now, I suppose that's enough

Hi Walt, here is a sample.  If you click on the text frames at the top of each page you will see how things change in the styles panel.  This particular style is simply called "Header".  But unfortunately each of the text frame boxes tend to alternate between 'Header' + Paragraph style, or Header + character style, or simply just 'Header' by itself.  I am not experienced at text styles, I just know the basics so how it became like this I gave up trying to work out.

Also, Old Bruce, it does appear then I seem to have done the impossible, I have text styles applied to the text box on the master page.  Now I probably have misunderstood you, but this is how it appears to me.

Sample_01.afpub

[Old Bruce]

46 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Also, Old Bruce, it does appear then I seem to have done the impossible, I have text styles applied to the text box on the master page.  Now I probably have misunderstood you, but this is how it appears to me.

Oh, wow.

Don't use a Character Style to style an entire paragraph's text whilst using [No Style] as its Paragraph Style. Make a Header Paragraph Style. You can probably trash that Character Style Header.

[Chris26]

17 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Oh, wow.

Don't use a Character Style to style an entire paragraph's text whilst using [No Style] as its Paragraph Style. Make a Header Paragraph Style. You can probably trash that Character Style Header.

I have absolutely no idea how this happened. I have been aware of it but yep, it was a mystery to me how this happened, plus I do not know how to solve it.  You say delete the character style header?  Excuse me, that just deletes Everything?  The header style is gone.  So what on earh do you mean - as I said, I was always aware of this but have no idea how to set everything so that I have a header style with no other styles selected as often happens with this stupid style I set up.  I see that it some text boxes have 'header +para Style, some have Header + charc Style and some have just Header.  How do I solve this please, so that I simply have Header style and nothing else selects.

[Chris26]

16 minutes ago, anto said:

I never insert large text frames on master pages for text. Only for headers and footers. Create a text frame for the footer. Paste the text into it. Apply the style. Delete the text. You will have a field with a specific style. Now, when you want to insert text on a page, click and paste the text without formatting.
Regarding the long text. On the first page, create a text frame and insert text into it. Press the triangle from the bottom while holding the shift key. The text will fill several pages.

To change any formatting, try apply one of "applies..." from right mouse click or Revert defaultes or pres icon with letter "T".

A text frame on a master page should not be a proble?  What is wrong with that?

Thankyou for the step by step on the header on the master page.  Though it is too late to correct that, or I have nol idea how to correct it without destroying all 100 single sentence headers with different text?

You have completely lost me on this sentence though:''''To change any formatting, try apply one of "applies..." from right mouse click or Revert defaultes or pres icon with letter "T".''''  I experimented with these 'apply' on the drop down menu in text styles and read about them, but I only read confusion confusion, even practising made no sense whatsoever.  I simply edit anything I need to change in a style, makes so much more perfect sense and the 'apply this and apply that' just lost me.

[jmwellborn]

 

@Chris26  I had been floundering around with this, because I need to do the same thing with a long legal document with several different text styles that will all need to be replaced: all caps Bold, one point size center aligned; section headings Bold, another point size but initial caps, aligned left; subsection headings, yet another point size with initial caps, Bold, aligned left;  and the body of the document with initial caps Regular, same point size as subsections, aligned left.  But I digress.  The draft is set in Arial with a large point size and very wide leading to permit my Committee to comment, cut and paste, etc. before setting the document in final form.  

Needless to say, Arial isn't going to cut it for the final version, and I was contemplating what to do, rather than to follow your bit-by-bit solution — with which I anguish for you!  So here is a very simple and completely workable solution, which I have just tried.  It works!

1.  Make a Save As of your document, just in case you gum things up the first time with a new name.  (I wrecked several trial balloons.)
2.  Open the Saved As document.
3.  With your Text Tool, highlight a bit of the first text for which you wish to change the font/characteristics, placement, or whatever.
4.  Go up to the Context Toolbar and click on the little grey down arrow beside the little box showing the name of your current text style and choose New Style.
5.  When that window opens, give your New Style a name.  Then in the Based On box, be sure to click the Text Style that you previously used.  Also change any parameters such as font size, leading, text characteristics (bold versus semibold, etc.) that you want for your finished product.
6.  For each text style (if you have more than one), repeat step 5.  This is the fiddly part.
7.  Now go to TEXT>Find and the Find and Replace panel should pop up on the left side of your work space.
8.  In the Find box, click on the little cog icon and scroll down to Paragraph Style, then drag down through the list of Text Style names until you find the one you created in your original document. 
9.  In the Replace box, repeat step 8, except you check the new one you created in Step 5.
10.  Click on the left FIND box and click on the REPLACE box.
11.  BINGO!!!!!  You should have a long list of every place where that particular text style is used.  Your document should be gloriously corrected in one swoop.
Sounds tedious but it really works.  And it has saved my groats. Hopefully it will save your future groats too!   Screenshots  below.  Hope this helps.

     

 

[Chris26]

Hi Anton and Jmwellborn, I appreciate your suggestions.  Anton, your idea is a no go, if I had written a book with one font and one header that would be a great idea, I would have done that myself long ago, but the book is illustrated and with so many indents, tabs and headings and sections no way.

Jmwellborn I think your idea is too complex for me sorry.    I would spend hours on this.  Believe it or not, the manual method is still quicker, if the document was pages of text and a few headings and sub headings yes, but my book is far to pictirial and illustrated and with so many variations in text structure that I would be on it till next month if I started this.  But Thank you anyway.

[loukash]

22 hours ago, jmwellborn said:

For each text style (if you have more than one), repeat step 5.  This is the fiddly part.

This is the reason why nested styles and Group styles exist. Nest your styles wisely, and potentially you will have to do a global font change just once, for all styles involved.
affinity.help/publisher2/en-US.lproj/pages/Text/textStyles_types.html

So for example, your top level style group would only define the Font Family attribute, nothing else. All other styles and substyles will be based on that. As long as you keep their respective Font Family attribute at "no change", you can control all children with this top level group.