Find and Change Paragraph Styles 1

[Rachbotham]

I'm sure this question has been posted before, but I'm new:
Here it is: It concerns Adobe InDesign CS (just CS,not 2)

I know that InDesign provides for finding and changing paragraph styles. That's straightforward.
My situation is:
1.) I often need to change from one para style to another, and I need to do it on very large files (book manuscripts of over 250 pages.)

2.)Many parts of the text have special formatting, such as italic, bold, etc. HOWEVER, when I use the automated find and change tool to change parastyles, all of the special formatting is lost. This happens in all cases; whether the special formatting is an entire paragaraph, or whether it's just one word within a paragraph.

The usual reason I have for changing para styles, is change of font and/or change of font size, usually several parameters.

3.) The solution is not simply to change the parameters within the style itself and then update. This doesn't work because, often, the text is poured in without any style applied to it.

I would greatly appreciate any input for this problem -- it's a bear.

- Thanks,
Rachbotham

 

[MarcusStringer]

You may have to do three or more finds:

First, set up charater styles, one for bold, one for Italic, and for bold Italic etc...

Next: do a search for bold type. Replace it with the bold Character style.
Next: do a search for Italic type. Replace it with the Italic Character style.

and so on....

Next: do a search for the old Paragraph Style and replace it with the New Paragraph Style.

This will hold your bolds and italics etc, and will also get rid of the + next to the para style name.




Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[Rachbotham]

Marcus, Thank you!
I'm sorry it took me so long to get back, but I had a deadline. That always takes the stuffing out of me.
Your suggestion worked perfectly! Exactly the solution I was looking for. It seems to me that Adobe could have made the situation easier by not insisting that the user must specify each parameter. But, given Adobe's limitations, I think your solution is very savvy. Many thanks!

Rachbotham