APub: External style-sheet

[GeirSol]

When working on a book with 4 volumes that is supposed to have the same styles
it becomes clear to me that an external style-sheet is the only way to get this right.

Right now it's just very messy

[MikeW]

2 hours ago, GeirSol said:

When working on a book with 4 volumes that is supposed to have the same styles
it becomes clear to me that an external style-sheet is the only way to get this right.

Right now it's just very messy

That's one of the features that Ventura Publisher had up through v5--when Corel got a hold of it and made the stylesheets always in-publication.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, GeirSol said:

it becomes clear to me that an external style-sheet is the only way to get this right.

I'm not sure what you'd want in that style-sheet. Can you explain a bit more what you're having difficulties with?

For example, Text Styles can be "externalized" because you can import them from another document. So you could finish volume 1, then import all its Text Styles into volume 2.

Page layout (size, margins, main text frame location, etc.) can be externalized by starting each volume using the same template (which also works for Text Styles). Or by starting volume 2 by Opening volume 1, saving under another name, and deleting all the document pages that you need to replace.

[MikeW]

11 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm not sure what you'd want in that style-sheet. Can you explain a bit more what you're having difficulties with?

For example, Text Styles can be "externalized" because you can import them from another document. So you could finish volume 1, then import all its Text Styles into volume 2.

Yes, but it isn't quite the same. Styles in VP v5 would automatically be updated if changed when opening subsequent chapters, for instance. Yes, if using a book file they can be synchronized in APub. But still, the VP method was still quicker and didn't require remembering to import this and that. Much less also remembering to update the template version. 

[GeirSol]

57 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm not sure what you'd want in that style-sheet. Can you explain a bit more what you're having difficulties with?

For example, Text Styles can be "externalized" because you can import them from another document. So you could finish volume 1, then import all its Text Styles into volume 2.

Page layout (size, margins, main text frame location, etc.) can be externalized by starting each volume using the same template (which also works for Text Styles). Or by starting volume 2 by Opening volume 1, saving under another name, and deleting all the document pages that you need to replace.

www css has got this right

You can use multiple external style-seets for different pages,
then you have document-based styles (like Publisher have now)
then inline-styles (like local styling in Publisher)

Use-example: This morning I needed to format same content in 2 projects, same styling. The styling in document 1 is a mix of document-based styles and inline (local styles). The two documents are set up with same styles. Now, I need to copy the content + styling to document 2. How do I do that? If I set the styles to that of document 2, then local formatting is lost. If I keep styling, the styles are duplicated.
If both document shared same external style-sheet, this would be solved.

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, GeirSol said:

Now, I need to copy the content + styling to document 2. How do I do that?

I'm probably confused, but for that case since you want the same styling, it's just Copy from one document and Paste into the other, isn't it?

[GeirSol]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm probably confused, but for that case since you want the same styling, it's just Copy from one document and Paste into the other, isn't it?

Well, then I get duplicated style-entries.

[MikeTO]

I like this suggestion.

For a single user, you could create style sheets to be used by a number of documents and simply choose the applicable one when creating or editing a document.

In an enterprise environment, you could have a style sheet on the network and configure all devices to use that style sheet for new documents. This would ensure that all documents created across the company were uniformly formatted. Then when your company decided to change fonts or colours, the change could be rolled out across the enterprise by updating the style sheet.

 

[Bryan Rieger]

+1! This would be an much more efficient (and modern) way to manage styles across related documents, or throughout an organization.

[MikeTO]

Hmm, when scripting is available this might make for a good script. It wouldn't be live syncing but we could export text styles to a file and import them back in, updating existing styles of the same names. I'll add it to my to do list.

[walt.farrell]

54 minutes ago, GeirSol said:

Well, then I get duplicated style-entries.

True, but (for me) only if they are actually different.

Anyway, thanks for the further explanation. I begin to understand what you're after, I think

[MikeW]

1 hour ago, GeirSol said:

Well, then I get duplicated style-entries.

Yes...Serif ought to just offer a dialog to use existing styles or replace existing styles and "forgot" to program in a map styles dialog for when importing text files into existing documents. 

[GeirSol]

Current workaround: Paste without style, then assign styles and manually duplicate local styling.

[MikeW]

51 minutes ago, GeirSol said:

Current workaround: Paste without style, then assign styles and manually duplicate local styling.

You have far more patience than I do.

[GeirSol]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

True, but (for me) only if they are actually different.

Anyway, thanks for the further explanation. I begin to understand what you're after, I think

I notice I get mixed results here. Thanks for the check!