Use Quick Apply to quickly edit styles
The Quick Apply feature does more than just allow you to apply styles. Press Cmd/Control-Return/Enter to open the Quick Apply panel. Then, type as many letters as necessary to get to the name of a specific style. BUT, instead of pressing the Return/Enter, press Cmd/Control-Return/Enter again. You're now in the Style Options dialog box for that style! Make your edits and then close to change the style definition.

-- Sandee Cohen
Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine
Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide

What's New in CS3?
Have you updated to InDesign CS3 but have the nagging feeling that you're working with it like it's still CS2? To see what's new in InDesign CS3 as you work, go to Window > Workspace > New and Improved. This changes your menus so that new and modified features appear in blue.

-- Sandee Cohen
Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine
Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide

Easier ways to modify and replace a template
Ever want to modify and then replace a template? If you simply double- click the template file or drag it onto the InDesign application, you have a copy of the template or an untitled document. That means you have to then rename the template with the same name as the original, and then replace the original.

Instead, choose File > Open, and navigate to the template file. When you choose the template file, look at the bottom of the dialog box and click the option to Open Original. This will open the template file as a template, instead of a copy or untitled document. Once you've made your changes, just save and close the document. You don't have to rename or write over the original file.

-- Sandee Cohen
Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine
Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide

Double Paths Copied from Illustrator
Watch out when you copy paths from Illustrator into InDesign. Depending on the attributes applied to the path in Illustrator, you may wind up with more than one path in InDesign. For instance, double strokes or fills will always create multiple paths in InDesign. But even a single fill and stroke with a Twist effect will create multiple effects. The easy way to tell if you've pasted in multiple objects is to look at the Fill/Stroke display in the Tools panel. If you see question marks instead of colors, you know you've got multiple objects.

-- Sandee Cohen
Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine
Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide

See Guides Only at Certain View Magnifications
When you zoom out on your InDesign document, do all those guides clutter up your screen? Sure, you can hide the guides or turn off the layer showing the guide or change the view options for the guides on a layer. But here's a better technique. Before you start dragging guides out, go to Layout > Ruler Guides, and change the View Threshold from 5% to something higher, like 101%. From that point on, any guide you create will only be visible when you are zoomed in to 101% or higher. This means that guides that you need for close up work are visible when you're zoomed in, but they're not visible when you zoom out to see the entire page.

-- Sandee Cohen
Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine
Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide

Turn a Frame to a Grid of Frames
Need a whole grid of frames? You could use the Step and Repeat feature, but if you know how large you want the grid and not necessarily how large each frame should be, Step and Repeat can be a hassle. Instead, just draw one big frame to cover the size you want the grid to cover. Then, while that's selected, open the Scripts panel (Window > Automation > Scripts) and double-click on the MakeGrid script. That converts any single frame into a bunch of frames on a grid, according to your specifications (how much space between each one, and so on). This script is installed automatically in CS3, but in CS2 you'll need to install it from the sample scripts that come on the installer discs. To learn how to install scripts, or find where to download them from the Web (in case you don't have the installer discs anymore), go to: http://indesignsecrets.com/free-bundled-scripts-on-adobecom.php

--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine," co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

Sizing a Group or Image in CS3
InDesign CS3 radically changed the rules for scaling groups and images. You used to be able to select an image or a group and change the W or H fields in the Control panel and have it scale everything to that measurement. No longer! Fortunately, the functionality isn't gone, it just moved. To scale a frame and its image, or all the objects in a group, to a specific width or height, type that measurement in the scaling fields (the X or Y percentage fields, that usually say 100%). For example, if you replace 100% with "20 cm" then the object or group scales to that size.
--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine," co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

Getting Your Buttons and Hyperlinks Into PDFs
It's easy to make a button in InDesign with the Button tool, or by selecting any object and choosing Object > Interactive > Convert to Button. And it's relatively easy to make a hyperlink using InDesign's Hyperlinks panel (even though the user interface for hyperlinks definitely leaves something to be desired). But the number one problem people have with these interactive features is them not functioning once they get to Acrobat. Why? In almost every case, it's that they've neglected the most important step: Turn on both the Hyperlinks and Interactive checkboxes in the Export PDF dialog box. Without that last crucial step, you don't get bubkes!
--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine," co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

