Collapsing Palettes with return key

[Yoli_Thompson@adobeforums.com]

My first post: IDCS, OS 10.3.5
Completed the Total Training for IDCS.

Coming from Quark use, can't help but compare features
and finding out I do have to click a lot more to get
things accomplished in InDesign (even using keyboard shortcuts)

Is there a way to collapse some palettes
by hitting the return key? i.e. with the TABS palette:
I set the tabs, then I have to go to the precise tiny
little red button and click on it to close it... or the
SPELL CHECK palette, the "Done" button is big and
highlighted but the return key won't close it, have
to click on it....

thanks,

[M_Blackburn@adobeforums.com]

You seem to be focusing on dialogue boxes rather than palettes. Virually all palettes have a keyboard shortcut or can be customized to have one and that shortcut works as a toggle — on/off. This is how the Tab palette works for instance. The glyphs palette seems to have a glitch in which you have to hit Escape before its shortcut will close it.

Palettes can be hidden from view en masse with the Tab key. Shft-Tab will hide all palettes except the Toolbar.

Most dialogues associated with palettes can be closed with enter.

I think once you learn more about ID you will find it takes less clicking than Quark. You can set shortcuts for almost anything in ID. How many shortcuts can you define in Quark? Zero I think.

[Michael_Trout@adobeforums.com]

In the specific TAB palette mentioned, simply use the KB command to close it again. (CMD+SHIFT+T) toggles the palette on or off.

Some other dialogues can be closed by using the CMD + the letter of the button you want to active... but not all unfortunately. That is an annoyance that I have come to live with.

Perhaps CS3?

-mt

[Eric_@_MCA@adobeforums.com]

I think once you learn more about ID you will find it takes less clicking
than Quark. You can set shortcuts for almost anything in ID. How many
shortcuts can you define in Quark? Zero I think. Doesn't that automatically
mean that you have to do more clicking in Quark?




Slightly OT, but as for shortcuts, I like the flexibility of ID but I hate the fact that ID has locked down the most useful shortcuts to a useless area of the keyboard, ie way out on the numpad where it's impossible to make them into one-handed shortcuts. In XPress we used to put all our shortcuts on the left side of the keyboard (with a control key modifier). I can reach a lot of keys with my left hand only so I can fire off stylesheet changes very quickly while piloting to the place to apply with the mouse in my right hand.

In ID, you have to take your hand off the mouse every time you need to apply a style. Grrrrrrr.

Also, XPress tools are switched using the Tab key. I think in newer versions its ctrl-Tab/ctrl-shift-Tab but up through XPress 5 it was cmd-Tab. It is a different system, but easily as fast as ID for tool switching. I do, however, appreciate the Photoshop ,./ "Fill/Stroke" hotkeys in ID--it's great to be able to add or subtract fill with the flick of a hand. Oh, and the Hide All Palettes Tab key is awesome too.

However as a user of both systems, XPress 5 was probably just as productive as ID 4 is in terms of the GUI. I too am hoping to see some more changes and refinements in CS3!

[SilverDollar@adobeforums.com]

you wrote:
In ID, you have to take your hand off the mouse every time you need to fire a style shortcut. Grrrrrrr.

Not true! Use "Quick Apply"!
place your cursor in the target paragraph
Hit cmd/return to open the list of styles on the control bar
type the first few letters of your style's name
hit return

(thanks to InDesignSecrets.com for teaching me this tip)

[Diane_King@adobeforums.com]

Not true! Use "Quick Apply"! place your cursor in the target paragraph
Hit cmd/return to open the list of styles on the control bar
type the first few letters of your style's name
hit return





I'm going to be devil's advocate. I tried using the quick apply and found it much more cumbersome than actually clicking on the style in the pallet with your mouse. But then again, I'm not big on key commands. I use my keyboard for typing and not much else.

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

If this is really annoying you could try this script:




tell application "Adobe InDesign CS2"
set myTextObjects to {text, insertion point, character, word, text style range, line, paragraph}
if (count documents) is not 0 then
if (count stories of active document) is not 0 then
set mySelection to selection
if (count mySelection) is not 0 then
if class of item 1 of mySelection is in myTextObjects then
set myStyle to paragraph style "STYLENAME" of active document
set applied paragraph style of item 1 of mySelection to myStyle
end if
end if
end if
end if
end tell




Copy the script a few times (I would recommend creating a subfolder "Styles" in the [application:presets:scripts" folder)
Apply a shortcut to each copy of the script.
Edit each script by replacing STYLENAME with the name of the wanted style

Now the shortcut calls the script and the script applies the style.
Once set up it does exactly what you want.

Gerald

[Richard_Sohanchyk@adobeforums.com]

Going to a script every five minutes is less appealing than using a palette.

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

Richard, I suppose you overlooked this part:

Apply a shortcut to each copy of the script.




This solution only makes sense when you have about 3 to 7 paragraph styles that you need to apply to a lot of text. Repeatedly. (If that is not the case I don't see the point in the original complaint).

You set up the shortcuts for the scripts *once*.

You insert the names of the paragraph styles into the script *once* per document.

For the rest of the work you have any old shortcut you like to apply those styles.

20 times faster than going to the palette.
And precisely what the OP was asking for. Albeit with some preparing.

Thanks
Gerald

[Olivier_Berquin@adobeforums.com]

Maybe I don't understand everything in this post (english is not my mother language), but... Why don't you assugn a shortcut directly "on" a paragraph style ?
Yes, I know, it's only available in the "numeric" keyboard, but it's better than nothing, it isn't ???

Oli.

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

Yes, I know, it's only available in the "numeric" keyboard,




The OP wanted to assign a shortcut that can be applied with the left hand only.
This is much easier using qwerasdfyxcv instead of the numeric pad.

[Olivier_Berquin@adobeforums.com]

Ha... Sorry.
But, if your (left) hand is big enough, you can use it ;-)

Seriously, I asked for a long time to have styles in the contextual menu... all styles or some of them (an option in the style palette).

Oli.

[DavidT]

To move between tools, in Q4 and before, it was command-tab for down and command-shift-tab for up.

At one time, I prided myself upon knowing every keyboard shortcut in Q. That's because there weren't that many.

I'm finding keyboard shortcuts all the time in ID and making up new ones regularly.

Yoli, you're right, though about the spell check dialogue box in ID being a pain. Hopefully, that will improve if enough people let Adobe know.

Apart from that peculiar instance, if you find yourself reaching for the mouse, Yoli, I can almost guarantee that there's a shortcut lurking somewhere or you can make up your own.

[M_Blackburn@adobeforums.com]

In ID, you have to take your hand off the mouse every time you need to
fire a style shortcut.




That's been been oft criticized in these forums. It's one of the advantages of being left-handed that I'm not too affected by it. On the other hand, I can see why they did it. Many of the regular keys are already in use, and since users like me also make major customizations to the keyboard, if there wasn't that limitation we'd be tripping over our shortcuts all the time.

Other than include the F-keys, I don't know what to suggest. Maybe everybody convert to southpaw? <vbg>

[Richard_Sohanchyk@adobeforums.com]

convert to southpaw




Hell, if I could switch to lefty, I'd try out for ML baseball. Always a shortage of lefties. ;-)