Use object styles

A quick way to change an object’s appearance is to apply an object style to it. Every template includes object styles—combinations of colors, borders, shadows, and other attributes—that match the template.

If you customize the appearance of an object (a text box, shape, image, or movie) and want to apply these same changes to other objects in your document, you can create a new object style. The new style is saved along with the object styles that come with the template.

Apply an object style

  • Select an object, then click a style at the top of the Style pane of the Format inspector (click the left or right arrows to see more styles).

    If the object includes text but you want to apply just the shape style to it (the color and border, for example), Control-click the style thumbnail, then choose Apply Shape Style Only.

Create a new object style

  1. Select the object with the changes you want to save.

  2. In the Style pane of the Format inspector, click New Style button to add your style.

    You may need to navigate to the last pane of styles by clicking the triangle to the right of the styles.

    Text Box Styles list with the a text box selected and the add button visible

The style appears last, but you can drag it to another location. See the next task to learn how.

Organize and delete object styles

You can change the order of the object styles in the Style pane and delete any you don’t want.

  1. Click and hold the style you want to move until a gray box appears around it then disappears.

  2. Drag the style to a new location.

  3. To delete a style, Control-click it, then select Delete Style.

To move a style from one pane to another, drag it over an arrow to open the other pane, then drag it to where you want it.

Replace styles

To quickly change the appearance of all objects that have the same style applied, redefine the style and then apply it to all the objects.

  1. Select one of the objects whose style you want to change, then modify its appearance so it looks the way you want.

  2. Select the object you just modified (if you deselected it).

  3. In the Style pane of the Format inspector, Control-click the currently applied style, then choose Redefine Style from Selection.

  4. Click OK.

    All objects that use the style are updated.