Resizing Tables by Dragging
You can resize a table with the Type tool by dragging the right or bottom edge. But if you want to resize all the rows, hold down the Shift key while you drag the bottom edge. To resize all the columns proportionally, Shift-drag the right edge. Or, to resize the table rows and heights at the same time, just drag the lower-right corner of the table with the Type tool. Resizing the table using this technique does not scale the text in the table.
--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine," co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

Quicker PDF Export of Books
You can open the PDF Export dialog directly from the Book palette by holding down the Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key while selecting the Print icon in the Book palette.
--John Feld

Switch Between Selection Tool and Direct Selection Tool
There are several ways to switch between the Selection tool and the Direct Selection tool quickly. When you're not editing text, you can press V for the Selection tool and A for the Direct Selection tool. I recommend that you use Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts to assign your own custom keyboard commands for these two tools that will also work when editing text.

You can also press Control/Ctrl-Tab to alternate between the Selection tool and the Direct Selection tool. In CS3, you have even more options. When you're editing text, you can press Esc to switch to the Selection tool. And double-clicking on a frame or graphic with the Selection tool switches to the Direct Selection tool (and vice versa)!
--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine," co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

Select a Table's Text or Cell
To select a cell within a table, click the cell with the Text tool and press the Esc key. This will select the cell. To place the text cursor in the cell, press the Esc key again.
-- John Feld

See What Files are Loaded
The Place dialog box in InDesign CS3 lets you select more than one item in a folder at a time and import them all at once. To select more than one item in the dialog box, Shift-click (to select contiguous items) or Command/Ctrl-click (to select discontiguous files). After you click Open, InDesign loads all the files into the Place cursor, showing you a thumbnail of the first one along with a number that shows the total number of files loaded. You can rotate through the loaded files by pressing the left or right (or up and down) arrows on your keyboard. If you decide you want to "throw away" one of the files (remove it from the Place cursor), press Esc.
--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine," co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

Align Guides to Objects
Of course, you can align objects to ruler guides. But you can also align ruler guides to objects. Just select the object and aim for one of the object's handles as you drag the guideline. The guideline will snap to the handle
--Claudia McCue

Quick Zoom Shortcuts
I love shortcuts, especially when navigating around my documents. Here are some of my favorites involving zooming in and out.
* Command-Option-5 highlights the zoom field in the lower-left corner of the document window. Just type the percentage you want and press Enter.
* Double-click the Hand tool to fit the spread in the window (or press Command-Option-zero/Ctrl-Alt-0)
* Double-click the Zoom tool to jump to 100% (or press Command/Ctrl-1).
* Command/Ctrl-spacebar-click zooms in, Command-Option/Ctrl-Alt-spacebar-click zooms out.
--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine," co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

Select a Table's Text or Cell
To select a cell within a table, click the cell with the Text tool and press the Esc key. This will select the cell. To place the text cursor in the cell, press the Esc key again.
-- John Feld

Creating a Knockout Rule
Want a line that has a "knockout area" on either side of it? For example, a line that when placed over an image will still be visible because it has white areas around it. It's easy to do: Select the line, make it at least one point thick, and change its style to a double line (double stripe). Now in the Stroke palette, set the line color to Paper and set the Gap color to Black (or whatever color you want the visible line to be). Finally, make an object style out of it, so you don't have to take these steps again!
--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine," co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

View Image Scaling with a Shortcut
Assign keyboard shortcuts to Select Container and Select Contents (Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Product Area: Object Menu). Now when you have an image frame selected with the Selection tool, you can quickly see the image's true scaling amount in the Control palette's Scale fields by using the shortcut for Select Contents. Press the shortcut for Select Container to get back to where you started.-- Anne-Marie Concepción

Quick Duplications
You probably already know you can hold down the Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key to drag and duplicate objects. The Option/Alt key can perform the same duplication function during other operations, too. For example, you can hold down the Option/Alt key as you choose Flip Horizontal from the Control palette menu. InDesign will duplicate and then flip the selected frame. Or place the cursor in the X field of the Control palette and change the value. Then press Option/Alt-Enter and InDesign moves a duplicate of the object to the new location.
-- Claudia McCue

Apply Only Color Attributes with the Eyedropper
If you load the attributes of an object with the Eyedropper tool while holding down the Shift key, the Eyedropper loads only the color of the object (ignoring all other object attributes). If you load attributes of an object with the Eyedropper and hold down Shift while applying the attributes to another object, InDesign applies only the color to the object.
-- Eliot Harper

