Working with computer software is a personal thing. I’m always impressed with how emotional my students are (maybe too emotional) about how their software should work. One student tells me she hates the way a certain feature works; yet another insists it’s his favorite thing in the entire program.
The InDesign team recognizes that some people want the program to work one way, and others want it exactly the opposite. That’s why there are many ways to customize the program.
You can change the keyboard shortcuts so that they are similar to other software you use. You can modify the settings for the display of images and onscreen elements. You can control how text wraps around other objects. You can even throw away all your own customized settings and start back at the out-of-the-box settings.
It’s all your choice.
Keyboard shortcuts are the fastest way to invoke program commands. However, if you are used to working with other programs, your fingers may be trained to use those other shortcuts. You may also want to assign a shortcut to a command that doesn’t have a shortcut. InDesign lets you change the keyboard shortcuts to keystrokes that match your preferences.
InDesign ships with three sets of shortcuts. The default set is the one that the Adobe engineers created. This set uses most of the shortcuts found in Adobe products such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. The second set contains the shortcuts used in PageMaker 7.0. The third set contains the shortcuts used in QuarkXPress 4.0.
If you work with other programs such as Macromedia FreeHand, you may want to create your own shortcut set to match it.
If you want a list of keyboard shortcuts to print out and post next to your computer, you can create a file with all the shortcuts.
To create a list of the keyboard shortcuts:
You can change the shortcut applied to a command. However, not all commands have shortcuts assigned to them. So you can also assign a shortcut to commands.
To change or assign a shortcut:
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Create a new set.
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Click Assign to apply the new shortcut.
You may feel that the menus in InDesign are too long for you to easily find the command you want to choose. Or you would like one menu command to stand out from the others. You can easily customize the menus to highlight or hide certain commands
As you are working, you may want to invoke a command that has been hidden. Rather than turn off the custom menu configuration, you can temporarily restore the command.
To restore a hidden command to a menu:
InDesign has 17 categories that let you customize how the program works.
To choose a preference category:
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Choose InDesign > Preferences > [category] (Mac).
The General category lets you control several types of preferences .
If you have several sections in the same document, they could all have a page number of 1. The page numbering preferences change how the page numbers are displayed.
To set the page number preferences:
• Choose one of the following from the Page Numbering View menu :
• Absolute Numbering uses the physical placement number of the page in the document .
• Section Numbering uses the numbers set from the section options .
To set the scaling preferences:
• Choose one of the following from the When Scaling area:
• Apply to Content scales text so that the point size changes.
• Adjust Scaling Percentage scales text so that the original point size is displayed with the new size in parenthesis.
To set the script preferences:
• Deselect Enable Attached Scripts to protect your computer from JavaScripts that are invoked from menu items.
The Font Downloading and Embedding section controls the threshold below which a font is subset.
To choose the threshold for font subsetting:
• Enter an amount in the Always Subset Fonts With Glyph Counts Greater Than field .
A number such as 2000 ensures that fonts with large character sets are always subset, creating smaller files. But custom fonts with only one or two characters are set in their entirety.
Every once in a while you may see a dialog box that warns you about doing something. These alerts have boxes you can check so you never see the warning again. If you’ve turned them off, you can reset them all to turn back on.
To reset the warning dialog boxes:
• Click the Reset All Warning Dialogs button at the bottom of the General preferences . An alert box informs you that you will now see the warnings.
The Interface preferences control how some aspects of the program appear .
To change the display of the Tools panel:
• Use the Floating Tools Panel menu to choose how the Tools panel is displayed :
You can also change the shape of the Tools panel by clicking the icon in the Tools panel title bar when it is not docked.
Tool Tips are notes that appear when you pause the cursor over an onscreen element .
To control the tool tips:
• Use the Tool Tips menu to choose one of the following:
• Normal waits a moment before displaying the tip.
• None turns off the display of the tips.
• Fast displays the tips almost immediately after the cursor pauses over the tool or feature.
