Have you ever wondered if there was an easier way to format your documents without the hassle of changing everything line-by-line? Or perhaps you have slaved over designing a great spreadsheet table but now you forgot what you did to create it? With ClarisWorks 4.0 software and styles, you won't have worry anymore. Formatting all the paragraphs of a large document is only a mouse click away.
Styles are a series of attributes or formatting options applied to text, graphic objects, spreadsheet cells, database fields, or paint images. Styles are available in every type of ClarisWorks document except Communications. What makes styles so useful is that you can save a complex combination of formatting options in a single style and then use it over and over again with a single mouse click. ClarisWorks comes with a number of pre-defined styles. You can use any of these preset styles, modify them to suit your particular needs, or create your own styles. What's more, you can copy or import styles you create in one document for use in another file, or copy them to a disk to share with friends and colleagues.
The stylesheet palette
Each document has its own set of styles, called a "stylesheet," which is saved with the document. In ClarisWorks, a document's stylesheet is accessed through the stylesheet palette, which is the tool box for keeping your styles in order. The palette breaks out each style by category and sub-styles. To view the palette, choose Show Styles from the View menu on a Macintosh computer, or the Window menu on Windows (Figure 1).
Paragraph and outline styles can also be applied from the styles pop-up menu in the ruler bar. Like all the other palettes in ClarisWorks, the stylesheet palette can be moved easily around your document window by clicking and dragging on the palette's title bar. When you are not actively using the stylesheet palette, you can also collapse it and dock it in the upper-right corner of your document window by clicking the control box on the right hand side of the palette's title bar. There are four categories in which you can set up your formatting preferences:
Basic styles
These contain the attributes of objects such as fill color and pattern; pen width, color, and pattern; and text character formatting options such as font, size, style (bold, italics, and so on.), and text color.
Paragraph styles
These control the formatting that applies to entire paragraphs of text, including line spacing, space before and after paragraphs, text alignment, first line and paragraph indents, and tab spacing and fill options. What is less obvious about Paragraph styles is that they are also used to control certain aspects of spreadsheet cells and database fields (such as text alignment and line spacing). For added power, paragraph styles can also contain basic styles. This enables you to apply both paragraph and character-based formatting with a single style.
Outline styles
Similar to paragraph styles, they contain options particular to outlines in word processing documents or text frames. Specifically, these styles contain substyles that apply to each level of the outline and can be designed or edited separately.
Table styles
Only used to format a range of spreadsheet cells, table styles also contain substyles that govern the formatting of the various rows and columns of the cell range. Each substyle of a table style contains a basic style, as discussed above, to control such things as alignment, number formatting, and cell shading.
You can readily identify style categories by looking at the symbol to the right of a style in the palette. To see more information for a given style, click the Edit button on the lower-right of the palette. When you are editing styles, the palette name changes to Edit Style and will expand to show the list of properties contained in the selected style. At this point, you can also click on the Edit menu in the palette to select the option to show a sample of the selected style (Figure 2). In editing mode, the style categories have a triangle icon next to them. Clicking on these icons expands or collapse to show or hide all of the styles under a particular category.
Styles and documents
The stylesheet palette keeps track of what type of document you are working in, such as Word Processing or Spreadsheet. This applies to the type of document or active frame. This integrated palette is a very powerful tool, but it can also be confusing if you are not fully aware of how it works. It is a good idea to take a moment to become familiar and experiment with the stylesheet palette before using it in your everyday work. The following exercise is a good way to do this.
Exercise
Start with a new Drawing document and add a few elements to it, one at a time. First, use the text tool to create a text frame and type a few words into it. While the cursor is blinking within your frame, open the stylesheet palette. You will see the built-in paragraph and outline styles that are stored in all new ClarisWorks files by default. Next, select the spreadsheet tool and drag out a small spreadsheet frame (a few rows and columns should be fine). Notice that the stylesheet palette now contains the Default SS Basic style, the Default Paragraph style, and seven pre-defined table styles, and that the text-based styles listed previously are no longer available. Now create a small rectangle and observe that only the Default Paragraph style is accessible. Lastly, click the selection arrow and try single- and double-clicking on the frames and objects you have created. You will see that the stylesheet palette responds to the type of frame selected and displays the same options
There are two exceptions to whether you single-click to select the frame or double-click within the frame to make it the active item in the document. If you apply a style while the frame is selected, the entire contents of the frame are formatted according to that style, while applying it within the frame lets you select just that portion of the frame contents to which you wish to apply a particular style.