Select the Return
You can triple-click or press Ctrl-Shift-\ or Command-Shift-\ to select a line. Both of these combinations also select the Return.
-- John Feld

Switch Swatches
The New Swatch button on the Swatches palette duplicates any selected swatch. To duplicate the swatch and open the New Color Swatch dialog, hold down Option/Alt while clicking it. To create a spot color version of a swatch, select the swatch and hold down Command/Ctrl while clicking the new swatch icon. You can also switch among RGB, CMYK, and Lab modes inside the Color Swatch dialog box by holding down Shift while clicking on the color proxy.
-- Eliot Harper

Find Missing Fonts
If you search for a missing font using the Find Font dialog box and can't locate the troublemaker on a page, cancel out of the Find Font box and bring up the Story Editor. Your cursor will be where the missing font is.
-- Jamie McKee

Quick Single-spread Documents
Do you want a two-page spread all by itself in its own file? Simply create a new two-page document and check the Facing Pages option as you create the file. Then turn to page one and choose Layout > Numbering & Section Options and start the page numbering at 2. Click OK to leave the dialog box, and you're done. Because it's an even number (page 2), InDesign moves it to the left side of the spread
-- Keith Gilbert

One-Click Selection in Palettes
If you're manually clicking or dragging inside of fields in palettes to select the fields' contents, you're doing it the hard way. Just click the label or icon to the left of the field-its contents are automatically selected, ready for you to replace it with new values. Remember that you can press the Up and Down arrow keys on your keyboard to increment a field's current setting
-- Anne-Marie Concepción

Change Color Modes Quickly
To change the color mode (RGB, CMYK, LAB) in the Color palette, Shift-click on the color spectrum bar (the color picker). If you see an out of gamut warning (the yellow triangle with exclamation point), click on the symbol to force the color to the nearest in-gamut color.
-- Erica Gamet

Say Hi to the Alien
In QuarkXPress, there's a hidden alien that could be induced to walk on to the screen and eradicate a selected page item with his ray gun. InDesign also has an alien, this one friendly. To see it, make a new Printing Preset (File > Print Presets > Define) and name it "Friendly Alien"; the settings don't matter. Save it, then go to the Print dialog, change the Print Preset to Friendly Alien, and click on the Preview window in the lower left corner. Soon a small space ship will appear.
-- John Feld

Fix Flaky Files
If your InDesign file is behaving erratically, it may be damaged. One easy troubleshooting technique is to choose File > Export and export the file in the InDesign Interchange format. This will create an .inx file. When you open the .inx file, InDesign rebuilds the file from the ground up -- hopefully without the problems of the original.
-- Keith Gilbert

Navigate the Control Palette
When you use the Control Palette, you don't need to open as many palettes. You can choose to dock the Control Palette at the top or bottom of your screen, or you can drag its left edge to tear it off and create a floating palette. To jump easily to the first field in the Control palette, press Command/Ctrl-6. From the first field, use Shift-Tab to highlight the Reference Point box. Use the arrow keys to highlight a specific Reference Point and press the Enter key to selec
-- Erica Gamet

Apply Swatches to Frames and Tables
You can apply a swatch to any frame or stroke by dragging a swatch from the Swatches palette and dropping it in a frame or on a stroke. Try this method for tables, too; you can apply a swatch to any table cell or cell border
-- Eliot Harper

