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Swatches are great and you should use them whenever possible to maintain consistent, easy-to-manage colors in your documents. But sometimes the Swatches panel isn’t the quickest way to apply a color. You can use the keyboard shortcuts , (comma) and . (period) to instantly apply the last-used solid color and the last-used gradient. To change a stroke or fill to None, press / (slash).
If you use a 2-column Tools panel, you can see these shortcuts (and buttons that perform the same functions) in a row near the bottom of the panel.
Note that these shortcuts will apply colors and gradients to either the fill or the stroke, depending on which is foremost in the Swatches and Tools panels. If the fill is foremost and you want to target the stroke (or vice versa), press X first. If you want to swap the stroke and fill of a selected object, press Shift+X.
This article was last modified on March 12, 2021
This article was first published on September 23, 2014
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Is there any way to use this comma shortcut to change the color on text? When I try to use it with text selected, I end up just replacing the selected text with a comma where the text used to be!
Hi Joe-
Yes, here’s how. Create a new keyboard shortcut set and edit the shortcut for Apply Color. In the dialog box, you’ll find it in the Product Area: Tools. Be sure you set the Context to Text in the dialog box before choosing a new shortcut.
If I am using the portable InDesign software, are there any limitations to the features available?
Pretty cool, I forget all these little shortcuts from time to time. I do prefer the double column tool panel though, I know it takes up more screen real estate, but I just prefer it, and I have a pretty large monitor so it doesn’t affect me too much.
How do you get a two column tools panel?
Nancy: Pretty cool, eh?! Click that little double-arrow at the top of the panel.
Tip of the week, please :-)
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