Import styles and inheritance.

[Groucho]

Maybe this is by design. Consider this:

Document A has the following style:
Normal (Times 10 pts)

Template B has the following styles:
Normal (Warnock Pro 10 pts)
Colophon (Based on Normal + Space Before 12 pts)

Note that both documents have a style named Normal, but with different attributes (Times and Warnock Pro).

Then I open the Document Manager and drag the style Colophon from Template B into Document A and this is what I get:

Document A has the following styles:
Normal (Times 10 pts, unchanged)
Normal 1 (Warnock Pro 10 pts, newly created)
Colophon (Based on Normal 1 + Space Before 12 pts)

To sum up, NWP imports the style Colophon OK but also creates a new style (Normal 1) apparently because the existing Normal style has different attributes. But I expect the style Colophon to inherit attributes from the style Normal in document A not to create a new style to stick to Template B. Or, in other words, I expect it to adapt to the new environment, not to refer to the old.

As I said, maybe this behavior is so by design. I think the other way around would be more logical.

Cheers, Henry.

[greenmorpher]

In document B, can you delete Normal style before importing the new Normal style from document A?

I would also suggest a better way of working; don't base any styles on "Normal" (I don't) or alterantively, have "Normal" the same in all documents.

Best regards, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
Publisher, Editor, Business Writer
The Worsley Press

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[Groucho]

In document B, can you delete Normal style before importing the new Normal style from document A?

No, I can’t. I’ve got a number of styles based on Normal that would be orphaned.

I would also suggest a better way of working; don't base any styles on "Normal" (I don't) or alterantively, have "Normal" the same in all documents.

Why? I haven’t tried so, but I think it would work the same with any other style.

By the way, there’s an inaccuracy in my post. I don’t import from a template but from a Style Collection in the Document Manager.

By by the way, importing a style via “Import from Style Library…” in Stylesheet view doesn’t create a New Normal 1 style, but changes attributes in existing Normal. That is, in the example above Normal in document A has the font changed to Warnock Pro from Times.

Thanks, Henry.

[greenmorpher]

Does it matter if they are orphaned? Once created, they are freestanding.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
Publisher, Editor, Business Writer
The Worsley Press

FREE Bonus book offer. Get "How to make great ads for (sm)all business" FREE when you buy "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes?" or "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter". Amazon or www.worsleypress.com

[Groucho]

It does matter. If attributes are inherited you can modify a number of styles just changing the common parent. That’s what cascading styles are for. Of course, I already do as you suggest. It annoys me, though, and it’s a workaround, and I don’t like to work around things.

Bye, Henry.

[greenmorpher]

Yeah, Groucho, there is that problem. That's why I NEVER start my styles cascade with "normal". I set up a style from scratch -- based on "nothing" -- then cascade from that. I learned that lesson 20 years ago using PageMaker and DTPing books.

BUT if you have started from "Normal" and you're getting tangled up with a another "Normal", you can STILL lop off "Normal" then make your cascade adjustment from what was the second level but is now the top level.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
Publisher, Editor, Business Writer
The Worsley Press

FREE Bonus book offer. Get "How to make great ads for (sm)all business" FREE when you buy "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes?" or "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter". Amazon or www.worsleypress.com

[Groucho]

Sorry, I don’t follow you. At a certain point, at the beginning of the cascade, you must have a parent style based on nothing. My Normal is based on nothing. Or are you trying to say that it’s a matter of names? Should I call it Default? Am I missing something?

Cheers, Henry.

[martin]

To sum up, NWP imports the style Colophon OK but also creates a new style (Normal 1) apparently because the existing Normal style has different attributes. But I expect the style Colophon to inherit attributes from the style Normal in document A not to create a new style to stick to Template B. Or, in other words, I expect it to adapt to the new environment, not to refer to the old.

I can imagine both behaviors being useful in some situations, but probably what you expected is better overall. I'll file this as something to investigate changing. Maybe we should add more options to the style import/paste process.

[Groucho]

Thank you.

Henry.