Character styles
Character styles influence a series of characters. The settings are applied to the selection of characters.
Opposite to paragraph style which apply to a series of characters, ending on an end-of-line character. (a paragraph)
The character styles panel shows the list of predefined styles.
In this panel you can manage (add, delete, ...) new styles.
The pencil pops up the settings windows, but can also be found in the panel Character style settings
Character style settings
All settings you expect can be set in this panel concerning the characters.
Paragraph styles
The styles palette organises the styles. The settings are set in the Paragraph Styles settings panel
Paragraph style settings
 |  |  |
In the paragraph style settings you can change settings concerning the paragraph as a block (alignment, ...) and settings influencing the characters in the paragraph.
Paragraph elements
The paragraph is to be seen as a virtual box in the whole of the text. Items such as space before, space after and indents add space to this virtual box.
The margins left and right add space to the left or right to the box.
The next 4 checkboxes allow you to add element to the paragraph.
Background
The background option creates a background for this background.
The corner (radius) sets the radius for the rectangle.
The color defines the background color.
The offset defines the margins for the background, with the distances from the virtual paragraph box.
Diagonal rule
This options sets the parameters to strike the characters diagonal.
Rule above and Rule below
Set the parameters for a stroke above or below the paragraph lines
Character elements
These settings apply for the text in the paragraph.
You can set the font, style, size etc...