In this article, we are going to see a few tips and secrets in the InDesign software.
If you feel your Indesign sofware running slow, then do not forget to check our guide.
Working with Pages, Preview
1. How to Preview a document? (Shortcut Key: Shift + W)
- Open InDesign software and tap on the View menu and select Screen mode from the drop-down menu.
- Then choose the Presentation option. It will display your whole document as a preview.
- Left-click on the mouse to go to the next page and right-click to go to the previous page.
2. Turn Off Facing pages in InDesign
- Navigate to Files -> Document Setup.
- Then uncheck the Facing Pages option and tap on OK.
3. How to Add Page Numbers in InDesign
- Go to Windows -> Pages.
- Double-click on the A Masters from the Pages panel.
- Now create a text box and go to Type -> Insert Special Characters -> Markers -> Create Page Number.
- Change the alignment, style, and size accordingly.
- Then copy the page number and paste it on the next page. This will apply to all pages.
Shortcut Key: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N
4. How to use Master Pages in InDesign
A Master Page is a template that can be used for the rest of the pages. If you add a page number or title or text, that will be applied to the rest of the pages in the document.
- Open a document and go to Windows -> Pages or press F12.
- Now from the right top corner, you could see the Pages panel tap on it.
- Then click on the three lines and select Insert pages.
- After inserting the page, tap on the Masters Page and type the text that you want to add to the remaining pages.
- The left side of the master page will make changes in the left side pages and the right side will make changes in the right side pages.
- You can split the pages as well.
5. Split or Delete pages from a Spread
1.Split Pages.
- Go to Files -> Document Setup. Now from the dialog box uncheck “Facing Pages”.
- This helps to split pages.
Shortcut Key: Ctrl +Shift+ P.
2. Drag and Drop pages.
- Tap on Pages layout from the right menu and click on the three lines to open the drop-down menu.
- Now un-check the “Allow Document Pages to Shuffle” option.
- Then drag a page, until you see the line and drop it.
3. Deleting pages.
- From the Pages Layout, right-click on the page that you delete.
- Choose the Delete option to delete the page.
Working with Font, Links, Lists, Navigation
1. How to Add a Bulleted and Numbering list? (Shortcut Key: Alt +8)
- Select the paragraph or text and tap on the Type menu.
- Then select Bulleted or Numbering list accordingly.
- Tap on the Enter button to get the extra Bulleted or Numbering list.
2. How to add hyperlinks and Page Navigation?
- Select the text, title or image from the page that you want to Hyperlink.
- Then select Hyperlink from the right corner and tap on the three lines on the top corner from the Hyperlink menu.
- Now select New Hyperlink Destination and hit on OK.
- Next, go to the home page and select the content that you want to link the page.
- Then from the Hyperlink menu, select Create a New Hyperlink option.
- From the dialog panel, select Link To and Designation accordingly.
- Finally, tap OK.
Shortcut Path: Windows -> Interactive -> Hyperlink.
Note: If you are linking text, choose Text Anchor in the Link To box and the Text Anchor must be the New Hyperlink Destination that you have given before.
3. How to use the Underline option in InDesign (Shortcut Key: Ctrl +T )
- Choose the text and tap on the Underline icon (It will be looking like T with a line).
- Or you can select the text and go to Type -> Character.
- Now from the Character Panel, select the three small lines and tap on Underline Options.
- Finally, adjust the settings and click on OK.
4. Use Text Anchor to link Page Particular
Set Hyperlink Destination
- Select the text that you want to create Hyperlink and go to Windows ->Interactive-> Hyperlink.
- In the Hyperlink Panel menu choose New Hyperlink Destination.
- Then from the Type select Text Anchor and click OK.
- Now, this text is set as a destination, and we have to set a link to this destination.
Set Link to the destination
- From the Hyperlink panel, click on New Hyperlink and select the Text Anchor option in the Link To column.
- Now export the file as a PDF.
5. How to set/change the default font in InDesign
Before starting this process, open a new document. Only then it's easy to change from the default font.
- Open a new document and tap on Type-> Paragraph Style from the Control Panel.
- Click on Basic character formats and select the font that you want to use for the entire document.
6. InDesign: Faking Bold and Italic
Changing into Bold
- To bold a text first, select the text and tap on F10 to get the Stroke Panel.
- Then set the weight accordingly (like 0.2pts or something).
- This helps to bold the text in InDesign.
Changing into Italic
- Select a text and tap on the Italic icon (It will be looking like a T symbol.
7. How to create a Table
Just use the Table -> Create Table option.
Exporting the Document
1. Print an InDesign document with a hyperlink (Shortcut Key: Ctrl + E)
- Tap on File -> Export and save the file as Adobe PDF (Interactive).
Extra Features
1. How to use Spell check
To enable a permanent spell-check feature,
- In the InDesign app, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Spelling.
- Tick the Check Box: Enable Dynamic Spelling, to get the grammar errors when you type or paste the text.
Or if you want to use the spell check feature for a particular word only without enabling the full spell check feature,
- Right-click the word
- Choose Spelling -> Check Spelling
2. Add Tamil Unicode/other language font support to InDesign (Shortcut Key: Alt+Ctrl+Shift+J)
Always choose a Tamil Unicode font supported by Google Chrome.
- Select the Tamil text and choose a Unicode font (like Latha font) in InDesign.
- Then tap on Type -> Paragraph style and click on Create New Paragraph Style.
- Double-click on the newly created style and choose Justification from the Paragraph Style panel.
- Then choose “Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer” from the composer column.
- Set this setting to default.
Note: The Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer works only on Adobe InDesign CS6 or later versions.
3. Set World-Ready Paragraph Composer as the default
- Go to Edit -> Preference -> Advanced Type -> Default Composer.
- Set the composer to Adobe World- Ready Paragraph Composer.
- Next, select the Basic Paragraph Style and double click on it.
- Then tap on Justification and choose Adobe World- Ready Paragraph Composer.
4. Remove Font Embedded Restriction.
When trying to export the InDesign document into PDF format, you will get an error message “This font could not be embedded due to license restriction”. To remove the restriction, you have a simple step.
- Go to this website to make a TTF font embeddability installable.
- Then upload the file by clicking on Choose File and tap on Fix/ Download.
- Now this will remove the restriction.
5. How to hide and unhide Panels for easy editing
Hide All Panels: Press the Tab key.
Hide Panels expect Toolbar: Press Shift + Tab key.
6. White line appears on InDesign Document (in Preview mode)
Turn Off the Overprint preview option while viewing the document.
- To do that go to View -> Overprint Preview and uncheck the option.
Shortcut Key: Crtl + Alt +Shift +Y
Try using Presentation mode. To do that
- Go to View -> Screen Mode -> Presentation.
Shortcut Key: Shift + W
7. InDesign text highlighted in blue.
- Select the text and tap on the Paragraph style from the right-side panel.
- Now click on the + symbol to remove the Style Override Highlighter.
These are the tips and tricks to make your InDesign look great.
