Can I create 'absolute' or cumulative character styles?

[KarenF]

I have often created character styles for applying to selected words and
characters, and mostly this works well. However I do have a specific problem:
the SI (international standards organization) specifies certain formatting
rules, e.g. a variable (x, y, etc) should be in italic font, to distinguish
it from a constant (the speed of light = c). Unfortunately these fonts are
supposed to be absolute, so even in a paragraph of italicised text, these
variables should still be in italics. Word doesn't let me do this but rather
has a toggle effect (italic + italic = plain font). Does anyone have a
solution to this?

Related to this, I have often wondered what the difference is between
defining a character style based on "Default Paragraph Font" and basing it on
"(underlying properties)" - I have never yet found a difference in behaviour.
This is where the point about cumulative styles comes in: say that I have a
number of words in a sentence in boldface for emphasis, using one character
style, but then I want to highlight one word in red because I'm not sure it's
correct, and I use another style. So far I have never managed to superimpose
two styles: the second one always erases the first one. So what does
"(underlying properties)" mean anyway??

I'd be very grateful for any pointers!

Thanks

Karen

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Based on your experience, I don't think there's any difference between
"Default Paragraph Font" and "Underlying properties." It would be nice if
the latter meant that you could add a specific property to text without
affecting those already applied as direct formatting, but it doesn't seem to
work that way (and in fact, if you select "(underlying properties)" in the
New Style dialog, what is displayed is "The font of the underlying paragraph
style"). Since there is no "(none)" choice, you can't define a character
style as specifically italic regardless of other formatting. This being the
case, and given that character styles are as delicate as direct formatting
in Word 2003 and earlier (that is, they are removed with Ctrl+Spacebar), it
might make more sense to apply the italic property as such and as required.