I’ve been recording InDesign training movies for lynda.com recently (trying to finish up my InDesign Beyond the Basics title). I got to the part about the Preferences dialog box and I suddenly realized that my internal script about Preferences isn’t entirely true. That is, I have always said, “changes that you make to the Preferences dialog box only apply to the current document, unless no documents are currently open, in which case they apply to all documents you create from now on.”
But that’s only half true. Or, more specifically, that is true for most of the first half of the panes in the Preferences dialog box: General, Interface, Type, Advanced Type, Composition, Units & Increments, Grids, and Guides & Pasteboard.
But the last nine of the 17 panes are mostly application wide preferences, not document preferences. That is, they change the way the program works, for the current document, for future documents, and old documents that you open. This includes Dictionary, Spelling, Autocorrect, Notes, Story Editor Display, Display Performance, Appearance of Black, File Handling, and Clipboard Handling.
Unfortunately, it’s not even as clean-cut as that because there are exceptions. For example, the Tool Tips setting in the Interface pane appears to be application wide. Conversely, Overprint [Black] Swatch at 100% in the Appearance of Black pane appears to be document wide.
Do you get the sense that someone at Adobe is trying to confuse us? Or is this one of those “character building” exercises that help us gain deeper truths about ourselves while we grind our teeth?
What other exceptions are there? What little gotcha’s should we be looking out for. Anyone care to enlighten us with the ultimate guide to app vs. doc, or even explain why the breakdown is the way it is?
This article was last modified on March 15, 2021
This article was first published on January 14, 2008
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