On the re-certifcation front, I’m continuing to plow through the InDesign Help file. Some of it is like reading a how-to guide for tying your shoes, but occasionally there are things that make me go “Oh! So that’s what that does,” or “Wow! That’s freaking awesome!”, or even, “Oh wow, I wish I’d known that before…” So, I’m going to start posting Ohs and Wows, in 50-page batches, with page references in case you want to check them out for yourself.
p.3
All InDesign/InCopy documentation is available in PDF and LiveDoc formats on the Resources Page at Adobe.com.
p.8
Fonts are installed during ID installation on a Mac at library/application support/adobe/fonts
or on a PC at startup drive/program files/common files/adobe/fonts
p.16
To show/hide all panels press tab (knew that already), but didn’t know that to temporarily show tab-hidden panels, move your mouse to the screen edge.
p.18
Press ctrl (same on Mac or PC-wow KBSC parity) while dragging a panel to keep it from docking.
p.19
To resize all panels in a dock, drag the gripper at top left. I just like the idea of there being thing called the gripper in ID.
To resize a single panel, drag a side or any corner.
p.20
To collapse a panel dock into pure icons, drag the gripper toward the screen edge till the text disappears.
p.24
Customizing menus: you can customize the main menu, panel menus, and context menus by choosing Edit > Menus
Show All Menu Items appears at the bottom of each menu where you’ve hidden items.
Holding the command key temporarily shows any menu choices you’ve hidden.
p.34
Slick way to jump to a master page: cmd-j then type the letter, then enter. So to jump to master page A, it’s cmd-j, a, enter.
Close all windows for the active doc: cmd-shift-w
Close all windows for all docs: cmd-shift-opt-w
p.35
Math in panel fields: to use the current value as part of the expression, click before or after it. 
becomes 
Applying percentages in panel fields is even easier. So if you have 
enter 
to get 
p.36
Prefs and settings are stored in files called InDesign Defaults and InDesign SavedData, which are saved when you exit InDesign.
p.39
RAM and “the kind of actions you perform” limits the number of undos you have.
p.42
Mimimum Vertical Offset= how far the pasteboard extends from the page/bleed/slug, whichever is farthest out.
Good trivia: Maximum pasteboard vertical offset is 10 feet. Maximum document width is 18 feet. Minimum is 1 pt.
p.47
To override the current units in panel fields and dialogs, use these abbreviations:
inch- i, in, inch, ”
millimeter-mm
pics-p
point-pt, or p before the value
ciceros-c
agates-ag
NONE Are CaSe sensitive
p.49
More trivia: what are the only non-printing elements to remain on screen when you switch to Preview mode? A line drawn with measure tool and guides that were selected before switching into Preview mode.
p.50
Snap to Guides also makes things Snap to the Baseline Brid.
Working at 100% view makes it much easier to keep the X,Y position and width/height of objects at clean whole point values.
Filed under: Adobe, InDesign, Page Layout | Tagged: InDesign, Page Layout |
Publicious 
Oh wow! Neato! Hmm, had no idea. Ah, now I get it.
Looks like its gonna be me, a printout of the manual, some stickie notes, and a highlighter. I’ve been putting this off for too long And with info bits like this in the first 50 pages, I’m so going to find this worthwhile.
Oh! That’s wonderful Mike. Thanks for sharing all these as you “brush up”.
As I often tell my co-workers, Adobe has a million and one ways to accomplish the same thing. This just reiterates that and then some.