Want more out of your paragraph styles? Nested styles allows you to use several different character styles which combine into one paragraph style. For example, take a look at the following text:

WOMEN’S VARSITY TENNIS.  Front Row: Sarah Hozman-Lipsitz, Emily Springer, Lissy Schultz, Danielle Mannause.  Second Row: Catherine Andary, Joan Eisbrenner, Amy Howard, Colette Buckberry, Nikki Wickham.  Third Row: Jenna Comstock, Kaitlyn Combes, Sarah Shockery, Stephanie Gustafson.  Back Row: Caroline Crawford, Coach Alex A. Wiesner, Assistant Coach Ben Wolfe, Danielle Engman, Amelia Swinton.

This paragraph contains 3 different character styles. You could type all the names in one style and then go back, highlight the group name, apply the “group name” character style”, highlight each row name, and then apply a “group row” character style. This might be fine for one set of names, but after 5 teams/clubs, it starts to get tedious.

Nested styles allows you to apply all 3 character styles at once. Here’s a step-by-step guide for setting this up:

STEP 1: Define a Character Style for each part of the text.

1a. Group Title: WOMEN’S VARSITY TENNIS.

Open the Character Styles palette (usually docked on the right side of the InDesign widow). Click the “Piece of Paper” icon to “Create New Style.” This will create a new style with the default name “Character Style 1.” Double-click the name to open the Character Style Options dialog box. Name the Character Style: “Group Title.” Now click on the Basic Character Formats on the left side of the dialog box. Set the type formats for the Group Title. In the example, the Font is AHJ Syntax, the Font Style is Bold, the Size is 8pt, the Leading is Auto and the Case is All Caps. Click OK.

1b. Group Rows: Front Row:

You will see that “Group Title” is now an option in your Character Styles palette. Click “Create New Style” and double-click the name of the new character style. Name the new Character Style: Group Rows. Click “Basic Character Formats.” Set the type formats for the Group Rows. In the example, the Font is AHJ Syntax, the Font Style is Bold, the Size is 8pt, the Leading is Auto and the Case is Normal.

1c. Group Names: Sarah Hozman-Lipsitz, Colette Buckberry, Nikki Wickham.

Click “New Character Style” again. Name this Character Style: Group Names. Now click on Basic Character Formats on the left side of the dialog box. Select the type formats for the Group Names. In the example, the Font is AHJ Syntax, the Font Style is Regular, the Size is 8pt, the Leading is Auto, and the Case is Normal. Click OK.

The Character Styles needed to format a group/team photo identification are now complete.

STEP 2: Create a Paragraph Style

Open the Paragraph Styles palette (usually docked on the right side of the InDesign widow). Click “New Paragraph Style.” Name the Paragraph Style: Groups-Sports IDs. Now click on “Drop Caps and Nested Styles” on the left side of the dialog box.

Step 3: Create Nested Style

A Nested Style tells the Paragraph Style when to start and stop applying a specific Character Style when a specific “marker” is found. The markers must be present within the unformatted text in order for the Nested Paragraph Style to format the text properly. In our example. we use a period, a colon, and an “en space” to indicate when one character style ends and another should begin. Here’s how you set it up:

3a. Click on the New Nested Style button in the Paragraph Style Options dialog box. From the pull-down menu, select the Character Style to apply. In the example, the first New Nested Style is Group Title. The Group Title should be applied to the text through the “1” “.” found. Simply keystroke in a period.

3b. Click on the New Nested Style button again. Now apply the next Character Style. In the example, the second New Nested Style is Group Rows. The Group Rows should be applied to the text through the “1” “:“ found. Simply keystroke in a colon.

3c. Click on the New Nested Style button again. Now apply the next Character Style. In the example, the third New Nested Style is Group Names. The Group Names should be applied to the text through the “1” “En Space “ found. Select En Space from the pull-down menu.

What is an “en space”? A en space is inserted at the end of each row of names instead of a regular space. The en space can be inserted into text by going to Type > Insert White Space > En Space. The en space is an unique “marker” within the text to start/stop the application of the Group Names Character Style. One might be tempted to use the period at the end of each row of names as the “marker.” However, if within the row of names a period appears as part of a student’s first name or middle initial, the Group Name Character Style would find this period as “marker” and stop applying the style.

3d. Repeat Steps 3b and 3c for the maximum number of rows your photos will have (6 rows is usually sufficient).

Step 4: Set “Indents and Spacing” and “Hyphenation” preferences

Click on “Indents and Spacing” on the left side of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box. In the example, the group/team photo identification is justified. Select Left Justified from the Alignment pull-down menu. Finally, click on Hyphenation on the left side of the Paragraph Style Options dialog box. Since names should not be hyphenated, turn off Hyphenation by unchecking the box next to Hyphenation.

Click “OK” and the Groups-Sports IDs Paragraph Style is now complete.

Step 5: Apply your new Nested Paragraph Style

NOTE: When the text is typed onto the layout, the “markers” used to create the Nested Paragraph Style must be carefully and consistently included. In the example, a “.” must follow the name of the group or sports team. A “:” must follow after each row designation. An en space must be inserted after the last name in each row and before the next row designation.

To apply a Nested Paragraph Style, simply click anywhere in the text of an unformatted group or sports team identification with the Type tool. (The entire caption does not need to be highlighted.) Then go to the Paragraph Styles palette and click once on Groups-Sports IDs. The entire caption should be formatted automatically.

CREDIT: Women’s Varsity Tennis photo and caption courtesy of
the East Lansing (Michigan) High School Ceniad

SUGGESTION: Nested Paragraph Styles should be created early in the production cycle. Ideally, Nested Paragraph Styles, along with other customizing, is completed on the blank template that will be distributed to the staff.

HOW TO LOAD A NESTED STYLE: If the Nested Paragraph Styles are not created as part of the school’s master template, Character Styles and Paragraph Styles can be loaded from an existing InDesign document to a new InDesign document. Follow these steps:

1. Open the Paragraph Styles palette.
2. Click on the fly-out arrow and select Load Paragraph Styles.
3. Navigate to the InDesign document containing the existing Character Styles and Paragraph Styles, select the file and click OK.
4. The Load Styles dialog box will open.
5. Select which Character Styles and Paragraph Styles to load, and then click OK.
6. The Character Styles and Paragraph Styles selected are now available in the new InDesign document.