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Palette Madness
Collapse those Palettes
I''ve opened up so many floating palettes, I can barely see the document! I try to turn them into side tab palettes (the kind that collapse into tab-only mode on the side of the screen) by dragging them to the right edge of my monitor, but they refuse to collapse. They just sit there, hanging off the edge of the screen, laughing at me.
You''re probably dragging the palette from its title bar. That''s fine for moving it around, but to make a collapsed side palette, you have to drag it from its "special place"its tab (where the palette name is). Or, you may not be dragging it far enough. Right before it feels like you''re about to drag it off the edge of the screen (Mac users) or application window (PC users), just a few pixels away, you''ll see the palette outline preview flip up, showing its collapsed position. Then you can release the mouse button to collapse the palette.
Don''t forget that you can collapse palettes on the left side of the screen or window, too, turning you into a two-fisted InDesign geek.
Palette Groups that Make Sense
I don''t understand the logic behind the palette groupings that Adobe sets up by default. For instance, why is Swatches grouped with Paragraph Styles and Character Styles? Wouldn''t it make more sense for Swatches to be grouped with Color and Gradient? It''s bothersome to have to open two different palette groups to work with color.
Those groupings are just suggestions, and they''re easy to rearrange and recall as you work. Start by figuring out which palettes you want to combine into a grouplet''s say it''s Color, Swatches, and Gradient and get each one open as a individual floating palette on your screen. If a palette is currently part of another group, release it from bondage by dragging it by its tab to somewhere else on your screen and dropping it anywhere other than over another palette.
Now you can group your "onesie" floating palettes together. Drag the tab of one palette (Color, in our example) over another (Swatches) and hover there for a second. When you see a black outline around the palette you''re hovering over, that''s your signal to release the mouse button. They''re now grouped. Continue dragging and dropping palettes in the same manner until you''ve got the group you want (Figure 1-1).
Figure 1-1. Part 1: Starting with two floating palettes, drag one by its tab toward the other one. As you drag, an outline of the palette follows the cursor.
Once you get the hang of grouping and ungrouping palettes, you may find it more convenient to do so while the palettes are collapsed, it works there too (and you get the same cue a black outline around the collapsed palettewhen it''s "ready to receive").
Note: InDesign offers another way to group palettes, called "docking." For details, see "Text Style Palettes a la QuarkXPress," later in this section.
Keep Grouped Palettes Grouped
I''ve got a palette group that''s driving me crazy. When it''s floating, I want to be able to collapse the entire group at once to turn it into a side tab group; and when it''s a side tab group, I want to be able to drag it out again so it''s a floating group. No matter where I drag, though, for either maneuver, I can only do this one palette at a time. Doesn''t that defeat the whole purpose of grouping palettes?
Hold down the Option/Alt key when dragging on any of the tabs in the palette group, and they''ll stay grouped no matter what.
Part 2. Hover over the "receiving" palette until you see a temporary black border appear around it. That''s your cue to release the mouse button if you want to group the palettes.
Part 3. Release the mouse button and the palettes are grouped.
Trim Up Those Side Tabs
Some of my side tab palettes take up way more room than necessary when they''re completely tucked away. Behind the tab(s) there''s a tall gray vertical area, completely devoid of anything useful. Why can''t I use that space to add more side tab palettes?
If you look closely at the bottom of that grey twilight zone area, you''ll see a darker gray horizontal line, about two pixels deep. Position the cursor over this line and it turns into a double-sided arrow (InDesignese for "drag me!"). Now you can drag the bottom edge, shrinking the height of the collapsed palette and freeing up space for more side tab palettes (Figure 1-2).
Figure 1-2. Drag the little horizontal handle at the bottom of a collapsed palette to resize it without opening it.
Pop Them to the Front
What are you supposed to do to get an open side tab palette appear in front of another one that''s overlapping it? When I click on the tab in back, it comes to the front but then immediately collapses into "tab only" mode. I have to click the tab a second time to reveal the palette.
