how to edit 'no style'

[hhauten]

I want to edit my base style. Base seems to inherit from [no style], which has no way to edit (or even delete). How do I go about this?

[Dave Harris]

The default Base style isn't based on anything else. It sets every known attribute. I think it is the thing you want to edit.

[Old Bruce]

Just Double Click on the Base style in the Styles Studio. That will bring up all the things you can change.

[Ralph]

I have the same problem as 'hhauten' - I think!

I want my text boxes in new documents to open with my favourite text style. It seems that to do that I have to change [No Style] into [My Base Style]. Picking up on Dave & Old Bruce's suggestions, I changed [Base] to be [My Base Style]. The next time I opened APu the [No Style] was …. exactly as before. I found the "Save Styles as Default" option, changed [No Styles] in a text box, changed [Base], even saved the document I was using as my base. The next time I opened APu the [No Style] was …. exactly as before.

I must be missing something …… because I can do it in PagePlus and other DTP packages.

I'm thinking ADe has the same issues??

[Dave Harris]

If you want to change which style is set on text by default, then apply that style to some text and use Edit > Defaults > Save. Probably best to do this in a pristine document so you don't save more changes than you intend - it will save all the object defaults, including shape fills and strokes etc.

Save Styles as Default makes the current stylesheet the default for new documents. Changing the Base style changes the formatting that all the default paragraph styles inherit from. It doesn't in itself apply a style.

[Ralph]

Thanks Dave,

… but why is one part of the key command sequence [Defaults] in a list at upper left when the other part [Save Styles as Default] in a 'hidden' list on the right of the real estate 

That's a rhetorical question! But it is frustrating to find that the Serif Way of 'hiding' access to some really important/powerful functions continues past the xxxPlus products

Thanks again - keep up the good work, it is a great product.

[Dave Harris]

The text styles option is in the main menu at Text > Text Styles > Save Text Styles as Default. It's not intended to be hidden, but it's also not something we expect to be used frequently.

[Stepaan]

I had to change the "no Style" somehow (without knowing it) to something totally unusable. So it must be possible to change this style. But I don't know how to revert these changes back to anything readable.

[walt.farrell]

12 hours ago, Stepaan said:

I had to change the "no Style" somehow (without knowing it) to something totally unusable. So it must be possible to change this style. But I don't know how to revert these changes back to anything readable.

You can try:

1. Set some text that has "No Style" to have the attributes you want. Then
2. Edit > Defaults > Synchronize from Selection. Then
3. Edit > Defaults > Save.

It may be more flexible, and in general better, to start using Text Styles, though, and update Base as recommended above.

[garrettm30]

On 3/14/2021 at 5:27 PM, Stepaan said:

I had to change the "no Style" somehow

What Walt says is correct. It may help to understand that "no style" is not itself a style. Anything that has no text style applied is just formatted with local formatting. What local formatting that is applied when creating new text is impacted by the feature that Walt wrote about.

[Stepaan]

Walt, Garrett: Thank you both. Indeed, I'm using styles. But since I'm quite new to the Serif family, I tend to make many nonsence mistakes. This was one of them.

On 3/15/2021 at 12:18 PM, walt.farrell said:

You can try:

1. Set some text that has "No Style" to have the attributes you want. Then
2. Edit > Defaults > Synchronize from Selection. Then
3. Edit > Defaults > Save.

It may be more flexible, and in general better, to start using Text Styles, though, and update Base as recommended above.

Well, I'm in the making of my first real magazine in Publisher. Beside Text styles I also need Paragraph Styles (Dropcaps, indents, and so on). For this reason, text styles aren't sufficient for the task.

On 3/16/2021 at 7:53 PM, garrettm30 said:

What Walt says is correct. It may help to understand that "no style" is not itself a style. Anything that has no text style applied is just formatted with local formatting. What local formatting that is applied when creating new text is impacted by the feature that Walt wrote about.

I believe I can understand the stuff behind No style "style". But since I changed it somehow, in every new text frame I made was automatically white text on the bright gray background (gray paragraph decoration).  Which was quite annoying.

Also. Is it possible to setup the default text frame style? It seems Publisher remembers the last style used and applies it to every new frame. For example to start with this No Style "Style". I'm sorry if my questions are silly, but after some 15 years (or so) I'm switching from Adobe to Affinity, so I'm used to the almost completely different approach.

[garrettm30]

On 3/19/2021 at 9:05 AM, Stepaan said:

Also. Is it possible to setup the default text frame style? It seems Publisher remembers the last style used and applies it to every new frame.

It has something to do with the "synchronize defaults" that Walt showed you. Other than that, there is no separate "default frame." Affinity uses some kind of rolling default that always has me confused, wherein the "default" is constantly changing based on any changes you make with each new object. I am not a good one to explain this, as every time I think I understand how those defaults buttons and menu items work in Publisher, I find some scenario where it turns out my understanding was wrong.

I work so heavily with clearly defined text styles that rarely worry about what the "default" is. As for text frames, they are much less complex in total attributes to begin with. I create my several text frames on master pages, and then I don't worry too much about the frames after that. Also, I almost always work from templates, so it is not as often that I keep creating new text frames.

So I am sorry that I am not very much help when it comes to how defaults work in Affinity apps.

On 3/19/2021 at 9:05 AM, Stepaan said:

Beside Text styles I also need Paragraph Styles (Dropcaps, indents, and so on). For this reason, text styles aren't sufficient for the task.

Some terminology clarification may help us in our discussion. "Text Style" in Affinity-speak is a generic term that encompasses three types of text styles: character styles, paragraph styles, and group styles (but let's not get into group styles in this thread; there's another thread about that topic). When we talk about text styles, we are usually referring to some combination of paragraph and character styles. When Walt recommended using text styles, that surely included paragraph styles. I wouldn't want it any other way.

[LondonSquirrel]

On 3/15/2021 at 11:18 AM, walt.farrell said:

It may be more flexible, and in general better, to start using Text Styles, though, and update Base as recommended above.

The problem I encountered, and spent about half an hour trying to figure out, was from an IDML import file. I didn't set the [No Style] attributes, and couldn't figure out how to set them. The context menu on the Text Styles panel for [No Style] could have a 'Synchronise from Selection' option added.