Some special considerations arise when using styles in the Database and Paint documents. In database files, styles are most useful in Layout mode, where the stylesheet palette behaves as demonstrated in the previous exercise. As you would expect, styles applied to fields on a layout affect all of the records in the file when viewed in Browse mode. Styles can also be used in Browse or List mode, but this can sometimes lead to unexpected results. Styles applied in Browse mode only apply to whatever is selected. Also, data formatted in Browse mode retains the formatting applied and ignores a style change.
In List mode, if you click a column header to select the entire column before applying a style, the data appears to have the attributes of that style, but reverts to its previous state when viewed in Browse mode. However, if you select a row heading to select an entire record, an applied style behaves in the same manner as styles applied to data in Browse mode. The same is also true for any individual cell or field to which you apply a style in List Mode. Because of the inconsistencies which can result from this approach, you should exercise caution when formatting database documents in Browse or List modes.
Because the Paint document has no pre-defined styles, the use of styles here is not as extensive as in other document types. If you are using a paint frame, you can use styles to change the pen color, pattern and width, and the fill color and pattern of the entire frame.
If you make and select a style before you begin using a paint tool, the images will have the pen and fill attributes of that style, but unlike in other documents, changing the options of the style later on will not affect anything previously created with that style.
Adding your own style
Once you have a solid understanding of styles, you are ready to start putting them to use. If the style already exists, applying it is as simple as selecting whatever you want the style applied to and clicking on the style name in the stylesheet palette. Keep in mind that you cannot apply a style if the palette is in Edit Style mode (Figure 3). If your palette is in this state, finish any editing you are in the middle of and click the Done button in the palette before attempting to apply a style.
As mentioned earlier, you can also apply paragraph and outline styles from the ruler bar, though basic and table styles must be accessed through the palette. Since paragraph and outline styles are paragraph-based they will be applied to the entire paragraph which contains your selection, even if you have selected only a portion of the text within a paragraph. This is true even if the style you are applying has only character-based formatting options.
It is common to see a "+" after a style name that has a check mark next to it. This plus sign indicates that the selection has had formatting attributes added (or deleted) manually, either before or after the style was applied. You may try to "erase" all previous formatting options by applying a second style and be surprised to find that the "+" is added at the end of this second style name as well. This is because character-based options that are applied manually, such as a font size change, always take precedence over a style which is applied.
For instance, if you format some text to have a text color of green, then subsequently apply a paragraph style which includes an option for red text, any other options of that style will be applied, but the text color will remain green and the plus sign will still appear after the style name.
The real power and fun of styles comes from creating and using your own. You can save yourself a lot of time and frustration by designing styles for things you use repeatedly such as quotes, citations, bulleted lists, or recipe tables of ingredients and measurements. The use of styles also ensures a consistent look throughout your files.
Two ways to create a new style
If you have already applied a series of formatting options to a paragraph or group of cells, you can capture those settings in a style by selecting the desired text/object, clicking the New button in the stylesheet palette, and clicking the checkbox to "Inherit document selection format."
Give the style a descriptive name. For example, names based on the dominant formatting options like "Big Red Text" or "Chapter Title" work well. Make sure to choose the radio button that corresponds to the type of style you want to create. When you click OK, you see the style name in your newly customized stylesheet palette. Note that because you have not yet applied this style to the selection you used to create it, the palette still shows the check mark and the "+" on the style previously in effect. Although there is no visible change, it is good practice to go ahead and apply the new style to the selection.
You can also create styles from scratch. If you click OK in the New Style dialog box without choosing to inherit formatting from the selection, the insertion point changes to indicate that you are in style creation/editing mode (Figure 3). At this point, you can choose formatting options one at a time the same way you do when manually formatting by using tools, palettes, menu commands, and ruler controls. As you make your choices, you see them added to the style's list of properties. When you have chosen all of the desired options, click the Done button in the stylesheet palette. The properties list collapses, the pointer returns to its normal arrow shape, and you are ready to apply the style you just created.
When creating a style, you can also choose to have its attributes based on another style by using the Based on pop-up menu in the New Style dialog box. This is a good shortcut for creating a style which is very similar to a style which already exists in the current document. However, this feature should be used carefully because a style can have many properties.