To change the place cursor preview:
• Deselect the option to show Thumbnails on Place to see only the cursor, and not the preview, for placed text and images.
To change how docked panels collapse:
• Select Auto-Collapse Icon Panels to cause selected docked panels to close when you move back to the document.
Use the Type Preferences controls for working with text .
To set the type options preferences:
• Three clicks selects a line.
• Four clicks selects a paragraph.
• Five clicks selects the story.
You can also control whether or not drag-and-drop text is activated.
To turn on drag-and-drop text:
The early versions of InDesign automatically linked text and spreadsheet documents back to their original file. Now, a preference controls whether placed text files are automatically linked to their source.
To choose if text files are linked or embedded:
• Click the option Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheet Files to link those styles back to the original files . If you make changes to the word processor or spreadsheet file, those changes will automatically update in InDesign.
Don’t let the term “Advanced Type” throw you off. These are settings that you may want to change depending on the typefaces you work with.
The Character Settings control the size and position of superscript, subscript, and small cap characters .
To set the Character Settings preferences:
A non-Latin typeface is one that uses 2-byte and 4-byte characters. Japanese, Korean, and Chinese are examples of non-Latin typefaces. If you work with non-Latin typefaces, you may need to use features in the operating system to enter characters instead of the keyboard .
To use the operating system to enter non-Latin text:
• Click the option Use Inline Input For Non-Latin Text to allow you to input text using the electronic keyboards built into the computer operating system.
The Highlight settings let you control which parts of the text are highlighted to indicate composition or typographic violations or substitutions .
To set the highlight options:
• Set the Highlight options as follows :
• Keep Violations displays lines that have been broken in violation of the Keep With settings that you chose for the paragraph options.
• H&J Violations highlights those areas that violate the hyphenation or justification controls.
H&J Violations occur when InDesign has no other way to set the text except to break the H&J controls.
• Custom Tracking/Kerning highlights the text with tracking or kerning applied to it.
• Substituted Fonts highlights characters that are substituted for a font that is not installed in the computer system.
This is the famous pink highlight for a missing font that many people see when they import text or change typefaces.
If the shape of the uninstalled font exists in the Adobe Type Manager database, the shape of the font is approximated. If not, a default font is used.
• Substituted Glyphs highlights Open Type characters that have been substituted with alternate glyphs.
You can also control the effect of the Text Wrap settings and how text wraps around objects.
To set the text wrap options:
• Choose one of the following from the Text Wrap options:
• Justify Text Next to an Object forces text next to an object to be justified if it wraps around an object inside the frame .
• Skip by Leading forces text that has wrapped around an object to move to the next available leading increment. This avoids problems where text may not line up across columns or frames .
• Text Wrap Only Affects Text Beneath causes InDesign text wrap to work only on text below the object, rather than text above and below the object.
Some designers turn this on because they want InDesign to work more similarly to QuarkXPress. Don’t do it! You’re only limiting yourself from some of the more interesting effects that InDesign offers.
Units and Increments refer to the units of measurements and how much things change when you apply keyboard shortcuts .
• Spread sets the horizontal ruler to stretch across the pages in a spread.
• Page sets the horizontal ruler to reset for each individual page in a spread.
• Spine sets the horizontal ruler to stretch across the spine of the document.
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Set an amount, in points, for a custom unit of measurement.
To set the number of points per inch:
• Use the Points/Inch field to choose between the PostScript or the Traditional numbers of points per inch .
The keyboard increments control how much the objects move or the text changes.
To set the keyboard increments:
• Enter an amount in the fields as follows:
• Cursor Key lets you choose the amount that the arrow keys move objects.
• Size/Leading controls the amount that the type size and leading change.
• Baseline Shift lets you set the amount that the baseline shift changes.
• Kerning controls the amount that the kerning changes.
Designers just love to set up lines that stretch up and down and across their pages to help keep text and graphics lined up correctly. The Grids preferences control those lines .
