Drag Into New Frame
You know you can drag-and-drop a graphic or text file into InDesign from the Finder, Windows Explorer, or Bridge. But if you drag the file on top of an empty frame, InDesign fills that frame with the incoming file. If that's not what you want to do, hold down the Command/Ctrl key while dragging. This forces InDesign to create a new frame for it.

Fast Edit Original
If you select an image and click the Edit Original button in the Links palette (or choose Edit > Edit Original), InDesign launches the program that created that graphic. Actually, it's based on whatever application the operating system thinks should open the file. So if you export a PDF from InDesign, re-import it into another InDesign page and then choose Edit Original, the PDF opens in Acrobat (not InDesign, of course). The fastest way to choose this feature: Option/Alt-double-click on a graphic with the Selection or Direct Select tool.

Show Your Options
The Show Options checkbox inside the Place dialog box is sticky -- that is, if you turn it on, it remains on each time you place until you turn it off. However, instead of turning on and off the checkbox, hold down the Shift key when you click the Open button. The Shift key forces the Options dialog box to open whether or not the checkbox is on.

Tip from Creative Suite Conference
Here's a tip I just learned today while attending a session at "The Creative Suite Conference" in London. While I already knew that Adobe Bridge can display a thumbnail preview of the first page of InDesign documents, I didn't realize that it could show a preview of every page... if you save your file as an InDesign template. (You can choose between a document and a template in the Save As dialog box.) Because Bridge can scroll through these thumbnails, you can effectively use Bridge as a (low-res) InDesign reader, even if you don't have InDesign running. Note that when you open a template file, you'll get a new "Untitled" document unless you choose "Open Original" in the Open dialog box. Using Open Original will open the file with its proper name.

--Courtesy of Branislav Milic and Sandee Cohen

Better Drop Shadows
Want better-looking drop shadows? Normal drop shadows are cool, but they're too pure. You'll get a much more natural drop shadow if you increase the Noise value in the Drop Shadow dialog box a little -- you only need 5 or 6 percent to help.

Switch to Type Tool Fast
If you double-click on a text frame with either the Selection tool or the Direct Select tool, InDesign automatically switiches to the Type tool and places the blinking cursor where you double-clicked. Need to get back to the Selection tool again? Here's one way to do it: Command/Ctrl-click on the text frame and then press V.

Change Object Shape
Need to change one frame shape into another? Check out the Convert Shape submenu (under the Object menu). Want to make a bunch of objects into starbursts? First double-click the Polygon Frame tool to open the Polygon Settings dialog box and specify settings for a starburst. From then on you can select any frame and then choose Object>Convert Shape>Polygon to get those same starburst settings.

More Quick Apply Features
Here are some hidden shortcuts for the Quick Apply feature in CS2: Press Command-Return (Mac) or Control-Enter (Windows) to open the Quick Apply feature. Now you can type a few characters of a style name. They don't have to be the first characters; typing "B2" will find "Bhead2" and "2B or not 2B." If more than one style appears in the list, you can press the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate them.

Now, you can press Enter to apply the selected style, Option/Alt-Enter to remove all local overrides and apply the style, or Option/Alt-Shift-Enter to remove all local overrides including character styles before applying the style. If you're not sure which style you want to apply, press Shift-Enter, which applies the style, but leaves the Quick Apply window open. Or press Esc to cancel the Quick Apply.

Change Object Shape
Need to change one frame shape into another? Check out the Convert Shape submenu (under the Object menu). Want to make a bunch of objects into starbursts? First double-click the Polygon Frame tool to open the Polygon Settings dialog box and specify settings for a starburst. From then on you can select any frame and then choose Object>Convert Shape>Polygon to get those same starburst settings.

Rearranging Colors
Almost no one uses the Registration color (which applies 100% of all colors... a big problem for everything except printer marks). So why is it at the top of the Swatches palette? Because most people don't realize you can reorder your Swatches palette: Just click-and-drag the swatches up or down. Move that Registration color to the bottom of the list while no documents are open and it'll stay there for all future files.

