Mike, you can change the formatting of text directly by using the Text tab of the Properties Palette.
Select the text frame and change the formatting for the whole frame, or double-click the text frame, select the text you want to change, and then use the same formatting tools to format the selected text. This is probably more like you are used to doing.
Styles can be used to keep formatting consistent across multiple text frames - if you want to do that - but they aren't absolutely necessary, they're just very useful.
And to reiterate what has been said above, don't use the Story Editor unless you absolutely have to. It has some uses but, for most editing, it's more of a pain than a help.
P.S. Please don't post the same topic into more than one forum. It's confusing and means that the whole answer is split across multiple threads that future readers might miss.
P.P.S. (by an administrator): I've locked the other topic, removed the duplicate replies, and put links to this thread (a.l.e)