Merge Multiple Doc Styles

[Jeff Schweiner]

Karen,

Rick makes a good point that a complete template should include more
than just paragraph tags and mentioned Character and Table formats.  I
went thru this about 1.5 years ago and found inconsistencies in the
following areas: 
- Conditional Text tags
- Variable and Running Header/Footer definitions
- Master Page layouts 
- Reference page contents
- Color definitions
- Cross Ref formats 
- Text Options
- Footnotes
- HTML setup (only if saving as HTML)

As a rough rule of thumb, your template should include everything that
is selectable from the Import Formats pop-up menu.

------------------------------------------
Jeff Schweiner
Hardware Engineering Writer
Cray Inc.
(715) 726-4801



Hi Karen,

Here is how I would approach the problem. Find the component the book
that
is the most solid as far as styles. Make a copy of this and call it your
"template." Delete all of the paragraph format formats in this document
that
still need work, leaving only the solid formats. 

For each of your other components, identify a one or more styles that
you
know that are in good shape. Think in terms of categories; for example,
maybe you spent a lot of time getting your list styles in place in a
particular document. Make a temporary copy of this document and delete
all
paragraph formats except the list styles. Now import these paragraph
formats
into your template and discard the temporary document.

You do not necessarily have to do this in one sitting; you can do it
over
time as you work on your book. What you are doing is building up your
template by adding solid formats to it. Since the paragraph catalog only
contains your good formats, you can at any time import the paragraph
formats
from this document into all of the other components in the book. Once
your
template's paragraph catalog has the same number of formats as the
book's
components, then it should be pretty complete.

You can do this process with your template's other categories of styles,
like character and table formats. To round out the template, you could
make
this into a style guide for your book. When you want to modify or add
formats in your book, do it in the style guide (template) first, and
then
import the formats into your book's components.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thank you very
much. 

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc.
rick at frameexpert.com
585-659-8267




Hello Frame Gurus,

I'm rather new to the list so please bear with me.

I have a book containing 12 files. Over time (starting before I ever 
worked with these files), each file's paragraph style sheet has been 
modified so that now the book's styles are a sea of inconsistency. 
Using Paragraph Tools I can reduce the mess to what's actually in use 
and eliminate what I don't need. I still need to re-name/spec what 
remains more consistently.

To get one file's formats into another, I know I could import 
paragraph formats to individual files. But I would have to re-create 
all the formats in one document first (even though they already 
exist, spread throughout several documents). Will this give the same 
result as if a single merged style sheet had been applied to all 
files in the book? Is there another (more 
effective/efficient/reliable) way?

Anticipating your wisdom....

Karen