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changing style from "no selection" to "section text"


daria

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Hi everyone, I've seen answers here on how to change the style of text while keeping the formatting (italic etc. intact) but i seem to have a problem. I'm copying text from a word doc into Storyist. Here is what is happening...

 

1. copy body text from word into a storyist chapter.

2. looks exactly as it did in word, formatting included, but when I look at the style drop-down it shows "no selection"

3. now I want to convert the text to my previously defined "section text" style.

4 so I select the text and change "no selection" to "section text"

5. the font etc change properly, but all formatting like bold, italic etc gets wiped out.

6. as i'm importing a whole novel, is there a way I can apply my section text style without losing the formatting.

 

I tried selecting a block of text and using the "redefine style" option as was suggested in another post, but it won't let me "redefine" because there is "no selection" currently being applied.

 

I hope the question is clear and would be grateful for some help on this formatting issue.

thanks,

-daria

 

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I just tried importing it. In this case the body text all came in as "default style"

So I selected a paragraph, gave it the attributes I wanted for my section text, then used the "redefine style" option.

It didn't, however convert all the "default text" to those new attributes, only the selected paragraph.

 

Alternatively if I make a paragraph how I want it, then "create new style based on selection" and call it "section text" then try to apply "section text" to other paragraphs, it again loses the custom formatting.

 

Am I doing the basic conversion from "default style" incorrectly?

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Hi Daria,

 

A style includes definitions for bold and italics, so when you ask Storyist to apply the Section Text style, it applies the bold and italics settings too, which in this case is not bold and not italics.

 

There isn't a mechanism to apply all style properties to a paragraph except for bold and italics.

 

As Rusty suggests, importing the file should preserve the styles if they're present in the imported RTF file. You'll want to use RTF instead of .docx due to limitations in Apple's .docx importer.

 

-Steve

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You can change the font (or any of the paragraph properties) and have it preserve the bold and italics. You just can't apply a style and have it preserve the bold and italics. You'd need to reapply the bold and italics afterwards. I understand what you're trying to do. Let me think about it some.

 

In the mean time, here is a trick you can use:

  1. Paste the text after a paragraph containing the style you want to apply--in this case, Section Text.
  2. Position the cursor at the start of this newly pasted paragraph.
  3. Press Delete. This will combine the paragraphs and apply the new style to the pasted text while preserving bold and italics.
  4. Press Return. This will create a new paragraph with the formatting intact, with the exception that it now has the Section Text style.

-Steve

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ok thanks steve, i didn't think of it at first, but i guess i can do all the font changing in word before importing.

then the only thing is then it will all be labeled default text, not section text, but that shouldn't matter right? i can create a matching section text style for new copy...

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Daria,

If you set up styles in Word for Section Text, Section Separator, and Chapter Title (it doesn't matter what font you use in Word) and apply them there, then save that file to RTF and drag it into Storyist, Storyist will recognize those styles and use them in preference to Default Style. You can then change the font in the Storyist styles if you want and still have it retain the bold and italics.

 

Usually Word does not change bold and italics when applying styles, so once you have set them up, you can Select All and apply the Section Text style, then go through and set the Chapter Title and Section Separator styles either manually or through global search/replace.

 

I pinned the complete instructions for doing this elsewhere in the forums. You can find them here.

Best,

Marguerite

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A quick update: It looks like both Word and Pages now preserve bold, italics, and underlining when applying styles (in most situations). I've posted a new Storyist beta that follows this convention. Specifically:

  • In cases where neither the old style nor the new style specifies bold/italics/underlining, Storyist will preserve these traits in your text when applying a style.
  • If either the old style or the new style specifies these traits, the settings from the new style will be applied.
  • Holding Option while applying the style will result in the the settings from the new style being applied. (This is the behavior in 3.2.3).

-Steve

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