Less is more for the Control panel
I learned something yesterday.
There is a Control panel menu widget that opens the Control panel menu. (No, that’s not what I learned. But it’s on the way to what I learned.)
If you press that widget you open the Control panel menu, you will see the word Customize at the bottom.
Choose that and you get the options for what things you want to see on the Control panel. Do you want to see the measurements and controls for Object? The Character settings? Paragraph controls? Tables? Or Quick Apply and/or Bridge?
You can turn on or off all these categories, or just one or two.
You can also turn off specific items within the categories. So, if you are offended by looking at the Align options for objects, turn it off.
Hate the idea of being able to control the stroke on a table cell? Banish it!
Now, when I was told yesterday about this customizing feature I was asked if I ever used it? Ever USED it? I didn’t even know it was there? And I think if I read or were told it was there, I immediately erased that thought from the hard disk in my brain.
Why would I ever want to eliminate elements from the Control panel? I can’t figure out any reason.
So I ask the loyal readers of InDesign Secrets? Have you ever taken things OFF the Control panel? If so, why?
I think I turned something off quite some time ago beacause there were some controls that were more important for my work but were not visible on my 1024×768 screen. Turning off some options I rarely ever used from the control panel brought those back.
No, I would never turn OFF Control panel items.
But I would also not use InDesign CS3’s new feature to turn OFF menu items either (Edit > Menus).
At least with InDesign, it’s asking you whether you want to turn the items off. At least one of the Microsoft Word versions would drop menu items off the menu IF YOU DIDN’T USE THEM. Now that would make me really crazy!
Peter,
Yes, I forgot about different screen resolutions.
The customize option would allow me to add a special item that might ordinarily be left off by a low resolution monitor or projector.
I would love to have more customization. We should be able to add items to the control bar. For example, text wrap options. Yes, it is great that I can now click to turn it on, but if I want to set an amount of wrap I need to use the panel. I would like to be able to set that from the menu.
This is one of the best new features in InDesign CS3!!!
I turned off character features: Character attributes, character kerning and character scaling.
I turned off paragraph features: Paragraph indents, bullets and numbering, baseline grid, and cursor position.
Now here’s the catch. I never have to press Ctrl+Alt+7 to switch from character to paragraph formatting in the control panel because everything is together on one panel!
I couldn’t stand bringing my mouse to the control panel only to find out it was on character formatiing and I wanted to change the space before the paragraph or some other paragraph formatting. This is one my favorite feature, if not my most favorite feature, of CS3.
I’ve only got a 19in 1280×1024 monitor, so maybe others find it unnecessary, but this was big for me.
BTW, Steve, in Word it is and always was a preference. The fault may be that it is default.
But it’s amazing to me how many people knock Word because of this and that when it’s almost always a preference that can be customized, whereas if someone comes to the ID forum and says they don’t like the default they blow away being told that it’s a preference just turn it off!
Maybe it’s because Adobe’s apps are geared towards professionals and they’re expected to know every preference and every feature.
I wouldn’t take things off the control panel! It may take a moment to spot an infrequently used option, but at least I know where to look.
Fred, I think part of the problem with that “feature” in Word is not just that it’s turned on by default, but that it always seems to take forever to find it again when you have to reinstall (or work on a new machine). That’s always one of the first things I turn off in MS Office apps (it’s not just Word, it’s all of them) and it seems like I always struggle to find that check box again. So if you don’t know you *can* change it, I can’t imagine how long it might take to stumble onto the check box to turn it off.
BTW, has anyone ever met anyone who *likes* that feature in MS Office apps? It seems to be one of a long line of “features” that MS adds to their programs that just make your life more difficult. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to turn that off.
Note that the Control Panel customization is remembered in your current Workspace, so you can create different workspaces with different control panel setups.
Wow, this is cool. I could definitely see turning off a few things I never use, like, select next object, previous object, fit content to frame, to name a few. I have barely had a chance to identify some of them what with deadlines and all. I, too, wish I could have a drop down for text wrap amounts and also paragraph rules, which I will have to remember the keyshortcut for, now that I’ve ditched the paragraph panel.
Greg, surprisingly, yes. I know quite a few people that like it. Personally, I hate it but one nice thing is that the prefs in one Office app carry through to all the rest.
I do a lot of InDesign work on my travelling Mac laptop with a 15″ screen. Its res is 1440 x 900, so it can’t fit all the Character and Paragraph short cuts in one panel. For example when it’s in Character mode, there’s room for Paragraph Alignment icons but not for the Paragraph Styles dropdown menu, which I use much more often. (You can see what I’m talking about in this screen shot which will open in a new window.)
So with some careful pruning of the shortcuts I seldom use (e.g., character scaling) and the ones I normally apply from the keyboard (paragraph alignment), I was able to fit all the Character and Paragraph formatting shortcuts I wanted into a single panel (see example in new window). Now, switching between Paragraph and Character mode in the Control panel just swaps the order of what the panel displays, so I don’t bother doing that. I just keep it in Character formatting mode.
Jane, the Control panel menu in CS3 lists all the Paragraph and Character formatting commands in one (example here) so there’s no need to memorize the keyboard shortcut for Paragraph Rules.
Sandee, great post!
Anne-Marie, so when you turn off features, does the pull down move closer to the left in your laptop window? Even with all features turned on on my super huge monitor, I find the pull-down too far away. I wish it was closer and there wasnt so much wasted space. Right (control) clicking does not give you all the choices as the pull-down. I wish it did.
Diane,
The pull-down is fixed at the very right of the Control panel.
But if you undock the Control panel, by pulling the little gray bar on the left down.
Once the Control panel is undocked, you can then resize the whole panel so that it is shorter.
I suppose, with a combination of customization settings, you could make a very short panel with just what you want.
Thanks Sandee. One tip is, move your toolbox down out of the way if you undock your control panel. Otherwise, the CP will cover your tools.