To set the baseline grid options:
To set the document grid preferences:
• Gridline Every sets the distance between the major lines of the grid.
• Subdivisions sets the number of secondary lines of the grid.
To set the positioning of the grids:
• Check Grids in Back to position the grids behind graphics and text .
You can customize the appearance and size of your ruler guides and the pasteboard.
The Color area is a rainbow of choices for how to color onscreen guides and areas .
To set the onscreen elements colors:
• Use the menus to set the colors for each of the following:
• Margins sets the color of the guides created by the margins settings.
• Columns sets the color of the guides created by the column setting.
• Bleed sets the color of the guide around the bleed area.
• Slug sets the color of the guide around the slug area.
• Preview Background sets the color of the area that surrounds the page in the preview mode.
To set the Pasteboard Options:
• Enter an amount in the Minimum Vertical Offset field to increase or decrease the amount of pasteboard space above and below the page .
The Dictionary preferences work with whichever languages and dictionaries are used for InDesign documents .
The Language setting is used to choose which language dictionary should be used to check whether words are correctly spelled. Consider that the word cinema is correctly spelled if English is the chosen language. However, the word is incorrectly spelled if French is chosen as the language. In that case the word should be cinéma.
You use the dictionary management tools to create, link to, add, and delete new user dictionaries. This allows you to create several dictionaries for InDesign.
To create a new user dictionary:
You don’t have to create your own new dictionary. You can use the dictionary management tools to add someone else’s dictionary to your version of InDesign.
The hyphenation exceptions let you choose to apply the hyphenations created by editing the Dictionary or those built into the application.
To set the hyphenation exceptions:
• Choose one of the following from the Compose Using menu :
• User Dictionary uses only the hyphenation exceptions set by editing the Dictionary.
• Document uses the hyphenation exceptions list stored inside the document. (See the next exercise for how to add the user dictionary hyphenation exceptions to a document.)
• User Dictionary and Document merges the exceptions in both the document and the user dictionary. This is the default setting.
The User Dictionary options let you merge hyphenation exceptions into a document and create new hyphenation exceptions that affect the document .
To set the user dictionary preferences:
The Find section of the Spelling preferences controls what types of problems the spelling checker flags during a spelling check .
To set the Find options for Spelling:
Dynamic spelling highlights errors right on your page. If you want to work with dynamic spelling, you have a choice as to which colors the errors are underlined with.
To set the Dynamic Spelling options:
The Autocorrect preferences not only turn on the Autocorrect feature, they allow you to add or remove those words that you want to have automatically corrected.
The Autocorrect list contains the words that are commonly mistyped. In addition to the words the Adobe engineers felt you would mistype, you can easily add your own.
To add words to the Autocorrect list:
To delete words from the Autocorrect list:
Notes are primarily used in an InDesign/InCopy workflow. The Notes preferences control how the notes appear in the InDesign or InCopy stories .
You can also set the preferences for how notes are handled when working in the Story Editor.
To set the options for notes in the Story Editor:
• Check the following as desired:
• Include Note Content when Checking Spelling to apply a spelling check to the note text.
• Include Note Content in Find/Change Operations to include the note text in the results of a Find/Change routine.
To set the background color for the note:
• Use the In Background Color list to choose a color for the area behind the note when viewed in the Story Editor .
If you work in the Story Editor, you can choose the preferences for its display .
To set the preferences for text display:
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Use the Theme menu to select a preset text and background color scheme .
• Default is the typical anti-aliasing.
• LCD Optimized works best on light-colored backgrounds with black text.
• Soft produces a lighter, fuzzier appearance than Default.
You can also change how the cursor, or insertion point, is displayed within the Story Editor. This is helpful for those who are used to editing text on mainframe terminals.
To set the preferences for cursor display:
The default view is the view that is used when documents are first opened.
The Adjust View Settings control how images appear onscreen for each of the three view choices.
To choose the options for Adjust View Settings:
Anti-aliasing is the term used to described the soft edge applied to either text or graphics.
