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Work with paragraph styles

Last updated: September 8, 2026 · 4 min read

Use shared styles for headings, subheadings, and body text across the catalog.

Paragraph styles reuse text settings. Built-in heading roles also provide structure for accessible text. A style’s name and its semantic role are different.

Follow these steps

  1. 1

    Apply a style

    PropertiesStyleParagraph style

    Open the style list and choose a built-in style for the text’s purpose: Heading, the subheading style, Body, or Caption. Names may have been changed in your catalog. Applying a style sets its text properties on the block and clears local overrides.

  2. 2

    Make a local exception

    PropertiesStyle

    Change a style-linked block’s size, color, or another style setting. The Override indicator identifies fields that differ from the shared style. This makes a local exception without redefining the style. Reset overrides restores the linked style values.

  3. 3

    Update the shared style

    PropertiesStyleUpdate style from this block

    Prepare the example block, then click the upward-arrow Update style from this block control. Review the number of affected blocks and pages in the confirmation. After confirmation, linked text blocks update while their own local overrides are preserved.

    Keep a change local if it should affect only this block. Updating the shared style has a wider scope.

  4. 4

    Create or duplicate a style

    PropertiesStyleMore

    Open the three-dot More menu, choose Create new style, enter a name, and confirm. The new style captures the block’s base text settings and is linked to the block. Use Duplicate to start from the selected style.

    Created and duplicated styles have a custom role. Naming one Heading does not give it heading semantics. For accessible headings, use an existing heading-role style and adjust its appearance.

  5. 5

    Rename, detach, or delete

    PropertiesStyleMore

    Rename changes the name only. Detach keeps the selected block’s appearance but removes its style connection. Delete style removes the style after confirmation and detaches linked blocks while preserving their appearance.

    Deleting styles or detaching headings can affect structure checks. Review Preflight afterward.

  6. 6

    Exclude a heading from the contents list

    PropertiesStyle

    Style-linked text shows Exclude from table of contents. Use it, for example, for the contents page’s own heading. It does not remove that text from the page.

Result

Shared text styles and intentional local exceptions are managed separately.

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