Obtain Exact Color Values
The eyedropper tool lets you view the exact color used in a .psd, .tif, or .jpg file. However, it provides only an approximate color match for .eps images or for vector artwork. Furthermore, it doesn't sample spot colors from vector artwork. To see the exact CMYK or spot color that will be used to output any image or artwork on your page, activate the Separations Preview palette (Shift-F6). Choose Separations from the View popup menu and move your cursor over your artwork. The exact ink percentages are displayed next to the inks in the Separations Preview palette
-- Keith Gilbert, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Turn the Tools Palette
You can rotate and elongate the Tools palette so it fits your screen size and working style. For example, a longer, narrower Tools palette is good when your screen is small. If you rotate the palette, it can reside at the bottom right of the screen, where there's usually little action. Change the orientation in the Preferences dialog box or by double-clicking on the tab of the Tools palette
-- John Feld, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Move Precisely
Sometimes the most precise way to move objects on a page is to use your keyboard's arrow keys. Press arrow keys to move items in 1-pt increments. (That's the default; you can change this preference in the Units & Increments panel of the Preferences dialog box.) Add the Shift key to move items in 10-pt increments (or 10 times the current increment value). Press Command (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) and the Shift key to move items in .1-pt increments (or one-tenth the increment value).
-- Keith Gilbert, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Add Ruler Guides Fast
To quickly add a ruler guide, double-click on a ruler to create a guide out from that point. For instance, for a vertical guide at 3 inches, double-click at 3 inches on the horizontal ruler. Add the Shift key to snap to the nearest ruler tick mark
-- Erica Gamet, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Make Tints
You can easily create a named, tinted color from any color in your Swatches palette in InDesign (including CMYK builds). Open your Swatches palette (Window > Swatches), choose the color you want to start with, type a percentage in the Tint box, then immediately click the New Swatch icon at the bottom of the palette. The new color is named the same as the original with the percentage indicated to the right of the name. Changes to the original color are reflected in the tint based on that color
-- Erica Gamet, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Maintain Vectors from Illustrator or FreeHand
Paths and shapes from Illustrator or FreeHand can be placed and edited directly in InDesign. Simply copy the item or items from the source document (Illustrator or FreeHand) and paste into your InDesign document. The paths are now fully editable within InDesign. To copy paths from Illustrator 10 and up, be sure that AICB is checked and the Preserve Paths button is selected in Illustrator's File Handling & Clipboard preferences.
-- Erica Gamet, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Switch Measurements Quickly
To use a unit of measure other than the one displayed (for example, centimeters instead of inches), type in the amount and the proper abbreviation for your desired unit of measurement and InDesign converts it for you. For example, if you set your measurement preferences to inches but want a three-millimeter drop shadow offset, enter 3mm in the Drop Shadow dialog box. You can also quickly switch to another unit of measure for the rulers by Control-clicking (Mac) or right-clicking (Windows) on either ruler and choosing the new unit of measure
-- Erica Gamet, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Paragraph Styles = Diagnostic Tool
When you edit a file created by someone else, you may not know the full range of styling applied to text. To find out, place the cursor in the text and create a New Paragraph Style. The dialog box immediately displays every style applied to the object.
-- Tracey Lawrence, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Reset Your Kerning and Tracking
The easiest way to reset the kerning and tracking for a range of selected text is to press Command/Ctrl-Option (Mac) or Alt-Q (Windows). I run all my copy with Optical Kerning on by default, as it does most of the work before I begin to edit.
-- Matt Davis, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Sample Images with the Eyedropper
Use the Eyedropper tool to sample colors from placed images. With the Eyedropper tool selected, move over the desired color in the placed image. Click to sample the color, then click the New Swatch icon in the Swatches palette, or Add to Swatches from the Color palette to store the color as a swatch. The eyedropper samples the color in the same color mode as the placed graphic. For example, sampling an RGB image creates an RGB swatch. Now you can apply that new color to an item by clicking on it with the full Eyedropper. When you want to sample a new color, be sure to use Option/Alt-click to get the empty Eyedropper.
-- Erica Gamet, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Build Guide Libraries
You can save a page's guides by selecting them and choosing Add Item from the Library's palette menu or by clicking the New Item button at the bottom of the palette. Then, when you want to use the same set of guides on another page, simply select it in the Library and choose Place Item(s) in the palette menu. This places the same guides, in the same positions, on the new page. You can't add to or place guides from a Library using drag and drop
-- Erica Gamet, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Suppress a Color Onscreen and in Output
Some publishers use a special spot color for items in a layout they don't want printed in certain situations, such as teacher's annotations in a textbook. The print vendor produces the teacher's edition normally -- using all color plates in the file -- but doesn't print the spot color plate for the student edition. The problem with these sorts of projects is that it's impossible to proof the student edition onscreen or in composite print/PDF output because there's no Hide command for individual inks or colors.

