Why is [Some Feature] Grayed Out in InDesign?
Something that drives me crazy: I try a feature and it doesn’t work. I know it should work, but it’s not working! Sometimes the feature is even grayed out (disabled) in some menu or panel, even when I don’t think it should be. What is going on? Well, it’s usually because the feature is “linked with” or “dependent on” some other feature.
Separations panel
For example, you may see all your inks in the Separations Preview panel, but they may all be grayed out. Perhaps they were active a moment ago, but not now! What’s up? Well, this panel is linked to View > Overprint Preview. That is, if you turn off Overprint Preview, the panel disables, too.
Smart Guides
Here’s another one that got me recently: Smart Guides (one of my favorite features in CS4 and later) wasn’t working in a document. The guides just wouldn’t show up! When I looked at the View > Grids & Guides menu, it showed it as “on” but it was grayed out. What the heck? It took me a while of searching around until I realized that someone working on the document had enabled View > Grids & Guides > Snap to Document Grid (a feature I rarely think about, much less use). I turned that off and, wow!, smart guides became enabled again. I still don’t really understand that one.
Wrong Tool
One of the most common reasons for things being grayed out is having selected the “wrong” tool. For example, if you have the Type tool selected and a text cursor flashing in a text frame, the Object Style and Effects panels gray out.
Alternatively, if you select a text frame with the Selection tool, the Character and Paragraph panels gray out, even though InDesign does allow you to apply text formatting to all the text inside a frame when you select it (or more than one text frame) with the Selection tool. The trick is to select the frame(s) with the Selection tool, then press T to switch to the Type tool. That enables the text-based panels and activates the text formatting options in the Control panel.
Revert
One last one that drives me bonkers: I’ll open a document, start working on it, decide that I don’t like the changes I’ve made, and try to choose File > Revert — only to find it grayed out. What the heck?! The clue is in the document’s title bar, which in these situations will usually include the word “[Converted]“. That means that the file was from a previous “version” of InDesign and the program converted it when you opened it. But “versions” are a slippery concept in InDesign-land. Sometimes adding a new plug-in you downloaded will trigger a new version; or even just a small “free dot upgrade” from Adobe might suddenly cause that ol’ Revert to gray out.
Are there other instances of “disabled” features that bother you? What’s the solution? Share your stories below.
So explain “Object / Transform Again” for me! When does that really work?
So I know – Go read the previous article “60 Minutes”!
Doh!
When I try to open my old CS4 files from within InDesign CS5 (Mac), the file names are greyed out. From the finder I can open them in CS5 however, and they become “converted”. This last thing I can understand, but not that the CS5 File Open dialog differs from the Finder. Is this behaviour by design, or just annoying? Or there something with my system? BTW, the files are copied from my old computer, which has the Windows CS4 version.
Addition to my previous comment: the issue is not InDesign’s, but comes with OS X (Snow Leopard) and Synology. My files were copied from an Synology NAS, and got an extended attribute “com.apple.FinderIndo”. When this attribute us removed, the problem disappears. The terminal command for “myfile” is xattr -d -r com.apple.FinderIndo myfile; to do it recursively on all files in a directory (“mydirectory”) and below, use find mydirectory -print | xargs xattr -d -r com.apple.FinderInfo. There may of course be other ways to do the same.
Hi
Sometimes I find the little arrows (up and down), in the character panel, gray out; so I am not able to change the text size. This happens when I have the text frame selected, I have to select the text inside to be able to change something. any thoughts?
Thanks
I am currently having a problem with moving around in the document. The menu commands and shortcut keys for first page, last page, and next or previous page are not working and grayed out on the menu. Next and previous spread are working from the menu and or keyboard shortcuts.
I am working in WinXP SP3, InDesign 6.0.5, 3 Gb Physical Ram. I believe it has to do with IDCS4 rather than a document issue. If I export the document to .INX and open it in IDCS3, I can navigate around in the document using menu or shortcuts. If I open the .INX in IDCS4, it has the same behavior as the original document.
Has anyone experienced this problem and solved it?
In CS3 once I set the window size for my doc, it would reopen to that size. Every time I open a doc it full expands to the width of my 24″ screen and I have to resize it to where I typically use it, which is out of the way of my panel arrangement.
