Q: Why isn’t the InDesign pasteboard like the old PageMaker “perma-pasteboard,” available in every page?
–signed, Recovering PageMaker User
A: Dear RPMU,
It could be argued that the old PM pasteboard was more like a “real world” drawing board, with a plethora of persistent pieces perched in the periphery of your project. InDesign’s pasteboard is attached to one spread. But you can sort of recapture the persistent pasteboard by taking advantage of InDesign’s “new window” trick.
Store all your bits of artwork on a “donor” page (or in its pasteboard), then choose Window > Arrange > New Window. At first, it seems that nothing has happened. Choose Window > Arrange > Tile (CS3 gives you the choice of Tile Horizontally and Tile Vertically). Now you’ll see two instances of the document simultaneously. Click on one title bar, and scroll to the donor page. Click on the other title bar, and scroll to the “target” page.
Now you can select an object on the donor page, and drag-&-drop it to the target page. Leave the donor page displayed in one window while you work on the document in the other window. It’s cheesy, but it works.
Suggestion: because this eats up so much screen real estate, you might consider using an InDesign library instead. Libraries offer the same drag-&-drop functionality, in a petite phloating palette (yeah, yeah, I know: in CS3, they’re panels).
This article was last modified on December 18, 2021
This article was first published on June 1, 2007
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