It’s time for another shindig! Since we’ve been focusing on InDesign for the past 2 weeks, why not some ID shortcuts? Yes? Good idea!
Tools
Many of the tools in InDesign I don’t use, but I’ll list them anyway. If there are no comments next to them, it’s a safe bet I haven’t found a need for them!
V=Move Tool Yay! One command that is similar in all the CS programs! This tool allows you to move objects about the canvas of your document.
P=Pen Tool This is very useful for adjusting the text wrap of an object. You can add more points to the default text wrap so that you can shape it into whatever suits your needs.
N=Pencil Tool
F=Rectangle Frame Tool
R=Rotate Tool
O=Shear Tool
I=Eyedropper Tool Sometimes I find this useful for matching color, but rarely. I always use Photoshop to figure out my color palette, write down the CMYK values and add them to my Swatches Palette as soon as I start working in InDesign.
B=Button Tool
H=Hand Tool allows you to move the canvas around on your screen. Just like in Photoshop, though, I never actually select this tool because there are numerous ways to toggle it while in other modes/tools. For example, most of the time you can just press the space bar. Obviously if you are in a text box typing, though, spacebar will to what it was made to do – give you a space. So when you’re typing, you can hold down Alt (Option) instead!
A=Direct Selection Tool is useful for repositioning the points on bounding boxes or text wraps. You can toggle this from the Pen Tool by holding Ctrl (Cmd).
T=Text Tool Well duh. I use this ALL the time! Not much to say about it, except that.
=Line Tool (Funny huh?) Don’t use this one much, but InDesign does have some nice stroke options.
M=Rectangle Tool is useful for creating mats for images
S=Scale Tool
E=Free Transform, I don’t even bother with the other transform tools (scale, shear, rotate) because this one does it all! This is the third most used tool by me. Fortunately, this is the same command as Illustrator (but Photoshop is Ctrl+T, which really makes more sense!)
G=Gradient
C=Scissor
Z=Zoom You should know from reading my other Photoshop shortcuts post that this is another one of those tools you never need to select. You can toggle the zoom tool by holding down spacebar and Ctrl (Cmd) to zoom in and press Alt (Opt) if you want to zoom out. Easy cheesy!
Functions
J=Switch between fill effects for your object/text box and the text itself. I’m always selecting the text box and clicking a color to change the text, but you can’t do that! That fills the text box with a color. I used to go click the itty bitty little text formatting button but that took up so much time! This is SO incredibly handy!
W=Preview mode. I always leave this on the first preview option. This is similar to hiding the extras in Photoshop, as it will show you what your page will look like without guides, margins and trim applied (so actual size of the page with the bleed area cut off). Very useful!
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Y=Overprint Preview will show you a close to reality render of your document. Be careful though, this hogs a TON of resources (RAM and processor power) and will bog down even the fastest of machines!
Ctrl+D=Place allows you to add a linked object–images or text files–to the canvas. This is another command that is different in every CS program! In Illustrator, this command will Duplicate the last action, in Photoshop, this Deselects the current selection. Confused yet? Try learning Maya 3D and switching between that and Photoshop!
Ctrl+Shift+D=Links Palette, great for quick updating of linked files. I always keep this palette in the panel area on the right edge of my screen anyway.
This is the final installment on the InDesign series. The articles included InDesign basics, Master Pages, Paragraph and Character Styles, and InDesign Layers–the keys to really start unlocking InDesign’s power.
Now I know that’s not everything. What shortcuts do you use most often?
P.S. Subscribe to the feed to get your FREE handy dandy PDF of the Photoshop shortcuts from previous Shortcut Shindigs! Also check out Illustrator shortcuts.
Do you need more help with InDesign? Feel free to leave a comment below, contact me or head over to Lynda.com and sign up for their InDesign Tutorials. It’s only $25/mo for unlimited access! This is a resource I use myself and I highly recommend it. You can get a free 7 day pass to lynda.com, now too! Just follow that link.
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Woot! Thanks!
Hehe, no problem Alec! Have you subscribed to the feed to get your PDF of the Photoshop shortcuts?
Hi Lauren,
That’s great of you to offer a PDF to your subscribers, and is something I’ve been meaning to do for some time now!
Is there a way to track the downloads? I’m pretty sure there is, but I don’t know how, and it’d come in very useful when I eventually get round to it.
Off-topic (even further, sorry), thanks very much for your comment on my Smashing Magazine guest post. It was really appreciated.
