I am also facing this issue.
IMO, the whole idea of the User Interface is to represent what is there, what the computer sees.
I can’t comprehend calling this as anything other than a bug. If ctrl-b or ctrl-i affect the user’s view of a word, it should affect the data equally.
If using the button or shortcut does not actually change the character style, then it should be disabled until fixed.
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I have a separate style and font for most character dialogue in my novel. The loss of bold, italics, and underline on Compile is not a minor thing.
Even halfway through when I have noticed this, that’s a real time investment to create and apply a character style to every relevant word. Aggravatingly so, and that seems the “best” workaround, assuming it functions.
Is there some better way to manually edit styles than “redefine from selection”?
It is wild to me that there’s no actual menu, where one can see the actual values being saved and used. Instead, such things are fragmented all over. Needing to check the Spacings, Indents, ect, every time just to find out what values are actually in that style is a PitA.
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For anyone else finding this thread with the same issue, here’s what I have learned.
A key issue is that on creation of a Paragraph Style the option Formatting: defaults to “save all formatting”
You think you are making a paragraph style, but it’s not.
Despite the UI claiming its a paragraph style, and lacking the UI window for a 3rd option, it’s a “both” by default.
I do not know the potential benefit of ever selecting this option, never allow this default.
If your style was set to paragraph only, all use of the B or I buttons/shortcuts seem to survive Compile in my quick tests.
Selecting “save character attributes” in the drop down is the only way to get/create a character style at all, and manually using/selecting one will successfully Compile into a final product as well. Do note that these are specific/exclusive. If you want to bold and italicize, that’s a third character style w/ both.
Maddeningly, underline does not function. If I use a paragraph-only style, then use the button to underline a word, it will be removed in the final compile.
Neither the paragraph-only w/ button/shortcut, nor the manual character style override appear to survive Compile. Fuck.
Would be real nice if I could so much as get back to that style creation menu! Only exists on creation once, then you can never even SEE that dropdown again, and there’s literally no way to ever know if your paragraph style is actually a paragraph style, or a “both” monster.
Being unable to change this dropdown selection, every style in my project is going to need to be recreated and every line reapplied. The cherry on top is the shortcut, color, and name frustrations, which will be many.
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Again, this is still a bug.
Any use of word-specific bolding, ect should either apply to the Compile, or be disabled so as to not trick the user. At worst, attempting to bold something already within a "both"monster style should kick out a popup explaining why it’s not possible.