Drag and Drop text in layout view

Anne-Marie Concepcion

Some people hate drag and drop text, some love it; I’m in the love camp. I love that I can select some text in a frame, then drag it elsewhere in the same frame or a different one (even in a different InDesign doc) and see exactly where it’s going to “drop” (paste). I suppose I could do the same with cutting/pasting but it’s just not as much fun.

By default, the drag and drop text feature only works in the Story Editor (Edit > Edit in Story Editor). To enable it in Layout as well, go to Preferences > Type > Drag and Drop Text Editing and turn on Enable in Layout View.

You’ll know it’s working when your Type tool cursor changes to an arrow and a tiny “T” icon whenever you hover over a text selection. Start dragging when you see that cursor. As you drag, you’ll see a tall insertion bar follow the tip of the arrow. The insertion bar tells you where the type will be dropped when you release the mouse button. It’s a smart drag/drop, too (InDesign takes care of leading/trailing spaces), just like regular cutting and pasting is in CS2.

To drag/drop a *copy* of a text selection (instead of the cutting the original), hold down the Option/Alt key after you start dragging.