BUG: Character styles not working, plus sign and redefine style greyed out

Here's what I found through some R&D.

By default, the + sign in character styles will be greyed out.

To enable it, do the following.

Select any word. It’s default character style will be none. Change it to anything else. Then the + sign will get un greyed. Now use the newly created character style and redefine it based on your selected text.

Hope this helps

Using Pages v5.6.2 on OS X 10.11.5.

As long as you select text whose existing character style is none, the ability to add (blue plus-sign) a new character style is denied. Just as this is true, each time that I changed the font attribute(s) of a letter, a word, or group of either, the ability to add a new character style became available.

Apple did not make a special version of Pages for me, and I cannot reproduce what you are proclaiming as a BUG.

Whether one enters text in a Pages v5.6.2, or Numbers v3.6.2 table cell, and then changes the cell's text attributes, one is presented with the opportunity to make a new Table Style paragraph style from that cell text content, but not a Character style which is relegated to body text. Selecting a cell containing red Helvetica Bold Oblique text does not offer any blue plus sign in the Character styles palette in Pages v5.6.2, and in Numbers v3.6.2, the Character Styles palette is disabled. One can apply existing Character Styles associated with document body text to cell text contents.

Pages '09 v4.3 allows one to change font attributes in a table cell, and then create a new character style from the cell contents.

Under no circumstances, across multiple Pages sessions and documents, can I apply text content to a table cell (whose format is text), modify the text attributes, and then add these as a new Character style in Pages v5.6.2. It will add as a new Table cell style in Paragraph styles, but not Character Style. My implementation of Pages v5.6.2 is consistent in this regard.

Whether this is a deliberate design intention, or a bug is for the Pages/Numbers product team(s) attention. You can communicate this directly with them via the Pages application menu's Provide Pages Feedback entry. Numbers v3.6.2 has a comparable menu item. In consideration of the large volume of posts that they receive, a response is unlikely.

Apple reserves the right, whether deliberately, or accidentally, to add, change, or remove product features without notice, or apology.

Select text that is actually different from the surrounding text.

Peter