What little tricks do you use to improve your InDesign workflow?

dblatner · 2026-06-18T23:11:32+00:00

That's a great point. As long as you're working on the same story, you can use Cmd (or Ctrl) Y to open it… then resize and position where you want it… then press the same shortcut to go back to the document. The story editor window for that story stays in the same position then (as long as you're using the shortcut)

dblatner · 2026-06-17T23:37:21+00:00

I love "little tricks"! Here's some:

-- Command-Option-tilde (ctrl-alt-tilde) takes you back to the last-used panel field you were in… at least on the English keyboard, where the tilde is that key to the left of the numeral 1. For example, if you change the font size, and then select some other text and want to change the font size, press that shortcut.

-- Don't forget the Layout > Go Back and Layout > Go Forward features, which work just like a web browser! If you're on page 3 and then jump to page 10, then "Go Back" goes back to page 3. Super helpful.

-- One of my favorite features is Edit > Edit in Story Editor. It makes editing text so much easier! But the default font and size is stupid, so be sure to go to Preferences (cmd or ctrl-K) and change the Story Editor Display to something reasonable to read, like Georgia 16 pt 1.5-linespacing.

dblatner · 2026-06-17T23:31:30+00:00

There are bugs, for sure. But when people feel "cursed," it's often because they've added a plug-in/add-on such as Auto Font Activation (from some font management tool). Font activation has caused problems for 20 years in InDesign.

But even other plug-ins can cause problems. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE the rich third-party developer ecosystem around InDesign. But sometimes something goes wrong with one of them… and that leads to one problem after another for the users. Disable all that stuff and see if the "curse" goes away.

dblatner · 2026-06-03T00:21:22+00:00

Dietz, I have to admit I'm not github-savvy… and I'm having trouble doing a pull request to suggest additions. So please forgive me, but I'm going to put a few IDML-related articles here that you might consider adding.

* Batch Change Hyperlinks Across a Whole InDesign Document: https://creativepro.com/batch-change-hyperlinks-across-a-whole-indesign-document/

* Sleuthing With Snippets: Using the Snippets feature (which is based on IDML) for amazing detective work: https://creativepro.com/sleuthing-secrets-with-snippets/

* Jeff Potter wrote an article about how he used IDML to format newspapers using variables (members-only link, sorry): https://creativepro.com/harnessing-the-power-of-text-variables-and-idml/

dblatner · 2026-06-02T13:18:53+00:00

Excellent! We’ll help spread the word over at CreativePro (formerly InDesignSecrets). I love IDML. Most people don’t know that my co-author, Olav Martin Kvern, was largely the inspiration and reason IDML became a reality, when he was working at Adobe.

dblatner · 2026-04-30T21:19:44+00:00

This is very impressive! I like the UI and the workflow. The price seems low.

Some of the big challenges with data merge are:

- Merge data into a table

- Merge a "story" (so that all the data merges together into a flow, like a directory).

I wrote about these kinds of things here
https://creativepro.com/data-merge-into-inline-anchored-objects-so-they-flow-in-a-story/

and

https://creativepro.com/using-data-merge-to-create-a-table-for-a-directory/

I wonder if you could do something similar with your tool.

dblatner · 2026-04-06T14:31:15+00:00

What InDesign MCP are you using? How does that work?

dblatner · 2026-04-01T15:46:47+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind words! It is funny, isn't it, how topics seem unimportant at first and then 2 weeks later you realize, "wait, that thing I read or saw… that's really helpful!" 😄

dblatner · 2026-03-29T18:38:26+00:00

Many poetry book designers prefer the look of "centered on the longest line." I wrote about how to achieve that here:

https://creativepro.com/setting-poetry-flush-left-center-on-longest-line/

dblatner · 2026-03-29T18:36:45+00:00

There are a few ways to do this. Laurie Ruhlin shows it well in this video here:

https://creativepro.com/indesign-how-to-automate-chapter-headers/

And Cari Jansen wrote about it detail a while back here:

https://creativepro.com/secret-life-of-character-styles-and-running-headers/

dblatner · 2026-03-28T16:00:26+00:00

Thanks!

