January 22 2008 • 10:54 PM
By:
David Blatner
The Grabber Hand Key
John wrote:
I use a mighty mouse for zipping up and around a page, but I miss greatly the ability to hold down a key to get the hand feature, like in QuarkXPress.
I just searched up and down, left and right, throughout this site and I can’t find any post that describes the keyboard shortcut for getting the Grabber Hand tool. Well, it’s time to right that wrong. Many InDesign users are already familiar with this, but clearly many people don’t know the rules:
- When you’re editing text, you can hold down the Option/Alt key to get the grabber hand.
- When you’re not editing text, you can hold down the Spacebar to get the grabber hand.
- You can always get the grabber hand by pressing Option/Alt AND the spacebar at the same time.
I tend to use Option/Alt-spacebar all the time, because it’s too hard to think, “do I use Option/Alt or the spacebar?” and I don’t want to accidentally type a space at the wrong time (with the spacebar) or duplicate some object on my page (by Option/Alt-dragging something I shouldn’t).
Of course, this shortcut (and many others), is listed on our Keyboard Shortcuts chart.
I do the same thing (press both at once), it leaves an extra slot in my brain to memorize a diff. keyboard shortcut.
Can I add one tweak to your excellent post though … if you want to go the two-keys route, press the Option/Alt key before you press the Spacebar … just a millisecond before is fine … otherwise the Option/Alt press is ignored and you end up with a space or more in the text anyway (when you use it with the Type tool active).
Interestingly, after you press both, you can release either one and the Grabber hand will remain active (as long as you still have one of the two pressed).
It’s funny how each one has their own way of working. I for instance, don’t like the ALT+Spacebar approach, although it works in any situation, I always reach for the ALT key only. Usually when I need the hand grabber, I am looking at the screen, if the hand cursor doesn’t appear, then I go to the spacebar, instinctively, without much thinking. But hey! Thats me.
Could you set your own keyboard shortcut for this?
Unfortunately, no, this is one of the few “shortcuts” that you cannot edit.
you can change the shortcuts with “keyboard shortcuts” plugin from dtp-tools. Especially alt+space is a problem for me, cause launchy uses the same shortcut.
adf: You can? I don’t see where to set this shortcut. (I helped write the plug-in, but that doesn’t mean I know everything about it. Perhaps I’m missing someting.)
I think it was David whom I first learned about pressing the Option key first when editing text. This can be taken all the way to the Zoom in / out tool by pressing the Command key as well. (You actually release the Option key after pressing Command+ Spacebar).
At first it’s a little hard, but it’s become second nature to me now. Great way to zoom in and out while editing text.
This may have been the most useful piece of information I’ve found here in a long time (not that all the other stuff isn’t useful, just that this is the one that has been a constant frustration for me in the three years I’ve been using ID). I knew about the spacebar, but not the Alt version when in text.
I too found this very useful! I’m always switching back and forth between the option key and the spacebar, depending on if I’m in the text tool or not. This is very cool! Thanks!
I couldn’t take it any longer and finally emailed this question. I just noticed how time I’m spending selecting the arrow tool all day long, and missed my Quark method. Two keys is taking some getting used to, but I used it all day today and it’s cool for sure.
I must admit I find the 2 different keys for the grabber hand very frustrating – I don’t like using the ‘double’ keys as I don’t think its very easy to do without looking at where your fingers are, and I think the grabber hand needs to be invoked without even thinking, let alone looking. I think the option key should be the permanent grabber key, but I think Adobe will take a lot of flack before they even consider it. So I think it needs a plug to change it. If Adobe did change it (or offer it as a preference option), I think they would get a lot more Quark converts, as I think that one thing is the biggest obstacle to many people using ID.
Yes, but what keyboard shortcut can you use to switch from the text tool to, say, the select tool?
GM, in CS3, the Esc key will do that. In CS2 you can add that as a custom keyboard shortcut.
Esc seems so radical! Glad to know it, thanks.
David,
The keyboard shortcut for the hand is found under “Tools” option.
Thank you!
I have a question for you guys… Since we are talking about using the hand tool when in the text mode, can you invoke other commands while in this mode? For example many times when I am in text mode and I highlight text I want to go to the eyedropper tool. Is there a way to invoke the keyboard command instead of selecting the eye dropper tool from the panel?
I have wondered about this for a long time.
Thanks,
Matt, you can get the Eyedropper if you have a free plug-in. See this post and the subsequent comments for more information.
Thanks David. I see the cs3 one costs money. Will the cs2 one work in cs3? I’m guessing no but didn’t know if anyone tried it out.
Thanks,
Anne-Marie… I have been trying to figure out how to switch from text to direct select literally for YEARS. I am so happy right now I want to buy you a present.
This is truly the greatest, and simplest keystroke ever. Unbelievable.
It is a productivity killer this thing… Having two keys for a task so frequently used. Pagemaker had it right… Is there a logic in the Indesign aproach? Anybody knows if ID CS4 comes with a change in this matter? (Of course, I don’t expect it from Adobe, but I give it 5% chance of happening…)