InDesign Secrets Video: How to Hide the Content Grabber
I was tempted title this post “How to Hide the !@#$ Donut” since that’s the phrase that would pop into most folks’ minds when they wanted to search for an answer to this problem. But I’m not sure Google understands grawlix.
Anyway, you know what I mean. Every single InDesign user on the planet has at least once dragged a placed image out of position by accidentally dragging the Content Grabber. Indeed, the Content Grabber is the Jar Jar Binks of InDesign; it means well, but most folks wish it would just go away.
Fortunately, making the Content Grabber go away is easy and it’s the subject of David Blatner’s latest InDesignSecrets video at lynda.com.
So check out the video, spare yourself some aggravation, and save the donuts for Homer Simpson.
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Any chance Lynda will offer a single-app membership for say $5 a month? They may have thousands of excellent courses on a host of topics, but I’ve only enough time to watch those about InDesign. I can’t make myself pay for those I know I won’t use.
One other idea they might consider—offering discounted memberships to high school and college students though their school, either as part of a group subscription or as per-student fees.
you save my life :D thank you sooo much!
While I think it’s great that you can turn this off, for working with DPS and in some cases FXL EPUB where your content is buried deep in nested frames and MSOs, the content grabber is incredibly helpful.
To say it’s annoying is shear ignorance.
It’s truly saving the designer multiple clicks every single day.
Turning it off sets you back to the double click days.
With the content grabber on – you SAVE a click every single time you want to select either content or frame.
Want to select the container not the content?
Click anywhere else than the doughnut.
Easy as that.
Save the annoying double click and do not listen to tips that will propel you back to Medieval times ;-)
Benny, when you work fast i have no time to look where is the donout where is not :@ its a piece of sh*t this function, i always grabbed the donout never the content, one time i fix the content i never play again with it just with the “container”. I hate it sooo much that ****t… :@
Well, double clicking is like driving a dirt road.
Single clicking is like driving the highway.
BTW: never go for the middle to select a container in a hurry. That the longest travel distance. Go for the fat edges.
Travel less, save a click, more time to lift the coffee cup ;-)
HA! Very funny.
There is no doubt that it IS a powerful feature and can be great to use. But there is also no doubt that it is one of the most hated features in InDesign.
Another feature that many InDesign users hate (and others love!) is this highlighting feature: https://creativepro.com/turning-off-the-frame-edge-highlights-in-cs5.php
The good news is that InDesign gives us a choice.
I think you could make the argument that it is a good idea poorly implemented. The size an position of the grabber make it too easy a target to hit accidentally, which is why so many people dislike it. Maybe it would be fine if it were smaller and in one of the frame corners instead of the middle, so you had to make more of a conscious effort to use it.
Because the option to hide the content grabber exists in the view menu, it can be added to the keyboard shortcuts, meaning it can be toggled on/off without going through the menus… or if you’ve forgotten the shortcut, use the quick apply (command+return) and type “grab” and either “hide content grabber” or “show content grabber” will appear.
If only “hover scrolling” could be turned off this easily…
That’s brilliant, Colin. I thought I couldn’t love Quick Apply any more, but now I do. And just playing around, I noticed you can type “bb” to select the menu command. Coolness.