Clicking on the tab area to bring a palette to the front is fine for floating palettes. When they''re in side tab position InDesign interprets clicks on the tab as close/open commands. Clicking on any other part of the palette you can see will pop it to the front without collapsing it.
Pressing a palette''s keyboard shortcut will pop it to the front too.
Text Style Palettes à la QuarkXPress
It''s bothersome having to jump back and forth between two palettesParagraph Styles and Character Styles to format text, or to figure out how someone else formatted it. I miss QuarkXPress''s single, comprehensive "Style Sheets" palette, where I could see all styles applied to a given selection of text at once.
Dock the Character Styles palette to the bottom of the Paragraph Styles palette, and you''ll have a solution that''ll make you forget whozit''s Style Sheets palette in a San Jose minute. To dock a palette, drag its tab close to the bottom edge of another floating palette. When you see a heavy horizontal line appear between the two, release the mouse button. The palette you were dragging "snaps" into position below the one above it and stays there (Figure 1-3).
Figure 1-3. Look for a heavy horizontal rule below the target palette when docking another one to it.
When two (or more) palettes are docked, they move as one unit. So now you''ve got a Styles palette that looks and functions a lot like what''s-his-face''s. You can''t turn docked palettes into side tab palettes, unfortunately. But when you press the keyboard shortcut to open one of the palettes, they both open now.
Make More Room for Left Side Palettes
I''d like to use all the left edge of my screen/application window to hold side palettes, but the Tools palette keeps getting in the way.
Open the Preferences dialog box (on the Macintosh, choose InDesign > Preferences; in Windows, it''s Edit > Preferences), look in the General Options area and change the Floating Tools Palette setting from the default Double Column to Single Row. Now you can dock the Tools palette right underneath the Control palette, nice and neat, and the left edge of your window is completely accessible for more side palette fun.
TIP
Some folks really like Microsoft Word''s toolbar across the top of their screen. If you''re one of these types (we won''t ask for a show of hands), you might want to change the Floating Tools Palette setting (in the Preferences dialog box) to Single Row. The palette then nests nicely directly underneath the Control palette.
Create Custom Workspaces
I just spent half an hour getting the palettes arranged just so. But two hours into my project, I''ve messed them up again. How can I get InDesign to reset the palettes to how I arranged them?
Once you''ve got your palettes "perfect," hie thee to the Window menu and choose Window > Workspace > Save Workspace. Give it a name and click OK. From now on, whenever you''re in the middle of a project and you find yourself with palettes scattered all over the place, go back up to Window > Workspace and choose the name of the custom Workspace you saved. InDesign resets all the palettes to that arrangement.
If only we could do the same in real life (Window > Workspace > Clean Kitchen… Window > Workspace > Me, Age 22)… now, that would be a useful feature.
TIP
You can assign keyboard shortcuts to Workspaces. This is great if you''re the type of geek who has three or four Workspaces, one for heavy text editing and formatting, another for working with graphics and colors, a third for interactive document production, and so on.
Go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and choose Window Menu from the Product Area popup menu. Scroll down to the entry "Workspace: Load 1st Workspace" and select it. This represents your first custom Workspace as listed in the Window > Workspace menu in the application. (InDesign doesn''t put your actual Workspace names here.) You can assign a keyboard shortcut to "Load 1st Workspace" and up to four additional Workspaces: "Load 2nd Workspace" up to "Load 5th Workspace."
Share Custom Workspaces
I''ve got a great custom Workspace I created at work, and I want the same one on my laptop. I can''t figure out how to get it over there.
Custom workspaces are saved as .xml files on your computer in a folder called, mysteriously, "Workspaces."
To copy custom Workspaces from one computer to another, drop a copy of one computer''s workspace.xml file into the other computer''s Workspaces folder, and relaunch InDesign.
On the Mac, look here: [username] > Library > Preferences > Adobe InDesign > Version 4.0 > Workspaces > yourworkspace.xml
In Windows, look here: [username] > Application Data > Adobe > InDesign > Version 4.0 > Workspaces > yourworkspace.xml