Deleting a style
To delete a style, make sure you are in style editing mode, click the style name in the palette, and choose Clear Style from the palette's Edit menu. If you have designed a style to be based on another style, the later style depends on the first one for information on which formatting options to use. Because of this, you can't delete such a style without first deleting all styles which have been based on it. Many of the built-in styles cannot be removed from the palette, and neither can any custom style which has been applied anywhere in the file.
Changing existing styles
There are several ways to change existing styles. If you choose Modify Style from the palette's Edit menu, you can change a style's properties by changing the style on which it is based. You can also change the style's name and remove individual attributes from a style by clicking the desired property in the list, then choosing Clear Property or Cut Property from the palette's Edit menu. You can copy properties from one style to another by using the Copy Property and Paste Property commands. Lastly, you can add or change attributes by using any of the appropriate tools, palettes, menu commands, or ruler controls.
Sharing styles
Once you have taken the time to develop your own custom set of styles, you may want to reuse those styles in other files or have them available every time you create certain types of documents. If you have a single style that you want to use in another file, you can simply copy that style and paste it into the second file. To do this, open the file which contains the style, select the desired style from the stylesheet, and choose Copy Style from the stylesheet's Edit menu. Then, open the file in which you want to use the style and choose Paste Style from the palette's Edit menu. The pasted style appears in the palette and is stored with the second file when it is saved.
Exporting stylesheets
If you have a collection of styles which you wish to reuse, you will want to take advantage of the ability to export and import groups of styles between documents. When you choose Export Styles from the stylesheet palette's File menu, you see the Select styles to export dialog box.
All of the document's styles are available to export, including the pre-defined styles. All styles whose checkbox is checked are exported to a single styles file when you click OK. This enables you to export and reuse any of the pre-defined styles which you modified in the current document. By default, ClarisWorks saves all stylesheets to the Styles folder inside the ClarisWorks 4.0 folder.
After you choose Import Styles from the stylesheet palette's File menu, you are prompted to choose which style-sheet in the Styles folder you want to open. After you choose a stylesheet, the Select styles to import dialog box shows all of the individual styles saved in that stylesheet. You can choose just the styles you want to use in the present file.
Final thoughts on styles
A last helpful tip to leave you with lies in using the on screen Help system. For more specific information on styles, choose Index from the Help menu in Windows, or the Guide menu, represented as the question mark menu icon, on a Macintosh. Scroll down to the key word "Styles." With the extensive on screen Help system you'll have all the information you need to fully take advantage of styles. With the power of styles by your side, it should be much easier to create your own stylish documents.
Styles are a series of attributes or formatting options applied to text, graphic objects, spreadsheet cells, database fields, or paint images. Styles are available in every type of ClarisWorks document except Communications. What makes styles so useful is that you can save a complex combination of formatting options in a single style and then use it over and over again with a single mouse click. ClarisWorks comes with a number of pre-defined styles. You can use any of these preset styles, modify them to suit your particular needs, or create your own styles. What's more, you can copy or import styles you create in one document for use in another file, or copy them to a disk to share with friends and colleagues.
The stylesheet palette
Each document has its own set of styles, called a "stylesheet," which is saved with the document. In ClarisWorks, a document's stylesheet is accessed through the stylesheet palette, which is the tool box for keeping your styles in order. The palette breaks out each style by category and sub-styles. To view the palette, choose Show Styles from the View menu on a Macintosh computer, or the Window menu on Windows (Figure 1).
Paragraph and outline styles can also be applied from the styles pop-up menu in the ruler bar. Like all the other palettes in ClarisWorks, the stylesheet palette can be moved easily around your document window by clicking and dragging on the palette's title bar. When you are not actively using the stylesheet palette, you can also collapse it and dock it in the upper-right corner of your document window by clicking the control box on the right hand side of the palette's title bar. There are four categories in which you can set up your formatting preferences:
Basic styles
These contain the attributes of objects such as fill color and pattern; pen width, color, and pattern; and text character formatting options such as font, size, style (bold, italics, and so on.), and text color.
Paragraph styles
These control the formatting that applies to entire paragraphs of text, including line spacing, space before and after paragraphs, text alignment, first line and paragraph indents, and tab spacing and fill options. What is less obvious about Paragraph styles is that they are also used to control certain aspects of spreadsheet cells and database fields (such as text alignment and line spacing). For added power, paragraph styles can also contain basic styles. This enables you to apply both paragraph and character-based formatting with a single style.
Outline styles
Similar to paragraph styles, they contain options particular to outlines in word processing documents or text frames. Specifically, these styles contain substyles that apply to each level of the outline and can be designed or edited separately.
