Datasheet

Panels

The second option, whether to display the Tools panel in single-column, double-column, or

single-row mode, is set in the Interface pane of InDesign’s Preferences (InDesign  Preferences on

the Mac and Edit  Preferences on Windows). Easier than going that route, however, is to click the

double arrows at the top of the Tools panel. When the Tools panel is ﬂoating, the double arrows

will cycle it through the three states. If docked, however, the double-arrow button will toggle only

between vertical single- and double-column modes. Although the single-column and single-row

modes have the advantage of consuming less screen real estate, they have a seeming drawback as

well: fewer options. The three apply buttons near the bottom don’t ﬁt in the slimmer modes, nor

does the Normal view button at the very bottom. Fortunately, Adobe made up for their absence

with keyboard shortcuts. If you opt to use one of the Tools panel’s slimmer arrangements (or just

like the efﬁciency of keyboard shortcuts), memorize the shortcuts in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2: Keyboard shortcuts for Tools panel features hidden by single-column and

single-row modes

Shortcut Function

, (comma) Apply solid color to ﬁll or stroke.

. (period) Apply gradient to ﬁll or stroke.

/ (slash) Remove color from ﬁll or stroke.

W Toggle between normal mode and the selected preview mode.

The Control Panel

The Control panel, a favorite among users since its introduction in InDesign CS (1) PageMaker

Edition, is context sensitive to the tool and task at hand, offering a compact quick access point

for the most common features and options. While you’re editing text, for instance, the Control

panel goes into Character or Paragraph mode, two transposable sets of ﬁelds and controls that

offer, among many other things, the ability to change the font family, style, and size as well

as paragraph alignments, spacing, and indents. When you’re working with tables, though, the

Control panel transforms to offer table-speciﬁc controls such as the number of rows and col-

umns, cell alignments, and insets. In all, there are four modes dependent upon what you’re

actually doing in the document—working with objects, characters, paragraphs, or tables.

Figure 1.7 shows all four modes.

Figure 1.7

The four

modes of the

Control panel:

(top to bot-

tom) Object,

Character,

Paragraph,

and Table

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