Import Lots of PDF Pages
You can more than one page of a PDF at a time in CS2 by turning on the Show Import Options checkbox in the Place dialog box, then choosing which pages you want to import (or select All to import the whole thing). After you click OK, you'll see the Place PDF cursor. Each time you click you'll place another page of the multi-page PDF. Or Option/Alt-click to place all the selected pages on the same page.

Fast Edit via Quick Apply
Quick Apply is one of my favorite features in CS2: Just press Command/Ctrl-Enter to open the Quick Apply window, type a few characters of a style name (character style, paragraph style, or object style), and press Enter to apply it. But did you know that if you press Command/Ctrl-Enter after choosing the style name (instead of Enter), InDesign opens the edit dialog box for that style? Much faster than navigating through the palettes, especially when you have a lot of styles.

Quick Custom Underlines
Trying to navigate through submenus to find the Custom Underline and the Custom Strikethrough dialog boxes is a hassle. Instead, just Option/Alt-click on the Underline or Strikethrough buttons in the Control palette. Try holding down the Option/Alt modifier key when you click on various buttons or icons in the Control palette; it opens all sorts of hidden dialog boxes.

Scaling by Dragging
If you select more than one object on your page, you can scale them all quickly by holding down the Command/Ctrl key while dragging a corner handle. However, you must either group the objects first (and then Command/Ctrl-drag the group's corner handle) or Command/Ctrl-drag the corner of any text frame within the non-grouped selection. If you don't group and then Command/Ctrl-drag a frame that isn't a text frame, only that one frame changes size. Weird, eh?

Transform and Duplicate
Select an object, place your cursor in the Rotate field of the Control palette, and type a rotation number -- such as 30 degrees. If you press Enter, the object is rotated 30 degrees. If you add the Option/Alt key when you press Enter, you rotate a copy of the object instead. It works in all the fields! If you want a duplicate of a frame, but this one should start at 20 picas from the left side of the page, type 20p into the X field and press Option/Alt-Enter. And so on.

Trivia: Find the Ways to Add a Swatch
Anne-Marie Concepción recently tried to stump me by asking me to name all the places in InDesign that you can create a new color. There's the Color and the Swatches palette, of course. But where else? In CS2, you can double-click on the Fill icon at the bottom of the Tool palette to open the Color Picker. (Which is, by the way, my least favorite feature in the entire program.)

There's also another way that works in both CS and CS2: The Drop Shadow feature lets you create new colors if you change the Color popup menu to something other than Swatches. But there's another hidden way... one that actually lets you save the color you make as a swatch: When you create or edit a paragraph or character style, you can double-click on the fill or stroke color in the Character Color panel. This opens a dialog box that lets you create and save a swatch.

Can you find any other clever ways to create colors in InDesign? (Importing them from an EPS, PDF, PSD, or DCS file doesn't count!) Email me at david@indesignmag.com with your favorite tips.

Right Align Tab with Leader
You know you can type Shift-Tab to create a right-indent tab (or choose Right Indent Tab from the Type>Insert Special Character menu). But how do you apply a tab leader (like dots) to it? Can't do it in CS, but you can in CS2: Just apply a tab leader to the last tab stop in that paragraph. If there isn't already a tab stop, then add one anywhere in the paragraph and apply a leader to it. The right-indent tab always uses the leader from the last tab stop.

Reset the Zero Point
It's easy to change the zero-zero point of the document rulers: Just drag from the corner where the two rulers meet and let go of the mouse button where on your page (or pasteboard) you want the zero-zero point to sit. But how do you get the zero-zero point back to the upper-left corner? No problem: Double-click that little square where the rulers meet to reset back to the ruler default position.

Change a Palette Value Again and Again
You might now know if you want an object to be rotated 20 degrees, or 25 degrees, or 30 degrees... but you know you like typing these values numerically rather than just using the Rotate tool. After selecting the object on your page, click once on the Rotate icon in the Control palete (clicking on the icon selects all the text in that field) and type 20. Now instead of pressing Return/Enter, hold down the Shift key and press Return/Enter. This rotates the object but leaves the rotation field selected in the palette! If you don't like it, you can type a new value without having to take the time to click in the field again. It's a little timesaver, but it's the kind of thing that can save you a lot of time over the course of a week.

