Use paragraph styles

A paragraph style is a set of attributes—font size and color, for example—you can apply quickly to an entire paragraph. Using paragraph styles ensures a consistent look for the text in your document.

Paragraph styles also make it easy to format documents. For example, if you apply the Heading style to all the headings in a document, and later decide you want to change their color, you can change the color of the Heading style itself, and all the headings update automatically—you don’t have to change them individually.

Every Pages template includes paragraph styles, which you can modify however you like. Placeholder text already has paragraph styles applied to it.

Paragraph styles appear in the Text pane of the Format inspector, where you can assign shortcut keys to them.

Paragraph Styles pop-up menu, showing controls to add or change a style.

When you change text that has a paragraph style applied to it, an asterisk appears next to the style’s name, indicating that the style has an override. You can leave the override, or you can change the style so that all the text using the style is changed in the same way.

Apply a paragraph style

  1. Select one or more paragraphs, or click in a paragraph to apply the style to only that paragraph.

  2. In the Text pane of the Format inspector, click the paragraph style name at the top of the pane, then choose a style from the Paragraph Styles pop-up menu.

Assign a shortcut key to a style

You can assign a shortcut key (F1—F8) to a paragraph, character, or list style.

  1. In the Text pane of the Format inspector, do one of the following:

    • For a paragraph style: Click the paragraph style name at the top of the pane.

    • For a character style: Click the Character Styles pop-up menu.

    • For a list style: Click the Bullets & Lists pop-up menu.

  2. In the pop-up menu, move the pointer over the name of the style you want to assign a shortcut to, then click the arrow that appears.

  3. Choose Shortcut, then choose one a key.

    Now, the shortcut key appears next to the style name in the menu for easy reference.

To remove a shortcut key assignment, choose None from the Shortcut menu.

Note: To use shortcut keys on a portable computer, press Fn with the shortcut key.

Create a new paragraph style

  1. Click the paragraph you want to base the new style on.

  2. In the Text pane of the Format inspector, click the paragraph style name at the top of the pane.

  3. Click New style button at the top of the Paragraph Styles pop-up menu.

  4. Enter a name for the new style, then click outside the menu to close it.

Remove overrides from a paragraph style

When you change the formatting of text that has a paragraph style applied to it, an asterisk appears next to the paragraph style name. If you don’t want to keep the changes (the overrides), you can revert to the original style.

  1. Click the paragraph with the override.

  2. In the Text pane of the Format inspector, click the paragraph style name at the top of the pane.

  3. In the Paragraph Styles pop-up menu, click the style name (it has a gray checkmark to indicate an override).

    The override is cleared and the text reverts to the original style.

Update a paragraph style

If you change the formatting of text that has a paragraph style applied to it, you can update that style to reflect your changes. You can use the new paragraph style to format other text.

When you select an entire paragraph and then change the font, size, color, or other attributes of text in the paragraph, an Update button appears next to the paragraph style name at the top of the Text pane. To update the style to incorporate your changes, click Update.

If you didn’t select the entire paragraph when you made changes, you see an asterisk instead of the Update button, but you can still update the style.

  1. Click the text that uses the style you want to update.

  2. In the Text pane of the Format inspector, click the paragraph style name at the top of the pane.

  3. In the Paragraph Styles pop-up menu, move the pointer over the style name (it has a checkmark), then click the arrow that appears.

  4. Choose Update Style.

Rename a style

  1. Click a paragraph that uses the style you want to rename.

  2. In the Text pane of the Format inspector, click the paragraph style name at the top of the pane.

  3. In the Paragraph Styles pop-up menu, move the pointer over the style name, then click the arrow that appears.

  4. Choose Rename Style, then enter a new name.

Delete a style

You can delete a style that isn’t being used in your document. If the style is being used, you can designate a replacement style for it.

  1. Click any text.

  2. In the Text pane of the Format inspector, click the paragraph style name at the top of the pane.

  3. In the Paragraph Styles pop-up menu, move the pointer over the name of the style you want to delete, then click the arrow that appears.

  4. Choose Delete Style.

If you try to delete a style that’s being used, you are asked to choose a style to replace the one you’re deleting.