2.2 Cleaning up Styles

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 2

  • Subject(s):

    InDesign to EPUB

  • Resource Type(s):

    Step-by-Step

  • Audience:

    Technical

Suggested Prerequisite

Before reading this, you might want to read:

Cleaning up Styles

What if you inherit files that you didn’t originate and need to make the ebook from those files. There are a couple of cool tricks to use to quickly clean-up the style sheets so that it is ready for the EPUB export.

The paragraph styles flyout menu is opened and the “Select All Unused” function is highlighted.

The unused style sheets are highlighted in blue and the garbage icon is in a red square.

Sometimes it turns up a whole book full of unused styles. Deleting these cleans up the file so that you can see through to what is important to fix, and what can be left as is. 

In this book when the style override highlighter is toggled on, almost all of the text highlights in that turquoise colour. A quick way to clean up the application of styles is to use the Find/Change menu but leave the Find what: and Change to: lines blank, choosing instead to search for paragraphs styled with, let’s say, “indent” and replace it with the same style. This clears the overrides. 

Complex screenshot with the find and replace menu opened. The find what and change to fields are pointed at with red arrows and the word “empty”. Red lettering in the Find Format field reads, “Click in this field”. A pop up window shows how to search for specific paragraph or character styles.

Zoomed in on the find/change palette. The Find what and Change to fields are empty. Both the Find format and Change format fields have the same thing — the “indent” paragraph style.

This is another InDesign hack and you should be cautious about using it as it will erase formatting that you may need or haven’t cleaned up yet. It is definitely a cool trick but be careful with it. 

Next Steps

1

Module 2, Step 3

2.3 Index Hyperlinking

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 3

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
2

Module 2, Step 4

2.4 Creating a Long Description

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 4

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
3

Module 2, Step 5

2.5 Object Styles

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 5

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
4

Module 2, Step 6

2.6 Edit All Export Tags

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 6

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
5

Module 2, Step 7

2.7 Table Styles

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 2, Step 7

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical
6

Module 3, Step 1

3.1 Exporting an Ebook

Making Ebooks with InDesign: Module 3, Step 1

Subject(s): InDesign to EPUB
Resource Type(s): Step-by-Step
Audience:
Technical

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