Adobe Indesign CS4 – Differences Between Object Styles and Text Styles
Beyond their association with objects rather than text, object styles have some other distinct differences in behavior that don’t conform entirely to the conventions of their text style counterparts.
Selective Attribute Inclusion
Like other style dialogs, the Object Style Options dialog contains a left pane with a list of different attribute categories. However, this is the only dialog where an entire category can be disregarded by the style and all of its related attributes ignored. In the top-left pane of the dialog, each category name has a check box next to it. If the check box is not selected (which appears as a small box on Windows and a hyphenated box on the Mac), all attributes in that category are ignored by the style. In other words, an object style in which the Fill category is set to “ignore” will never change the fill color, tint, gradient angle, or fill overprint setting of an object to which it’s applied.
){kind=link}
This makes object styles less absolute than paragraph styles, where every attribute is included in the style definition. It’s not quite like character styles, where unspecified attributes are inherited from the paragraph. There is no “top level” style for an object that’s akin to a paragraph style. Ignored settings simply honor any attribute already applied to an object on a page. Those attributes are not considered overrides to the style, either, because they’re not defined by it.
TIP: Shift-Option-clicking/ Shift-Alt-clicking a selected attribute sets it to Ignore and all other categories to On. Shift-Option-clicking/Shift-Alt-clicking a deselected attribute turns it on and sets all other categories to Ignore. This behavior does not apply to the transparency and effects categories.
NOTE: Clicking an attribute category in the left pane does not, at first, select that category and reveal its options, as it does in other style dialogs. If a category is deselected, clicking “activates” it, making its attributes part of the style definition. A second click is required to select the category and display its options. Be aware of this when “browsing” the categories in the Object Style Options dialog. Clicking one to view the specific options automatically includes that category in the style.