*** From the Archives ***
This article is from November 25, 2008, and is no longer current.
Move Everything From One Layer to Another
[Ed. Note: This post is now officially called Why David Shouldn’t Write a Post on Too Little Sleep. See comments.]
Why is there no way to move everything from one layer to another, throughout a document? Is there, and I just don’t see it? Someone sent me a file with a layer structure like this:
The fact that there are two different Annotation layers is obviously a mistake; perhaps someone copied an object from some other document while Paste Remembers Layers was enabled, and that other file’s layer name came over? Well, now it’s a mess and I want to move everything from the Green Annotations layer to the Yellow Annotation layer.
I bet if I searched long enough I could find a script to do it. Or perhaps even tweak the IDML or INX file format or something crazy like that. But this is just an 80-page document, so it’s just faster to do the manual, brute-strength method:
- Command/Ctrl-A to select everything on the spread.
- If I see a little green square show up next to the Annotations layer, then I Option/Alt-click on the layer name to select all the objects on that layer. If I don’t see a green box, then skip to step 4.
- Drag the little green box to the Yellow Annotation layer.
- Jump to next spread by pressing Option/Alt-Page Down.
Some of you may wonder why I took the step of Command/Ctrl-A; why not just Option/Alt-click on the layer and see if anything shows up. It’s only because I know there are only annotation objects on about a third of the pages throughout the document, and it’s much faster for me to Select All to see if this is one of those spreads.
Others might wonder why I don’t just delete the layer entirely. That would be logical, but unfortunately that actually deletes all those objects, too! I wish that InDesign would ask me if I want to delete the objects or move them to another layer. (Perhaps CS5?)
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What about Merge Layers?
Just select both layers, then choose Merge Layers.
I’m sure it’s just another way :)
(I’m sure there’s a reason this method wasn’t used?)
While I could sputter a lame excuse about how I knew that and I was just trying to show another technique…
Instead, I have added a new first paragraph to the post, pointing out that my brain completely failed to remember the Merge Layers feature. In fact, I looked four times at the Layers panel menu, feeling sure that there was such a a feature there. I mean, hey, I wrote a book about this. Jeez.
This proves that:
1. Something plainly visible can be invisible (the art of the ninja)
2. Everyone forgets.
3. Making features disabled (“grayed out”) can severely limit someone discovering them. (I just hadn’t bothered to select both layers, to make that feature active.)
4. There is always more than one way to do the same thing.
But yes! Merge Layers is a much better method, which would have saved me 6 minutes of mind-numbing repetitive keyboard shortcutting and clicking. Grr.
Oops, well, I thought there was a logical explanation.
As my last comment came out wrong (I’m no good at wording things) I wanted to change it.
But hey, it’s all good.
You know I was showing this to my junior designer because we were talking about how there’s always more than one way to do something in ID. But he didn’t realize you could option-click the layer to select all objects on that layer! So this post was helpful in, much like ID, more than one way! (:
Hey, i just want to thanks for this post. Now i see how stupid am i.
Things jumps to us and we don’t see them. And they seems to be so elementary.
Have a nice day, you all.
Remeber that, wehn you merge layers, simply the first layer that you select (not the first in the order in the layerswindow!) will be the ‘target’ layer.
So if you have, say layer 1, layer 2, layer 3, layer 4, and you select FIRST layer 2, then (with the Control key on PC/Command on Mac) layer 1, layer 3 and layer 4, layer 2 (the one you selected first) will be the target-layer for the merge!
Exellent comments! Very helpful.
That works. Thanks a lot!
Well, your question helped many others! I didn’t know you could select items and drag them to a new layer using that little square button in the layers panel to move them. I’ve always cut/pasted them into the correct layer. MAJOR timesaver right there! I’ve already used it. :) So, thanks for that. I’ve used InDesign for many years (started when it was PageMaker) and taken more courses than I can count. I’m sure I’ve learned that trick somewhere along the line, but it never *stuck* until just now. So, thanks again!
More helpful memory lapses please! ^_^ (And they happen to the best of us!)