Everybody loves a good list. They’re like the proverbial box o’ chocolates. You take a bite and move on. Sometimes you get your favorite (mmm, caramel) sometimes you get that strawberry nougat thing with the nut in it. To me, this list is all caramels. It’s my top 20 tricks using the Command key on the Mac or Control key on Windows. Note that these aren’t the classic keyboard shortcuts where you press Command/Control along with other keys. For that, there’s a lovely poster you can buy somewhere around here…
1. Temporarily get either the Selection tool or Direct Selection tool, while you’re using a different tool, hold Cmd/Ctrl. If you were using any path editing tool (Pen, Pencil, Scissors and all their variations) you always get the Direct Selection tool. For all other tools, you get the last used selection tool. One exception: this trick doesn’t work when you’re in Notes mode. Pressing Cmd/Ctrl then gets you an I-bar cursor so you can click a new spot for another note.
2. If you’re editing text and you want to move or resize the text frame, hold down Cmd/Ctrl and drag the frame.
3. To select a frame that is underneath others, using the Selection tool, hold down Cmd/Ctrl and keep clicking the same place until you’ve got the frame (or group) you want.
4. To scale a frame and its content, hold down Cmd/Ctrl while dragging a corner.
Are these too plain vanilla for you? Hang in there, maybe you like the strawberry nougat nut thing. It’s in here somewhere.
5. Layers 1: To create a new layer above the selected layer, hold down Cmd/Ctrl as you click the New Layer button. Otherwise the new layer gets created atop the stack.
6. Layers 2: To move selected objects to a hidden or locked layer, hold down Cmd/Ctrl as you drag the colored square on the right side of the Layers panel.
7. To see the save and version history of InDesign document, as well as required plug-ins and other geeky information hold down Ctrl and choose Help > About
InDesign (Windows) or hold down Command (Mac) and choose InDesign > About InDesign.
8. When you’re using drag and drop text, to create a new frame and drop the text into it, start dragging the text, then hold down Cmd/Ctrl, and then release the mouse button before releasing Cmd/Ctrl.
9. Editing character styles: To change a character style so it is color-blind, (i.e. to make it so it ignores the color of text it’s applied to) hold down Cmd/Ctrl and click the color swatch in the list.
Have you found a caramel yet?
10. Clearing overrides: To clear character overrides only (preserve paragraph formatting overrides), Cmd/Ctrl click the Clear Overrides icon on the Paragraph Styles Panel or the Control Panel.
11. Drawing 1: To Connect two open paths with the Pencil tool, after you begin dragging, hold down Cmd/Ctrl. You’ll see a small merge symbol at your cursor to indicate you’re connecting to the existing path. You do need to release the mouse button right on the second point or the paths won’t be joined.
12. Drawing 2: To adjust a path segment while you’re drawing with the Pen tool, hold down Cmd/Ctrl. It gets you the Direct Selection tool, so you can move anchor points and/or their direction points.
13. Drawing 3: To stop drawing a path with the Pen tool, without having to close the path or switch to another tool, Cmd/Ctrl click in any empty spot.
14. Panel Lists 1: To expand or collapse an XML element and all elements within it, Cmd/Ctrl click the triangle next to the element.
15. Panel Lists 2: To expand or collapse a style group and all its subgroups, Cmd/Ctrl click the triangle icon.
16. Guides 1: To create a spread guide when you’re zoomed in and can’t see the pasteboard, press Cmd/Ctrl as you drag from the ruler.
17. Guides 2: To move a spread guide when you’re zoomed in and can’t see the pasteboard, press Cmd/Ctrl as you drag the guide on the page.
18. Guides 3: To create vertical and horizontal guides simultaneously, Cmd/Ctrl while you drag from the ruler intersection where the rulers meet.
19. Show Hidden Menu Items: Hold down Cmd/Ctrl to temporarily display menu commands you hid by customizing menus.
20. Master Pages: Cmd/Ctrl click the Create New Page button in the Pages Panel to quickly create (and navigate to) a new master page.
Bonus/Cheat: This is technically a keyboard shortcut, but I love it too much to leave off the list. To apply a width, height, or scale value proportionally from the Control panel (when the constrain chain is broken) press Cmd/Ctrl Enter.
Hope you found something tasty. And remember, the best thing about this list: zero calories!
This article was last modified on December 19, 2021
This article was first published on October 6, 2008
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