Turn On and Off Curly Quotes
Sometimes you want to type a curly ("typographers") quote and sometimes you want a straight quote. But by default, InDesign always converts straight quotes to curly quotes as you type. Isn't there a way to get both? Sort of. Press Command-Option-Shift-' (that's the quote key on your keyboard) -- or Ctrl-Alt-Shift-' in Windows. This turns off the quote converter preference, so now you'll get your straight quotes. Press the shortcut again to turn the converter back on to get your curly quotes.

Dramatic Backgrounds for Preview
When you show your InDesign pages to your art director or client, consider turning on Preview mode to hide all non-printing objects (click on the Preview Mode icon at the bottom of the Tool palette, or press W when not in a text frame). Then press Tab to hide all your palettes. For even more dramatic results, open the Preferences dialog box, choose the Guides & Pasteboard panel, and choose Black from the Guides and Pasteboard dropdown list. The black preview color boosts the visual contrast of the colors on your page and makes it look great.

Lower the Size of Your Files
An InDesign file can get larger (and larger, and larger) each time you save it. It's really a good idea to choose File > Save As every so often and give the InDesign file a new name. Using Save As clears out all the gunk that builds up over time. Here's another option: Deselect all objects on your page and then choose File > Export to export the entire file. Choose InDesign Interchange (.inx) from the Format popup menu in the Export dialog box. Once you have exported the file in the INX format, open that INX file in InDesign and then do a Save As. This really cleans out the file of any weirdness that might have crept in.

Colorize Color Images
You can colorize a color image (make it look like a duotone) by selecting the picture frame with the Selection tool and choosing a fill color from the Swatches or Color palette. Now click on the image with the Direct Select tool and choose the Luminosity blend mode in the Transparency palette. If the image is in grayscale, choose Darken instead. Note that this will convert spot colors to CMYK, so it's better to select a process color.
--Courtesy of Branislav Milic, Brussels http://www.milic.com/indesign/index.html

Select Everything on a Layer
You can select all the objects that live on a specific layer on your page by Option/Alt-clicking on the layer's name in the Layers palette.

Printing Non-consecutive Pages
You can print non-consecutive pages and page ranges by typing in the page numbers in the Range field of the Print dialog box. For instance, you could type ?3, 6, 14-18?. This also works in the Export PDF dialog box. To print the fifth page of a document that starts on a page number other than 1, type +5 (the plus sign means absolute page number). So to print the third through fifth pages, you would type the really confusing: +3-+5.

Fast Saves from Word
You should never use Fast Save in Microsoft Word before importing text into InDesign. To get around Fast Save, go to the Preferences dialog box in Microsoft Word and turn off the Allow Fast Saves check box.
Explanation: When Word's "Fast Save" feature is turned on, each time you save your Word document it just saves what is different from the previous version, like an "incremental backup." When you place this file into Word, InDesign has to sift through the original document, plus every notation about how that document was changed. It lowers the reliability rate significantly. When you turn Fast Save off, Word saves the document more or less as though you had done a "Save As," so you get a clean version of the file. It takes a little longer to save from Word, but it's worth it. Of course, if you always use Save As before placing your file in InDesign, then it probably doesn't matter.

The Style Plus Sign
A little plus sign appears in the Paragraph Styles and Character Styles palettes when the cursor is in some text that has local formatting (beyond the style description). If you're using paragraph and character styles properly, this symbol shouldn't appear very often. If you're not sure what local formatting has been applied, Option/Alt-click on the New Style button in the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles palette. Look at the listing of attributes in the Style Settings list at the bottom of the palette; the items in the list (after the + sign) are the local formatting.

Watch Out When Typing
Remember that many keys are keyboard shortcuts when you're not typing in a text frame. For example, pressing the period key fills the current shape with the last-used solid color. Pressing comma fills the object with a gradient, and pressing / (slash) fills it with None. These are great time-savers, but if you press one of these accidentally, you may not be so happy. Here's one of my favorites: Shift-X swaps the fill and stroke colors of selected objects.