Hey David! The PDF was actually Paul Enderson’s idea and a few other people agreed so I set about doing it. The only way I know to track the downloads is to use Google Analytics (which I already have set up for my blog). I added the tracking text, but because it’s in a RSS feed, it’s not working
The way the plugin works for the feed though is that you set up a private page with the text and links. What I might end up doing is having a link to that page instead of a direct link to the PDF in the feed so that I can track the downloads. Hmm, yes, that a good idea. I think I will actually do that. Perhaps I will get fewer people clicking on the PDF, but it’s not that much more complicated. Does that make sense, David?
I don’t mind the off topic comments too much and you are most welcome for the comment. I hope that you do as the one commentor suggested (Brent I think his name was) and ignore the trolls. I’m sorry that you can’t point potential clients over there now, though
It’s disappointing that people feel the need to be mean. If I don’t have something constructive to say (even if it’s criticism/disagreeing with the author) I just don’t comment. Why waste my time? Too bad other people are not as practical!
I see what you mean about directing RSS readers to a page, where you can track their downloads. I think it’s a great idea!
Like you, if I don’t appreciate a blog post I read, I’ll only comment if I can offer something constructive. Still, there has been a fair bit of traffic to my blog from the guest post, and perhaps I’ve attracted one or two new readers.
Anyway, back on topic, it’s great that you use a PC, so I can associate with your shortcuts!
There are no extra ones that come to mind, and I reckon I’d have to open the programme in order to find out. Thing is, it’s so easy to use, that I don’t even know if I’m using many advanced features at all. I could probably do with sitting down through the ‘help’ tutorials one of these days. There are probably quite a few time-savers I don’t know about.
Haha, yes, I had to actually open ID to write this post because my brain doesn’t know what the shortcuts for most of those tools/functions, my fingers do! The new one I learned while writing this was J to switch to text formatting for color/stroke and I will use that for evermore now! Take a look at the Adobe LiveDocs for ID. They have a list of all the shortcuts and some pretty informative articles (did you see that one of the writers from Adobe linked to my last post about layers??! How cool!)
Thanks for the link, Lauren, and congrats on getting your layers post getting a mention by Adobe!
Spacebar to move the canvas around on your screen. “Obviously if you are in a text box typing, though, spacebar will to what it was made to do – give you a space. So when you’re typing, you can hold down Alt (Option) instead.”
Top tip! How many times have I left a space in the middle of some text by accident!
Another technique is “esc”. Hitting the escape key whilst in a text box with the type tool (T) selected will automatically give you the move tool (V). This works in Illy as well.
David,
Whoa, this comment must’ve slipped by me. Well, better late than never? Thanks for the congrats!
Rob,
You are full of good tips. I am going to try out that Esc shortcut! Is it a toggle (like the spacebar for hand tool, where you have to hold it down) or does it switch you over to the Move Tool?
The Esc is more of a switch than a toggle. I don’t know how many times I’ve typed “v” when trying to get to the move tool whilst being in a text box with the type tool! We’re all full of good tips, I guess, because we all find out things independently. I think I got this one from http://www.bittbox.com
Rob,
I like it. I’ve done the same thing with adding v’s to my body copy! My proofreaders circle them all the time and they can’t understand why there are random v’s everywhere. I try to be aware of it, but sometimes I’m just working so fast I don’t notice.
I tried it yesterday
Hey Lauren! I stumbled across your site & I’ve been sucked into your blogs for hours now! So much useful information! And I LOVE Hot Keys!!
I’ve always used command (or control for you PC users
) and the = (+ except no need to hold shift) to zoom in and if you have something selected like a text or picture box, it will zoom into that object, command (or control) and the – to zoom out. Command 0 will zoom all the way out, command 1 will take you to 100% & command 2 will take you to 200%.
If you double click on a text box with the move tool, it will automatically switch to the type tool.
I also like to use the command and arrow keys to navigate between woods & paragraphs & by adding the shift key, you can select words or paragraphs. For example, if you had a head, subhead & bodycopy all in the same text box, if your cursor were at the very beginning (I often use select all, then simply the left arrow key to get there), you could use command & the down arrow to navigate to your body copy, then command shift & the down arrow key to select paragraphs. If you’ve accidently selected a paragraph you didn’t intend to, simply command shift & the up arrow key to deselect.
I hope that wasn’t too confusing!
Hello Lauren, Thanks bunch for the tips. Would you happen to know the hotkey for selecting eyedroper when doing text formating function?
Merry Christmas~
Tony
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