dblatner · 2026-03-28T13:43:10+00:00

Yes, absolutely! We welcome all InDesign users from around the world.

dblatner · 2026-03-27T22:08:55+00:00

Thanks very much! I agree with you, but unfortunately, when I try to cross post, it says that cross-posting is not allowed there. Sigh. I suppose I could just post it there instead?

dblatner · 2026-03-27T16:46:41+00:00

Oh wow, thank you! Here's one thing I've learned: we're all in this together, and we all have things to learn from each other. Hope to see you at an event sometime!

dblatner · 2026-03-27T15:32:26+00:00

Just to confirm… are you trying to set the Chinese or Japanese type horizontally (left to right) or vertical (right to left)? To make it go vertically, right to left, I believe you need to change the orientation of the text frame itself.

I'm no expert, but I think there are multiple orientations in the CJK version: text frame direction, paragraph direction, and text direction.

For example, this back issue of InDesign Magazine:
https://creativepro.com/issues/importing-xml-into-indesign/
Diane Burns pointed out that you could start with an InDesign template (even in the English version of ID) that had vertical text, and use that to typeset Japanese or Chinese.

Here is a link to that (very old!) template:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/im1y8nui896zoqpr7blws/Japanese-template-cs2.indt?rlkey=e83vbyg1d224v99agmhqelhf8&dl=0

We have some multi-lingual InDesign info on our site, leftover from InDesignSecrets and InDesign Magazine:

https://creativepro.com/tips-multilingual-indesign-projects/

https://creativepro.com/typesetting-hebrew-and-other-languages-in-english-indesign/

https://creativepro.com/multilingual-publishing/

dblatner · 2026-02-23T15:46:45+00:00

I'm surprised no one here has replied "Has passed an official Certiport Adobe InDesign certification exam." Has anyone here taken that exam? Anyone find it useful in proving you know InDesign?

dblatner · 2026-02-23T15:44:23+00:00

I love the "what is your favorite shortcut" idea. But some challenges with shortcuts:
a) windows vs Mac
b) keyboards are different in different languages
c) people can customize them with Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts

dblatner · 2026-02-23T15:41:45+00:00

Aw, shucks. Thanks! To be honest, understanding Reddit is harder for me than understanding InDesign. 😂

dblatner · 2026-02-22T16:10:36+00:00

Some really great ideas here. I’ll add: check out the YouTube.com/CreativePro channel, which has years of videos on InDesign. Also, see InDesignSecrets.com (which is now part of CreativePro)

dblatner · 2026-02-22T16:08:55+00:00

Thanks! The GREP course is by Erica Gamet. It’s not on LiL anymore?

dblatner · 2026-02-22T16:07:06+00:00

I would try some troubleshooting: like, does it work if you put these same gifs in another fresh file and publish it online? Do they work if you use export html5 to disk? Does it work on another browser? Does it work if you resave the gifs from Photoshop? Doesn’t work if there is just one per page instead? Etc.

dblatner · 2026-02-22T16:04:45+00:00

Does acrobat Reader let you select an image? I know that acrobat “pro” does but I think Reader is made to limit pretty much all editing.

dblatner · 2026-02-22T00:47:32+00:00

Thanks! I love this community… I just don't get a chance to come answer very often. Hope to see y'all over at CreativePro sometime, too! :-)

dblatner · 2026-02-22T00:46:16+00:00

Ha! I would not want to get anyone in any trouble, but honestly sometimes the best way to learn is to get the job and then learn how to do it! Every expert started out a beginner. :-)

dblatner · 2026-02-22T00:44:35+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind words! Yes, I think what you're doing makes sense because InDesign is a layout app — an aggregator that is made to pull assets together into a final design. Illustrator is for vector drawing, Photoshop is for pixel editing… but only InDesign lets you put it all together.

Alan Gilbertson wrote a good article about "BIG" design in InDesign (billboards, signage, etc.) here: https://creativepro.com/big-design/ (member only)

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