Ludicrously basic question whose answer, nonetheless, has eluded me

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

Hi,

I'm using InDesign CS. Is there a keyboard shortcut to exit text-edit mode, or must you mouse over to the toolbox each 'n' every time to click one of the other tools? (I'm one of those DOS-generation people who are loathe to stop everything and grope for mice unless it's absolutely necessary.)

Thanks, Andy

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

Ctrl-Shift-A to deselect then the shortcut for the tool you need.

Dave

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

An alternative is to create a second keyboard shortcut for the Selection tool (or any other tool) which you can invoke within text. Choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. In Product Area, choose Tools, and pick the Selection tool. Give it a second keyboard shortcut like Ctrl + V (that is, using the Ctrl key, not the Command key) and select context to be Text. You can have more than one shortcut for a tool or command.

[Bob_Levine]

And the inverse of that is that you can use the same shorcut for more
than one command.

I get a lot of text from one client in all upper case. I set the
sentence case command to ctrl+s. As long as the text is selected it
changes the text to sentence case. With any other tool selected it saves
the file.

A bit of a tangent from the original question, but I thought it was
worth mentioning.

Bob

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

Thanks very much!

R. Levine> I get a lot of text from one client in all upper case...

Isn't that annoying? I always tell them that THERE IS NO NEED TO SHOUT. (I imagine many of them aren't confident in their capitalization skills. Or perhaps they have so much to do, they don't feel they can take the time to press Shift now and then.)

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

Hmm, that's odd. This topic says "4 messages". Yet all I now see are my posts and Robert's reply, not the intervening replies with the solution to the problem. Forum bug?

[Bob_Levine]

Show all messages.

Bob

[Michael_Griswold@adobeforums.com]

Bob,

If you use 'Cntrl-s' to change to sentence case, what do you use to save the document?

Just wondering,

Michael

[B_Roach@adobeforums.com]

I use Ctrl-Enter in the 'Text mode' to engage the Selection tool. This pops me out of the text edit, although it does keep the text frame selected (wish it didn't).

I chose this also because Ctrl-Enter is the way to get out of a text layer edit when you're in Photoshop. Only there, you're still in the text edit tool so you have to hit another key to change tools.

I just want to add that your question is anything but ludicrous. It is the refinement of the most basic -- and thus most frequent -- interactions with an interface that often makes the difference between good software and great software. (IMHO)

-BR

[Bob_Levine]

Ctrl+s only changes text when the text is highlighted. At all other
times it saves the document.

Bob

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

B. Roach > I use Ctrl-Enter in the 'Text mode' to engage the Selection
tool. This pops me out of the text edit, although it does keep the text
frame selected (wish it didn't).




That'd be nice, but it doesn't work here. Nothing happens. (Are you using Windows XP? It sometimes does subtle things like this.) Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[Stu_Bloom@adobeforums.com]

You can hold down Ctrl and click anywhere on the pasteboard that is not on an object. You still have to use the mouse, but at least you don't have to move to the toolbox.

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, Stu---that's quite practical.

I posed my question in a dumb way. After you exit Text mode, you must use the mouse to use the next tool. So it's not really a mouse-avoidance issue.

I meant that I'd rather not have to zero in on the Tool palette after each text edit. At my resolution, its buttons are about 1/8" wide---and of course you must keep it way over to the side or it inevitably covers part of the document. (I would've made a terrible Mac user.)

Explainingly, A.