Formatting overrides

About formatting overrides

The formatting information for a document can come from format rules in element definitions and from predefined formats stored in catalogs. It is possible for a document to have overrides to both sources of information:

Format rule override

A format rule override is a deviation from a text element’s format rules. For example, if the rules specify a paragraph style for an element and you apply a different format, or if the rules specify boldface text and you change the text to italics, you are overriding the element’s format rules.

Format override

A style override is a deviation from a catalog style for text or a table. For example, a paragraph style may specify the Times font family. If you change some text that uses that format to the Palatino font (without saving the change in the format), you are overriding the format. Format rules often use a few catalog formats and specify format overrides to them to describe many different formatting variations.

Generally, avoid using either type of override in your structured document. Let the document handle the formatting automatically, and see your application developer if you’d like to change any of the formatting properties.

If your document does have overrides, you can remove them throughout the document all at once when you import and update.

Find and remove overrides

You can use the Find option to search and remove format overrides at paragraph, character, and table format levels.

1. Choose Edit > Find.

2. From the Find drop-down list, select Paragraph, Character, or Table style override.

3. From the Change drop-down list, select Remove Override.

4. Click Find.

5. For each instance of format override, click Change to remove the override.