I have been trying to use styles in Impress and I have found several aspects confusing.
-
There seems to be at least two types of text objects: text boxes (Insert > Text Box) and what I will call “layout text object” (because I cannot find an official name anywhere). Layout text objects cannot be created directly: only by selecting a layout, or by copying and pasting another layout text object.
-
There are two types of styles: Drawing Styles and Presentation Styles. Text boxes are affected by drawing styles, and layout text objects are affected by presentation styles. Drawing styles and presentation styles are independent, although they can be “cloned” into each other using “Clone formatting” and then updating the style.
-
There seem to be distinct types of layout text objects: title, subtitle, and content. They are affected by the Title, Subtitle, and Outline 1/2/etc presentation styles. It is not possible to convert these text objects to each other
-
Adding Text is unclear and does not seem comprehensive: at the top, it lists different types of text, but it is not clear which is which in the content below. Two examples: the list does not name “text boxes”, and the connection between “text that changes character size to fill the frame” and “Fitting Text to Frames” is not completely clear.
-
I do not know how to create styles, the right-click contextual menu in the Styles and Formatting shows “New…” but it is always greyed out for Presentation Styles.
(I bumped into a weird issue: selecting an image allowed clicking on New…, and what happened is that all presentation styles became nested under the Background style!) -
There is no Subtitle layout text object in the master slide. The Subtitle style can only be modified by changing the format of a “subtitle layout text object” and updating the style, or by copying a “subtitle layout text object” into the master slide and changing its format there.
Am I correct? Does anyone have any useful information?