Delete text styles

Last updated on Jun 2, 2026

Learn how to remove Character or Paragraph Styles you no longer need while preserving the appearance of existing text in Adobe InDesign.

You can remove unused or unnecessary character and paragraph styles (also called Text styles) from your document using the Character Styles or Paragraph Styles panels. Deleting a style does not change the visual formatting of text that uses it. Instead, the text becomes locally formatted and is no longer linked to a named style.

Delete individual styles

Select Window > Styles, then select Paragraph Styles or Character Styles.

Select a style name.

Right-click the style name, then select Delete Styles.

Delete all unused styles

Select Window > Styles, then select Paragraph Styles or Character Styles.

Select the panel menu icon, then select Select All Unused.

Select any highlighted style name and right-click to select Delete Styles.