• Stupid INDD Tricks

INDD is InDesign. It's the best way to abbreviate it, and at ETLA length, is pretty specific, so not confusing once you know.

This is a list of features, tricks, workarounds and just best practices you might need to make InDesign work better, and which I could not easily find. Some are version specific.

• There is no Clone (duplicate in place) function by default in InDesign. Three options:

  1. Copy, then shift-opt-cmd-v pastes in place, but is very cumbersome to me
  2. Better: opt-cmd-u is Step and Repeat. Opens a dialogue (which you can use to generally step and repeat) but which preserves last use. If set once to count 1, offsets all zero, then you just press enter and get a duplicate-in-place.

  3. Best is shift-opt-cmd-d which is the Duplicate command. By default it does this at some offset or other. But this is controlled by the Edit > Step & Repeat menu item. You have to have something selected to set it, but like setting color or type style with nothing selected, it then sticks until you use step and repeat (even by accident) and change the offsets. Set vertical and horizontal to get a Clone function, if that is your thing.

• Tricky styles, as for underlines, to allow things like making reverses in type without separate boxes (as for scroll-and-select link indicators). Ask for details or look at the Mobile Design Elements document for examples.
• Text can be built into ANY box. Not always perfect, but good for some stuff, like form fields, title bars, etc.

• Any box can be accidentally turned into a text box. Deleting text does not un-text-box it. To do that, right click on the element, Content > Unassigned.

• Eyedropper works opposite (to me at least) of Photoshop, etc. Select the item(s) you want to have the new attributes, then click the item you are sampling. Note you can sample a LOT of stuff, so check the settings first. I don't even follow how it works after this, so just press Option to clear the current attributes and start from zero again.

• Collaboration: While the official collaboration tool points up their text focus, and is basically a collaborative workflow-based text editor, it has some other stuff that helps. Mostly, you can move pages from one open document to another. With planning (so you don't step on each other) this means chunks can be branched off to others and then merged back in. Tried it, and it works.

• GREP! Search and replace complexly. Also has attribute search and replace. Find a string, make it bold, etc.
• Deselect is not cmd-D as in Photoshop but shift-cmd-A for “deselect all” as in AI. Use it! Clicking away to deselect will often hit an invisible element, scooting it or turning it into a text box or something else I'll have to fix later.
• Text Box insets are cmd-B (shift-cmd-b is the bold switch). If you have a non-rectangle and need to just have the top come down, use the FIrst Baseline number to move it down. Often, a lot (won't move at all for 20-40 pts). Also, play with vertical alignment: can use Justify to set one piece of text top, one bottom, rather cleverly. Saves on nesting boxes sometimes.

• Hidden commands in InDesign including the ever-useful Join command. This is about activating in CS2, but the basics are true. Many AI-level drawing functions are hidden away in the code, and can be used with keyboard shortcuts, or other trickery. Note: CS4 added several of these, such as the Join command.

• Reset INDD to default: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.