Import Multiple Images and Text Files
Do you want to place a whole bunch of files at the same time? Just select them in a Macintosh Finder or Windows Explorer window and drag them on top of your InDesign document. You can import both pictures and text this way (even both at the same time), and InDesign creates frames for each one automatically. Note that if you drag just one image or text file on top of your InDesign document and you let go of the mouse button while the cursor is over an empty frame, that file will be placed into the frame.

Switch Text Mode
If you're editing text and you want to change to a different tool, you can't press the tool's keyboard shortcut (because you'll just type that letter in the text). Instead, Command-click/Ctrl-click on the text frame, then press the shortcut.

Style Editing
You can double-click on a style in the Paragraph Styles or Character Styles palettes to edit that style. However, if you have text selected, you'll automatically apply that style to the text! If you want to edit the style but not apply it to the current selection, hold down Command-Option-Shift/Ctrl-Alt-Shift when double-clicking on the style.

Fractions in Arithmetic
You can type fractions in palettes or dialog boxes instead of decimals. To get 1/5 inch, type 1/5". To place a text box 3 7/8 inches from the left side of the page, type 7/8in in the X field of the Transform palette, then press Shift-Return (to perform the calculation but leave cursor in the field. Then press the right arrow key and type +3in.

Lock First Line to Baseline Grid
Often, sidebars in magazines or newsletters are set in a different font and leading than the main body text. You can make the first baseline of that sidebar lock to the leading grid by first turning on Align to Baseline Grid for the whole paragraph, and then selecting Only Align First Line to Grid from the Paragraph or the Control palette menu.

Redefine Styles
Need to change the definition of a paragraph style? Instead of using a dialog box, just select a paragraph that has the style applied to it, and change its formatting. Then, to update the paragraph style based on the changes you've made to the text, choose Redefine Paragraph Style from the Paragraph Styles palette menu (or press Command-Option-Shift-R/Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R).

Viewing Without Bleeds
If objects bleed off the sides of your pages, you can view your document without bleeds (that is, as it will look in its final printed form) by clicking the Preview button at the bottom of the Tool palette -- or by pressing W while no text is selected. The Preview mode hides all non-printing objects, including guides and objects for which Non-printing is turned on in the Attributes palette.

Jump to a Page
The fastest way to jump to a specific page is to press Command-J/Ctrl-J, then type the page number, then press Return or Enter. You can even jump to a master page: instead of typing a page number, type the prefix of the master page (like "A" for A-Master Page).

Highlighted Text
Sometimes you'll open a document and find some text highlighted in pink, yellow, or green. Pink highlight means the font is missing or wrong. Yellow highlight means the H&J Violations is turned on in the Composition panel of the Preferences dialog box (the more saturated the yellow, the more egregious the violation of the hyphenation or justification settings). Green highlights show up wherever you have applied manual kerning or tracking when the Custom Tracking/Kerning feature is turned on in the same preferences panel.

Export JPEG
Need to get a quick comp of a page to a client who may or may not have Acrobat? Try exporting the page as a JPEG graphic (File>Export), which can be opened in any Web browser or graphics program. Similarly, if you want a thumbnail-sized reproduction of a graphics-rich page (like reprinting the cover of a magazine but only a couple inches tall), export that page as a JPEG instead of a huge PDF or EPS file. The JPEG file is always 72 dpi, but that's usually good enough for a quick comp or for a thumbnail image.

Scroll Wheels are Your Friend
That scroll wheel on your mouse is pretty cool for scrolling up and down. But did you know that if you hold down the Shift key while you turn the wheel you scroll to the left or right? And if you hold down the Command/Ctrl key, InDesign zooms in and out on your page.

Redefine Styles
Need to change the definition of a paragraph style? Instead of using a dialog box, just select a paragraph that has the style applied to it, and change its formatting. Then, to update the paragraph style based on the changes you've made to the text, choose Redefine Paragraph Style from the Paragraph Styles palette menu (or press Command-Option-Shift-R/Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R).