Override text styles

Last updated on Jun 2, 2026

Learn how to apply clear overrides to restore original formatting or remove styles you no longer need in Adobe InDesign.

Text styles in InDesign help maintain formatting consistency across documents. Sometimes you need to clear local formatting changes (overrides) applied on top of styles, when redesigning your document.

An override occurs when you manually change text formatting that already has a style applied. Clearing overrides restores the text to the original style definition.

Identify style overrides

If there are any overrides to a style, you can see a plus sign next to the style name. Before clearing overrides, you can visualize exactly where they exist in your document.

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

Select the Style Override Highlighter icon to highlight all override locations in your document with a colored border, and select it again to turn off the highlighting.

Clear overrides from selected text

You can remove overrides and revert text to its original style definition.

Select the text containing overrides using the Type tool.

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

Right-click the style name.

Select Apply "[Style Name]", Clear Overrides from the context menu to remove overrides, or select Redefine Style to keep the override formatting and update the style definition.

Create print and digital materials with InDesign
Design impactful ads, magazine and book layouts, and more.

Open the app

Create and edit text styles

Delete text styles

Learn

Learn with step-by-step video tutorials and hands-on guidance right in the app.

Community

Join discussions, find answers, learn from experts, and share your knowledge.

Adobe Home

Access your favorite Creative Cloud apps, services, file management, and more.