The solution is to create a new spot color that's white, named something like Hidden. When you need to suppress the unwanted ink for onscreen proofing, alias it to the Hidden color (using Ink Manager inside the Swatches palette menu) and turn on Overprint Preview in the View menu. Abracadabra, the color disappears. It will also print and export as it displays. Just don't forget to turn off the ink alias before you send the file to the print vendor.
-- Anne-Marie Concepción, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Find that Color
Find/Change can't search for a color swatch unless it's applied to text. If you need to find all instances of a color used in a document, temporarily turn it into a spot color (if it's not already) from its Swatch Options dialog box. Choose View > Output Preview > Separations, turn off all color plates except the new spot in the Separations palette, and scroll through your document. You'll see black "ink" appear everywhere the color is used. (For very long documents, you may find it faster to print only that spot color plate to separations and leave the Print Blank Pages checkbox off so you only get the pages with spot colors on them.) Change the color back to its original color mode if necessary when you're done
-- Anne-Marie Concepción, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Find Font Errors
If you suspect that errors in printing may be related to font problems, turn everything into outlines and print again. If the problem goes away, you have a font issue to deal with. Start by uninstalling the font from your font manager if you have one; otherwise just delete and replace the font. Don't leave any font as an outline, as it prevents editing and makes for a much larger file
-- John Feld, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Same Image, Multiple Frames
For an interesting effect, you can make one image look as if it's inside multiple frames:

1. Place the image in a circular frame.

2. Use Edit > Step and Repeat to create a row of frames.
3. Using the DIRECT Selection tool, shift-click to select each IMAGE (not frame).
4. Using the Alignment controls in the Control Palette, align first the top edges and then the left edges of the images within the frames. (Yes, you can align images just like you can align frames!)
5. Poof! It looks like you're looking through portholes.

Here's another method: Place the image in just one of the frames and choose Object > Arrange > Bring to Front. Now choose all the frames (the image frame and the empty frames) and choose Object > Pathfinder > Add. The image in the topmost frame appears in all the frames.
-- Claudia McCue, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Sort Menus Alphabetically
To sort menus in the menu bar in alphabetical order, select the required menu while holding Ctrl+Shift+Alt (Windows) or Shift+Option+Command (Mac). This shortcut sorts the menu and sub-menus in alphabetical order; it's also useful for sorting fonts in the Type > Font menu
-- Eliot Harper, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Shadow One Word
Wouldn't it be nice to have a shadow behind just one word in text? You can: Copy the word into its own text frame, choose Object > Fitting > Fit Frame to Content (or press Command/Ctrl-Option/Alt-C), and apply a drop shadow to the frame. Copy the frame to the Clipboard, then highlight the word in the main text and paste. The text of the word will be replaced with the shadowed inline frame.
-- Claudia McCue, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Thread Frames Fast
Situation: Big story in a frame, no existing empty text frames to thread it to, can't autoflow for whatever reason. Solution: The fastest way to manually thread a story, starting with just a single overset text frame, is to click on the overset icon with the Selection Tool to load the overset text in the cursor; then hold down the Option key (Mac) or Alt key (Windows) and drag out successive text frames. Every frame you Option/Alt-drag is automatically threaded to the previous one.
-- Anne-Marie Concepción, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Page Guides vs. Spread Guides
To create a horizontal ruler guide that crosses all pages of a spread, drag the guide onto the page while your cursor is on the pasteboard area to the left or the right of the spread. Or press Command/Ctrl while dragging a guide to make it a spread guide.
-- Keith Gilbert, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Zoom-sensitive Ruler Guides
Hold down the Option key (Mac) or Alt key (Windows) while dragging out a ruler guide to make it visible only at the current zoom level and larger. If you zoom out, the guide will disappear. When you zoom back to the previous magnification or above, the ruler guide will reappear
-- Keith Gilbert, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Harmless Error
When you open a file and get an alert saying, "Cannot open resource file," it probably means that the last time you quit the program with that file open, the Scripts palette was open and included a script. The alert is harmless-just cancel it and continue. To prevent its recurrence, close the Scripts window before closing the document.
-- John Feld, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005

Don't Forget the Info Box
The Info box, which shows the size and location of a selected frame, can be a very useful tool. Select an image and the Info box displays size, active and effective resolution, color space, and ICC profiles. Select a text box with the Text tool and the Info Box displays a count of characters, words, lines, and paragraphs. (It also shows this information for linked text boxes.) Select the frame with a Selection tool instead, and the box shows the current fill and stroke colors. When nothing is selected, the Info Box displays information about the document itself
-- John Feld, from InDesign Magazine #7, Aug/Sept 2005