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IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0009883ScribusStylespublic2025-07-17 05:54
Reporteralexandre Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityfeatureReproducibilityhave not tried
Status newResolutionopen 
Summary0009883: "Style of next paragraph" option
DescriptionA user wants to be able to say what style should be used for the next paragraph. E.g. formatting a header as Header2 will automatically make the next paragraph e.g . BodyText.
TagsNo tags attached.
PatchNo

Relationships

has duplicate 0011131 closedale circonda immagine con testo 
has duplicate 0014079 closedjghali Follow-up-style for paragraph styles 

Activities

jirib

2011-03-28 08:48

reporter   ~0025964

Yes, it would be nice for example in this scenario.

1st paragraph has inicials defined, then logically next paragraph should be without inicials ;)

cezaryece

2011-03-28 09:54

updater   ~0025965

Do you know that it is only usable while you typing new text? I think it maybe nice to have such feature, but... there are more important thing to do.
Maybe some day when dev team will be very bored...

Nathan

2025-07-16 20:23

reporter   ~0052903

Just wanted to add some more context to this one. I regularly create event programs, where things such as boards of directors, menus, and event itineraries are common. Often, each line will require its own paragraph style, for instance:

Board Title
Board Member Name
Board Member Position
Board Member Company,

or:

Itinerary Item Time
Itinerary Item Name
Itinerary Item Description

or:

Menu Section Title
Menu Subsection Title
Menu Item Title
Menu Item Description
Menu Item Diet Suitability

An event program might easily have dozens of similar items, so right now, it is a major pain point to use the story editor to manually apply paragraph styles to each line. Not only does this have to be done initially, but styles frequently need to be updated when receiving new or changed copy from colleagues (which, unfortunately, happens all the time), resulting in hundreds of clicks that aren't necessary in other desktop publishing programs.

A "Next Style" feature would also make the Scribus feature to export and import text from the Story Editor much more useful. For instance, rather than editing all of the text in place, I could have a plaintext file available to my colleague via a shared folder where they can input menu items. When they were done, I could simply import the file again, apply the first paragraph style, and the rest would take care of itself. As of now, the export / import feature is of limited utility, because it means manually applying every single paragraph style all over again.

I can understand why this feature might appear like a bit of a luxury if you don't regularly make such documents, but for me, the lack of this feature significantly decreases my productivity as compared to using proprietary software that does have a "Next Style" feature. This feature would result in a tremendous productivity increase for me and others working on similar projects, it would vastly increase the utility of Scribus' paragraph styles, and it would make the import/export text feature especially useful when working with others, resulting in further productivity gains.

I hope that the devs will consider building this feature; I am sure that it would ease a significant pain-point for many others also.

ale

2025-07-17 05:54

manager   ~0052904

There is one problem I see here: often you will be importing the text from an external source.
In that case, the "Next style" won't help you.

Some time ago, a question from a user inspired me to write a script that repeats an existing style pattern:

https://github.com/aoloe/scribus-script-repository/tree/master/style-repeater

You can start the script from the the "Action search" or (hopefully) in the (near) future, you will be able to add it to a customizable toolbar.

If your text is in one single frame, it might speedup your workflow.

If you have multiple frames, we can talk about how a Script might help there.
I suggest that you ask a question about it in the forums or in the Element chat / IRC channel.

Also, the "Style search" just landed in 1.7 and it will allow you to apply styles by typing a few of the letters in the style name.
No more wild clicking in the Story editor : - )

All this having been said, it's still a good idea to allow the user to define a "Next style" (only applies to Paragraph styles...), but in most cases I think that the lack of this feature should not be a significant pain-point anymore...

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2011-03-27 05:33 alexandre New Issue
2011-03-28 08:48 jirib Note Added: 0025964
2011-03-28 09:54 cezaryece Note Added: 0025965
2012-10-27 12:08 ale Relationship added has duplicate 0011131
2016-04-25 11:58 Kunda Patch => No
2016-04-25 11:58 Kunda Severity minor => feature
2016-04-25 12:06 Kunda Category General => Styles
2016-05-18 14:00 jghali Relationship added has duplicate 0014079
2025-07-16 20:23 Nathan Note Added: 0052903
2025-07-17 05:54 ale Note Added: 0052904