Question re. paragraph and character styles

[ninjagame]

I'm currently preparing a novel for publication. For that, I have to reformat the entire novel, i.e., no less than 50 chapters, in order to meet the publisher's specs. To that purpose, I've created another template, template#2 (whereas the chapters of the original version are based on template#1).
Importing the text from the "old" version (based on template#1) into the "new" version (based on template#2) works pretty straightforward as long as the paragraph and character styles in template#2 are named exactly in the same way as in template#1, even if, say, character style "normal#1" in template#1 means 12pt whereas character style "normal#1" in template#2 means 10pt. It works even if "normal#1" of template#2 has a font color different from "normal#1" of template#1. No problem here.
Now I have 3 "special" character styles in template#1: "special#1" (=12pt), "special#2" (=10pt), and "special#3" (=9pt). In template#2, I want only 2 "special" character styles, i.e., "special#1" (=10pt) and "special#2" (=9pt). That doesn't pose a problem for character style "special#1" since "special#1" (=12pt) of template#1 automatically becomes "special#1" (=10pt) of template#2. What I want to do is sort of "collapsing" character styles "special#2" and "special#3" of template#1 into only one "special" style of template#2, i.e., "special#2" and "special#3" of template#1 both become "special#2" in template#2.
I don't know how to do this. Is it possible at all, and if it is, how do I do it?
(More generally speaking, I'd like to assign a specific character style of template#1 to another specific character style in template#2, let's say, character style "abc" in template#1 shall become character style "xyz" in template#2. Is that possible?)
I hope i've made myself reasonably clear.

Thx in advance!

ninjagame

[Hamid]

There are two ways to do this. Here is one way:

Before importing the document from template#1 to template#2:

- Place the cursor anywhere in template#1 in character style special#3 (=9pt).
- Then from the Character Style Tag in the Statusbar apply the menu Select All. This will select everything in character style special#3.
- While everything in character style special#3 is selected, apply from the same Style Character Tag in the Statusbar “special#2” (or whatever you have named it). This will change all character style special#3 to special#2.

Then import the document from template#1 to template#2.

[xiamenese]

There are two ways to do this. Here is one way:

Before importing the document from template#1 to template#2:

- Place the cursor anywhere in template#1 in character style special#3 (=9pt).
- Then from the Character Style Tag in the Statusbar apply the menu Select All. This will select everything in character style special#3.
- While everything in character style special#3 is selected, apply from the same Style Character Tag in the Statusbar “special#2” (or whatever you have named it). This will change all character style special#3 to special#2.

Then import the document from template#1 to template#2.

I was going to suggest more or less the same, but following import into template#2. When you've done the replacing, you can delete character style special#3 from the style-sheet. That way you reduce the risk of over-writing the version in template#1. Alternatively work from a duplicate copy of the original document. On the other hand, maybe you don't feel the need to retain an untarnished copy of your original document, unlike me.

Mark

[ninjagame]

@ Hamid and xiamenese:

Many thanks for your suggestions! I've had just one opportunity to put it to a test, and it worked!
When reading Hamid's solution I was going to ask if it wouldn't work as suggested by xiamenese. But essentially it's the same principle.
I think I'll do it after the import since I most definitely feel the

need to retain an untarnished copy

, as xiamenese put it, of my original document.

Actually what I was thinking of when posting the question is some kind of filter that would handle the style replacement during the process of reformatting itself. The idea would be to somehow "map" the styles in template#1 to the styles in template#2 which would allow for mapping more than one style of template#1 to only one style of template#2. Furthermore, such a feature would be helpful in that I could name the styles in template#2 differently from the names in template#1 and so avoid confusion.
But there has always something to be left to be desired in the next version

ninjagame

[phspaelti]

Here is another way:
After the import

1. switch to the style sheet view.
2. Select "special#3".
3. from "based on" select "special #2"
4. delete all other formatting from style "special #3"

This solution will make "special #3" look just like "special #2", but will easily allow you to 'resurrect' the distinction. Also because you have linked the styles any change to "special #2" will automatically carry over to "special #3".