Use object styles

A quick way to change how an object looks is to apply an object style to it. Every template includes object styles—sets of attributes like colors, borders, and shadows—that are designed to look good with the template.

You can create your own object style by customizing the look of an object—applying your own color, border, fill, and so on—then saving the look as a new style that you can apply to other objects.

Apply a style to an object

  1. Select an image, shape, text box, line, arrow, or video.

    To apply an object style to a table, see Use table styles. To apply an object style to a chart, see Use chart styles.

    Tip: To save time, you can select multiple objects and apply the same style to them all at once.

  2. In the Format  sidebar, click the Style tab.

  3. Select a style at the top of the sidebar (click the left or right arrow to see more styles).

    If the selected object is a shape that 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.

If you want to save your changes as a new object style, follow the steps in the next task, “Create a new object style.”

Create a new object style

  1. Select the image, shape, text box, line, arrow, or video with the changes you want to save as a new style.

    To create a new object style for a table, see Use table styles. To create a new object style for a chart, see Use chart styles.

  2. In the Format  sidebar, click the Style tab.

  3. Click the arrow to the right side of the style thumbnails to go to the last group of styles.

  4. Click the New style button to add your style.

    The Style pane of the Format sidebar, with the Create Style button in the upper-left corner and five empty style placeholders.

The style appears as the last thumbnail, but you can drag it to another location.

Note: You can’t create an object style in a document shared with others.

Organize or delete object styles

You can reorganize the object styles at the top of the sidebar and delete any you don’t want.

Note: You can’t move or delete an object style in a document shared with others.

Redefine object styles

You can quickly change the look of all objects that have the same style applied.

  1. Select one of the objects whose style you want to change, then modify the object to look the way you want.

    To redefine object styles for tables, see Use table styles. To redefine object styles for charts, see Use chart styles.

  2. Select the object you just modified (if it’s no longer selected).

  3. In the Format  sidebar, click the Style tab.

  4. Control-click the currently applied style, then choose Redefine Style from Selection.

  5. Choose an option, then click OK.

See alsoAdd a border to an objectFill shapes and text boxes with color or an imageAdd a reflection or shadow