Drop caps and nested styles

There are three main ways to use Drop Caps and Nested Styles feature: to apply a character style to a drop cap, to apply a nested style to text at the beginning of a paragraph, and to apply a nested line style to one or more lines in a paragraph.

You can apply a character style to the drop-cap character or characters in a paragraph. For example, if you want a drop-cap character to have a different color and font than the rest of the paragraph, you can define a character style that has these attributes. Then you can either apply the character style directly to a paragraph, or you can nest the character style in a paragraph style.

If you want to apply a different nested style to any characters after the drop cap, use the New Nested Style option. (See Create nested styles.)

Create nested styles

You can specify character-level formatting for one or more ranges of text within a paragraph or line. You can also set up two or more nested styles to work together, one taking over where the previous one ends. For paragraphs with repetitive and predictable formatting, you can even loop back to the first style in the sequence.

Nested styles are especially useful for run-in headings. For example, you can apply one character style to the first letter in a paragraph and another character style that takes effect through the first colon (:). For each nested style, you can define a character that ends the style, such as a tab character or the end of a word.

Michael Murphy provides an article on nested styles at InDesign's Nested Styles Auto-Format Multiple Paragraphs. He also provides a series of video tutorials that starts at Nested Style Sheets.

Create one or more nested styles

Create nested line styles

You can apply a character style to a specified number of lines in a paragraph. As with nested styles, you can set up two or more nested line styles to work together, and you can create a repeating sequence.

Attributes applied by nested line styles can co-exist with attributes applied by nested styles. For example, a nested line style can apply a color while a nested style can apply italics. If both set conflicting settings of the same attribute, such as red and blue, the nested style takes precedence over the nested line style.

Loop through nested styles

You can repeat a series of two or more nested styles throughout a paragraph. A simple example would be to alternate red and green words in a paragraph. Or, in nested line styles you could alternate red and green lines in a paragraph. The repeating pattern remains intact even if you add or remove words in the paragraph.

Nested style character style options

To determine how a nested character style ends, select any of the following:

Periods, question marks, and exclamation points indicate the end of a sentence. If a quotation mark follows the punctuation, it is included as part of the sentence.

Any space or white space character indicates the end of a word.

Any character other than zero-width markers (for anchors, index markers, XML tags and so on) is included.

Any character that does not include punctuation, white space, digits, and symbols.

The Arabic numerals 0–9 are included.

Extends the nested style up to or through the appearance of the End Nested Style character you insert. To insert this character, choose Type > Insert Special Character > Other > End Nested Style Here.

Extends the nested style up to or through the tab character (not the tab setting).

Extends the nested style up to or through the forced line break. (Choose Type > Insert Break Character > Forced Line Break.)

Extends the nested style up to or through the Indent To Here character. (Choose Type > Insert Special Character > Other > Indent To Here.)

Extends the nested style up to or through the space character. (Choose Type > Insert White Space > [space character].)

Extends the nested style up to or through an inline graphic marker, which appears where an inline graphic is inserted.

Extends the nested style up to or through the page number or section name marker.

End a nested style

In most cases, a nested style ends where the condition of the defined style is met, such as after three words or where a period appears. However, you can also end a nested style before the condition is met using the End Nested Style Here character.

This character ends the nested style at that point, regardless of the nested style definition.

Remove the formatting of a nested style

• In the Drop Caps And Nested Styles dialog box, or in the Drop Caps And Nested Styles section of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box, select the nested style and click Delete.
• Apply a different paragraph style.

Create GREP styles

GREP is an advanced, pattern-based search technique. You can use GREP styles to apply a character style to text that conforms to the GREP expression you specify. For example, suppose you want to apply a character style to all the phone numbers in text. When you create a GREP style, you select the character style and specify the GREP expression. All paragraph text that matches the GREP expression is formatted with the character style.

David Blatner provides real-world examples of GREP styles at 5 Cool Things You Can Do with GREP Styles. Cari Jansen provides a four-part series about GREP styles that begins at Introducing GREP Styles.