Table styles
Only used to format a range of spreadsheet cells, table styles also contain substyles that govern the formatting of the various rows and columns of the cell range. Each substyle of a table style contains a basic style, as discussed above, to control such things as alignment, number formatting, and cell shading.
You can readily identify style categories by looking at the symbol to the right of a style in the palette. To see more information for a given style, click the Edit button on the lower-right of the palette. When you are editing styles, the palette name changes to Edit Style and will expand to show the list of properties contained in the selected style. At this point, you can also click on the Edit menu in the palette to select the option to show a sample of the selected style (Figure 2). In editing mode, the style categories have a triangle icon next to them. Clicking on these icons expands or collapse to show or hide all of the styles under a particular category.
Styles and documents
The stylesheet palette keeps track of what type of document you are working in, such as Word Processing or Spreadsheet. This applies to the type of document or active frame. This integrated palette is a very powerful tool, but it can also be confusing if you are not fully aware of how it works. It is a good idea to take a moment to become familiar and experiment with the stylesheet palette before using it in your everyday work. The following exercise is a good way to do this.
Exercise
Start with a new Drawing document and add a few elements to it, one at a time. First, use the text tool to create a text frame and type a few words into it. While the cursor is blinking within your frame, open the stylesheet palette. You will see the built-in paragraph and outline styles that are stored in all new ClarisWorks files by default. Next, select the spreadsheet tool and drag out a small spreadsheet frame (a few rows and columns should be fine). Notice that the stylesheet palette now contains the Default SS Basic style, the Default Paragraph style, and seven pre-defined table styles, and that the text-based styles listed previously are no longer available. Now create a small rectangle and observe that only the Default Paragraph style is accessible. Lastly, click the selection arrow and try single- and double-clicking on the frames and objects you have created. You will see that the stylesheet palette responds to the type of frame selected and displays the same options
There are two exceptions to whether you single-click to select the frame or double-click within the frame to make it the active item in the document. If you apply a style while the frame is selected, the entire contents of the frame are formatted according to that style, while applying it within the frame lets you select just that portion of the frame contents to which you wish to apply a particular style.
Some special considerations arise when using styles in the Database and Paint documents. In database files, styles are most useful in Layout mode, where the stylesheet palette behaves as demonstrated in the previous exercise. As you would expect, styles applied to fields on a layout affect all of the records in the file when viewed in Browse mode. Styles can also be used in Browse or List mode, but this can sometimes lead to unexpected results. Styles applied in Browse mode only apply to whatever is selected. Also, data formatted in Browse mode retains the formatting applied and ignores a style change.
In List mode, if you click a column header to select the entire column before applying a style, the data appears to have the attributes of that style, but reverts to its previous state when viewed in Browse mode. However, if you select a row heading to select an entire record, an applied style behaves in the same manner as styles applied to data in Browse mode. The same is also true for any individual cell or field to which you apply a style in List Mode. Because of the inconsistencies which can result from this approach, you should exercise caution when formatting database documents in Browse or List modes.
Because the Paint document has no pre-defined styles, the use of styles here is not as extensive as in other document types. If you are using a paint frame, you can use styles to change the pen color, pattern and width, and the fill color and pattern of the entire frame.
If you make and select a style before you begin using a paint tool, the images will have the pen and fill attributes of that style, but unlike in other documents, changing the options of the style later on will not affect anything previously created with that style.
Adding your own style
Once you have a solid understanding of styles, you are ready to start putting them to use. If the style already exists, applying it is as simple as selecting whatever you want the style applied to and clicking on the style name in the stylesheet palette. Keep in mind that you cannot apply a style if the palette is in Edit Style mode (Figure 3). If your palette is in this state, finish any editing you are in the middle of and click the Done button in the palette before attempting to apply a style.
As mentioned earlier, you can also apply paragraph and outline styles from the ruler bar, though basic and table styles must be accessed through the palette. Since paragraph and outline styles are paragraph-based they will be applied to the entire paragraph which contains your selection, even if you have selected only a portion of the text within a paragraph. This is true even if the style you are applying has only character-based formatting options.
It is common to see a "+" after a style name that has a check mark next to it. This plus sign indicates that the selection has had formatting attributes added (or deleted) manually, either before or after the style was applied. You may try to "erase" all previous formatting options by applying a second style and be surprised to find that the "+" is added at the end of this second style name as well. This is because character-based options that are applied manually, such as a font size change, always take precedence over a style which is applied.
