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So you’re working on a layout in InDesign, when you notice that a placed photo needs a little retouching. Or a path in a placed Illustrator document needs a little tweaking. Here’s the quickest way to jump over to a program where you can make the edits and open the artwork: Hold Option/Alt and double-click on the placed image in your layout. This is a shortcut for the Edit Original feature, and it will open the file in the default editing application for that file type on your computer.
Want to pick a different editing application for a particular image? Right-click on the image and choose Edit With from the contextual menu. You’ll see a list of suggested apps to chose from, or you can choose Other at the end of the list and choose a different app.
Want to open multiple items for editing at the same time? Select them all, right-click and choose Edit Original from the contextual menu.
You can even use these commands for placed images on other spreads that you’re not currently viewing. Just Option/Alt double-click on an image in the Links panel to invoke Edit Original. Right-click on image in the Links panel to choose Edit With.
This article was last modified on July 25, 2019
This article was first published on May 4, 2015
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