Problem formatting "No Style"/Body text at compile time

[jsr1]

I just want to doublespace the “No Style” (body text) of my manuscript when I compile it.

I’m able to effectively set line spacing on text with a custom style at compile time.

I’m not able to find a way to do this for text marked, “No Style”…

1. I can do “Document > Convert”, but that doesn’t make sense as there’s a whole feature set around compiler automation/override and [Document > Convert > Text to Default Formatting] requires a bunch of other hoops like selecting documents and options.
2. I can export to Pages/Word where “No Style” is being output as the style “Body,” and convert there, then save to .pdf, but again, seems like a workaround for something that should be simple and part of the compile.
3. I can create a style called “Body”, but I’ve read a number of people saying not to do that. This actually makes the most sense, because the compiler overrides work and so does the [Format > Style > Redefine Style From Selection] option is a regular part of my workflow.
4. I’ve tried mucking with section layouts and applying section types, “Chapter,” “Section,” etc, and then overriding those styles, but that didn’t make sense and had no effect.
5. There is a default “Body” style in many of the compile examples, Manuscript (Courier), for example. “No Style” converts to “Body” when exporting to .doc/docx. It would really make a lot of sense if “No Style” used the “Body” style under the compile profile.
6. Creating a “No Style” style in the compile profile doesn’t affect “No Style” text.

[xiamenese]

No need to mess around with styles.

In the Compile dialog, when you assign a Section Layout to each Section Type that includes text, or if you have already done that go to each such Section Layout in turn (this is the layout assigned to each of my Text sections):

When you mouse over the pane a pencil icon appears in the top right corner (it doesn’t show in screenshots), which will let you edit that layout:

Click in the text in the bottom pane so that the cursor is visible in the text area, then click on the button for the Text Spacing dropdown and choose “2.0”:

That will assign double spacing to all the text set to No Style in all the sections with that layout assigned; the effect will be immediately visible in the pane.

Make sure Override text and notes formatting is ticked. No styled text will be affected. Just do that for all layouts in your project which have text.

Hope that helps.

Mark

[mpclemens.writes]

Mark’s reply is very complete. The part I’m learning to remember is: formatting you see in editing is for your use only. How it outputs is a second layer in compiling.

I write in single-space text in the standard system font, and the Manuscript Times New Roman format is the magic that turns what I see into the preferred output.

So if it’s a matter of changing what you edit: styles in the editor panes.

If it’s a matter of what you get out the other side: as Mark describes, with section mappings to compile formats.