To control the anti-aliasing of text and graphics:
• Check Enable Anti-Aliasing to add a soft edge to the type and graphics displayed on the monitor .
Greeking is the term used to describe the gray band that is substituted for text characters .
To set text to be greeked:
• Enter an amount in the Greek Type Below field. This sets the size below which the text characters will be replaced with gray bands onscreen.
When you use the Hand tool to scroll around a document, InDesign needs to determine how text and images that were not originally in the window appear when you move them into view. You use the Hand Tool preferences to control how the images appear or how fast you can move while scrolling.
To set the scrolling preferences:
• Drag the Hand Tool slider to one of the following:
• The left position greeks both text and images. This is the fastest setting but it loses the appearance of the page as text and images come into view .
• The middle position greeks images but maintains text visibility .
• The right position turns off all greeking of text and images. This is the slowest setting but it maintains the appearance of the page as text and images come into view .
As many designers have discovered, when a color-corrected black is displayed on a computer screen, 100% black ink winds up looking very washed out. The Appearance of Black preferences allow you to choose how 100% black ink is displayed and printed .
To control the appearance of black on screen:
• Choose one of the following from the On Screen menu:
• Display All Blacks Accurately displays 100%K as dark gray. This setting allows you to see the difference between pure black and rich black.
• Display All Blacks As Rich Black displays 100%K as jet black (RGB=000). This setting makes pure black and rich black appear the same on-screen.
You can also control how 100%K appears when printing to a non-PostScript desktop printer or exporting to an RGB format. This helps control the appearance of blacks in PDF and JPEG files.
To control the appearance of black when printing or exporting to an RGB format:
• Choose one of the following from the Printing/Exporting menu:
• Output All Blacks Accurately outputs 100%K using the color numbers in the document. This setting allows you to see the difference between pure black and rich black in the finished document.
• Output All Blacks As Rich Black outputs 100%K as jet black. This setting makes pure black and rich black appear the same.
If InDesign crashes or the computer is shut down before you can save the InDesign documents, a file is created that contains the recovered document. The Document Recovery Data area lets you choose where that recovered document is located.
Although most people will use the same drive that contains the application, this option lets you specify a folder on a drive that has more space than the one that contains the InDesign application folder.
The Saving InDesign Files area lets you add a thumbnail preview to the file. You can also control the size of the preview.
Extra-large previews make it possible to read text in the document. Medium and small previews usually greek all text.
To create a preview with saved documents:
You can control the position where snippets appear when you drag them onto a page.
To control the location of snippets:
• Check the Snippet Import options as follows:
• Position at Original Location places the snippet at its original coordinates. This may cause a snippet from a right-hand page to appear on the pasteboard of a left-hand page.
• Position at Cursor Location ignores the original coordinates and places the snippet where the mouse is released on the page.
If you work in a collaborative setting, you may want to use the Adobe Version Cue software to help coordinate the workflow.
To turn Version Cue on or off:
You may need to change the options for what type of information is included in the clipboard .
To set the clipboard format:
• Check the Clipboard options as follows:
• Prefer PDF When Pasting adds graphics as self-contained PDF files that retain effects.
• Copy PDF to Clipboard copies data as PDF files. Select this in order to paste paths into Illustrator or Photoshop.
• Preserve PDF Data at Quit maintains any copied PDF information on the clipboard for use in other applications.
To set the attributes for pasting text:
• Check When Pasting Text and Tables from Other Applications as follows:
• All Information maintains formatting.
• Text Only strips out all formatting.
Sometimes InDesign may start to act strangely. This may mean that the files that hold all your preferences and settings have become corrupt. In that case you need to trash those files and let InDesign start over with the factory settings.
To restore all preferences and default settings:
InDesign uses a large set of plug-ins as its core set of commands and features. You may want to control which plug-ins are loaded each time you launch the program.
To see the information about a plug-in:
• Click the Show Info button in the Configure Plug-ins dialog box to open the Plug-in Information dialog box.
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