For instance, if you format some text to have a text color of green, then subsequently apply a paragraph style which includes an option for red text, any other options of that style will be applied, but the text color will remain green and the plus sign will still appear after the style name.
The real power and fun of styles comes from creating and using your own. You can save yourself a lot of time and frustration by designing styles for things you use repeatedly such as quotes, citations, bulleted lists, or recipe tables of ingredients and measurements. The use of styles also ensures a consistent look throughout your files.
Two ways to create a new style
If you have already applied a series of formatting options to a paragraph or group of cells, you can capture those settings in a style by selecting the desired text/object, clicking the New button in the stylesheet palette, and clicking the checkbox to "Inherit document selection format."
Give the style a descriptive name. For example, names based on the dominant formatting options like "Big Red Text" or "Chapter Title" work well. Make sure to choose the radio button that corresponds to the type of style you want to create. When you click OK, you see the style name in your newly customized stylesheet palette. Note that because you have not yet applied this style to the selection you used to create it, the palette still shows the check mark and the "+" on the style previously in effect. Although there is no visible change, it is good practice to go ahead and apply the new style to the selection.
You can also create styles from scratch. If you click OK in the New Style dialog box without choosing to inherit formatting from the selection, the insertion point changes to indicate that you are in style creation/editing mode (Figure 3). At this point, you can choose formatting options one at a time the same way you do when manually formatting by using tools, palettes, menu commands, and ruler controls. As you make your choices, you see them added to the style's list of properties. When you have chosen all of the desired options, click the Done button in the stylesheet palette. The properties list collapses, the pointer returns to its normal arrow shape, and you are ready to apply the style you just created.
When creating a style, you can also choose to have its attributes based on another style by using the Based on pop-up menu in the New Style dialog box. This is a good shortcut for creating a style which is very similar to a style which already exists in the current document. However, this feature should be used carefully because a style can have many properties.
Deleting a style
To delete a style, make sure you are in style editing mode, click the style name in the palette, and choose Clear Style from the palette's Edit menu. If you have designed a style to be based on another style, the later style depends on the first one for information on which formatting options to use. Because of this, you can't delete such a style without first deleting all styles which have been based on it. Many of the built-in styles cannot be removed from the palette, and neither can any custom style which has been applied anywhere in the file.
Changing existing styles
There are several ways to change existing styles. If you choose Modify Style from the palette's Edit menu, you can change a style's properties by changing the style on which it is based. You can also change the style's name and remove individual attributes from a style by clicking the desired property in the list, then choosing Clear Property or Cut Property from the palette's Edit menu. You can copy properties from one style to another by using the Copy Property and Paste Property commands. Lastly, you can add or change attributes by using any of the appropriate tools, palettes, menu commands, or ruler controls.
Sharing styles
Once you have taken the time to develop your own custom set of styles, you may want to reuse those styles in other files or have them available every time you create certain types of documents. If you have a single style that you want to use in another file, you can simply copy that style and paste it into the second file. To do this, open the file which contains the style, select the desired style from the stylesheet, and choose Copy Style from the stylesheet's Edit menu. Then, open the file in which you want to use the style and choose Paste Style from the palette's Edit menu. The pasted style appears in the palette and is stored with the second file when it is saved.
Exporting stylesheets
If you have a collection of styles which you wish to reuse, you will want to take advantage of the ability to export and import groups of styles between documents. When you choose Export Styles from the stylesheet palette's File menu, you see the Select styles to export dialog box.
All of the document's styles are available to export, including the pre-defined styles. All styles whose checkbox is checked are exported to a single styles file when you click OK. This enables you to export and reuse any of the pre-defined styles which you modified in the current document. By default, ClarisWorks saves all stylesheets to the Styles folder inside the ClarisWorks 4.0 folder.
After you choose Import Styles from the stylesheet palette's File menu, you are prompted to choose which style-sheet in the Styles folder you want to open. After you choose a stylesheet, the Select styles to import dialog box shows all of the individual styles saved in that stylesheet. You can choose just the styles you want to use in the present file.
Final thoughts on styles
A last helpful tip to leave you with lies in using the on screen Help system. For more specific information on styles, choose Index from the Help menu in Windows, or the Guide menu, represented as the question mark menu icon, on a Macintosh. Scroll down to the key word "Styles." With the extensive on screen Help system you'll have all the information you need to fully take advantage of styles. With the power of styles by your side, it should be much easier to create your own stylish documents.