Let me clarify, every time I open a doc in CS5, it does not remember that I had it set to a certain size previously. It fully expands the width of my monitor.
@Neil: I don’t think InDesign can remember the size of the application frame. Or at least it forgets easily.
@David: Did that work for you in CS3? Was I just lucky?
We upgraded to Snow Leopard before CS5, so I was wondering if it was just SL. But I just opened a doc from a month ago in CS3, and it slapped the page layout window right where I left it.
With new docs it was always full width, but once I positioned it, and saved it, CS3 had my best interest at hand and always remembered my layout window size/position.
We skipped CS4, so I don’t know if it broke at 4 or 5.
Thank you for the smart guides tip. I’d inadvertently turned on snap to document grid just as you’d said. You just saved me from a massive headache.
Another THANK YOU from my blood pressure levels for that tip about document grid on preventing smart guides…
Thanks for the tip on re-enabling Smart Guide. Was working on some other designer’s doc, and cursing them that they turned one of my favorite features off. I’ve calmed down. Thx!
For some unknown reason, the option to change the stroke size of the brush has suddenly become greyed out and I can’t figure out how to fix it.
It’s really irritating the ever-lovin’ Hell out of me!
Anyone know of a solution?
Forgot to mention … it’s in Adobe Flash CS5 ….
Anyone know why this is happening?
HELP PLEASE! o.O … I’m going crazy here!
Dear Hate: Um…. I’m sorry that you’re having trouble with strokes in Flash, but this is a site about InDesign. Most things about Flash frustrate us; that’s why we use InDesign.
The issue brought up by Neil Isaacson is driving me nuts, as well. Saving window size and position is so essential to a productive workflow, it’s hard to imagine there is not some way to control this. I am Mac CS5 upgrading from CS2. Neil, if you’re still following this post I’ve love to know if you ever resolved this little bugger!
Thanks so much! Couldn’t figure out why the smart guides weren’t working. Sure enough, the snap to doc grid was selected. Whew! So glad to get those smart guides back!
Recently in InDesign CS5 I have lost my links panel. The panel itself is there physically, but no link information shows up, the entire panel is just greyed out. Any help on this? I am using mac osx 10.5.8
Thanks so much for the info about Smart Guides disappearing.
@Jesse: Check out this post: http://indesignsecrets.com/help-my-indesign-palette-is-empty.php
@David: EXCELLENT! Thank you so much
You just saved my life … thanks.
Why is the story editor greyed out in the ‘view’ panel?
Thanks a bunch – the thing about smart guides really helped!
Ditto with kendra on the smart guides. I pulled a few hairs out on that one!
I HAD A PROBLEM ABOUT THE SAME ,I HAVE MANAGED TO SOLVE IT ,SO YOU CAN GET THE SMART GUIDE BACK ON TRACK,ONE OF THE MAIN PROBLEM,IS YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE THE SNAP TO DOCUMENT GRID IS UNCHECKED ,WHILE YOU DOING THAT THE GRAYED SMART GUIDE NOW IS ACCESSIBLE.
Latif, in addition to this it seems your caps lock got stuck.
pARDON? wHAT IS CAPSLOCK?
It’s that thing that makes you type in annoying All-Caps.
In forums such as this, typing in all-caps is considered “shouting”, probably because it’s very annoying to unsuspecting by-standers.
Re: Smart Guides – nice one.
That had me stumped for a little while. A bug that needs fixing for sure.
Cheers
Thank you so much for the post! Very helpful… saved me from hours of frustration
o
I bet there might be a way to write an Indesign script that says:
Change window to X position, Y position, Width and Height upon opening. maybe then assign the script a hot key.
Ron Arnone wrote:
November 15th, 2010 • 1:35 pm • Link
The issue brought up by Neil Isaacson is driving me nuts, as well. Saving window size and position is so essential to a productive workflow, it’s hard to imagine there is not some way to control this….
I found a Java script that might work, but I don’t write Java – just Applescript. I can probably trudge through the code and use it as a guide to build a new script. If anyone wants to take a look at it: http://forums.adobe.com/message/1888557#1888557