I have a large document, some of the text is typed in the default style, some is copied and pasted from the web. The copied text is sligfhtly larger and has a slightly different font. Selecting all the text and choosing the default style doesn’t change anything.
I want to make all the text the same size and font (the default style) without losing the colors.
Is that possible?
Thanks
Unfortunately, according to your (terse) description, it looks like your text has been formatted manually (direct formatting in LO parlance). This direct formatting takes precedence over the attributes set through the style feature (you’re encouraged to read the manual to learn how to use this feature for your comfort). Resetting manual formatting will clear all the changes you applied outside the styles.
You have two options:
Select all text (Ctrl+A) and Format>Clear direct formatting or Ctrl+M. Everything reverts to the applied style, probably Default Style in your case if no other style was ued.
Select all text (Ctrl+A) then use the font and font size menus in the toolbar to force a specific font and size. You keep the colours but be aware that this is yet another direct formatting that will later play nasty tricks on your back.
You’ll be better off to clear all direct formatting and review your document to apply distinctive styles. This is a lengthy one-shot task but you’ll find further editing much much (seven times) easier and comfortable because sequences are specifically marked up and can then be formatted independently from each other.
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Excellent answer, thank you. I followed the advice in this answer, and set a font in a style. I changed my mind and would like the style to inherit its font from the Default style. How do I UNSET the (derived) style’s font?
Go to the Font tab of your style. Press the Standard button (not the Reset button!). This will clear all user settings in this tab only. You must set again the attributes you don’t want to be default.
Note: character styles don’t really inherit from Default Character Style which is a fake style where all attributes are “unset” (transparent). Not set (this is different from set then cleared) attributes take their values in the paragraph style.
As a slight improvement on @ajlittoz’s suggestion to use styles, you might use Find & Replace (ctrl-h) to select only the colored text, apply a paragraph or character style, and then clear direct formatting. You could also do the same for any other formatting attribute that the dialog can handle. This could save a lot of time depending on the complexity of the text, and also assures that you don’t miss anything.
Case 1) If there is only one color, open “Other Options”, click the Attributes button and select font color, make sure the “find” text is empty, and click Find All. Then apply the style.
Case 2) If there are multiple colors that need to be preserved, it looks like you should be able to do the same thing one color at a time. Click the Format button and go Font Effects > Font Color > Custom Color and enter the RGB value, then precede as before. Obviously, you’ll have to examine the target text first to find out the color.
Note: I find the Find & Replace dialog is quite fiddly and hard to use. I think Case (1) is more likely to be worth the trouble than Case (2), but if the text is sufficiently complex then this strategy may well be worth it even in the latter case.