Changes in the Undo string
One of the more controversial changes in ID CS3 has to do with how the Undo commands are recorded.
In previous versions of InDesign a change in the Preview mode or Show/Hide Guides was not added to the Undo string.
In CS3 that behavior is changed.
If you switch from Normal to Preview mode, that step is added to the list of Undo commands.
I’ve been teaching at the ADIM X event in San Jose this week, and the change did not make the crowd happy.
Similarly, there’s been a thread of the User to User forum where people have expressed their frustration.
I’m not happy with the change. For instance, there are many times I toggle back and forth between the Up and Rollover states for buttons. The idea of having to waddle through all those toggles just to get back to a previous action, is not fun.
I think Adobe needs to change the feature to make it a preference. But even with that preference turned on, I would also like to see a History panel to make it easier to jump backwards in time.
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The disappearance of the Transform Content in the flyout menu of the Transformation/Control palette is another incredible setback in IDCS3. Consequence ?
When you change the W and/or H values of a picture frame using values typed in these fields, and if you want that the picture within the frame is scaled too, well, you have to type the new value, for instance “15mm” (with the measurement unit !) in the Scale field, instead of 100% !
Now try to explain this to beginners or CS2 users… ;-)
Sandee, this is funny because I thought it was just me! I figured oh, it must have always worked that way and I just never noticed. Your’e right: It’s terrible! Oh well, two steps forward and a small step backward. Dang.
Yach!!!, I used to hate when this used to happen in flash (it records every selection and deselection of the objects), and now Indesign has this disease, I really wish that adobe will release a patch to solve this.
There are a number of other little annoyances in IDcs3… for example, Cmd-Shift-Tab now opens the Tabs panel, but won’t close it, as it used to. Grrr. You can press Esc to close the Find/Change panel, which is a lovely step forward, but it only works in the Text and GREP panes, not Object or Glyph. Sigh.
I think Branislav’s news is even more disturbing! What WAS Adobe thinking???????
Gerd
They ate cmd-shift-Tab?!? They do realize that this means “Previous App” in the default OS shortcuts, yes?
(Actually, I think that cmd-shift-Tab is previous app in BOTH OSen, not just OS X…)
This is the kind of weird judgement call that really makes me wish Adobe had let us have a Public Beta of IDCS3 as well as PSCS3!
I agree with vectorbabe, this should most defintely be an option that the user can toggle. What’s next, including the usage of the Hand tool in the Undo list?
These backsteps sound ridiculous; I’m wary of upgrading. Adobe, are you reading this?
Aaron, these are annoyances, but I think they’re hardly reasons not to upgrade. That said, I have heard that these issues are on Adobe’s radar and they’re looking into what they can do to change it.
My sources tell me that the reason this change happened was that they made the Undo feature more robust and increased performance significantly. So there are always tradeoffs: The software got better in many ways, and worse in a couple.
I’ll second what David says. This is one very worthy upgrade. There seems to be improvements in just about every facet of program.
Even if you don’t go for it right away, keep an eye out for the demo and give it a try when it’s available.
I think this change is a bit funky but I really don’t see it as any kind of dealbreaker.
I think David has mistyped. It is Command-Shift-T that opens and closes the tab ruler in CS2. But he’s right that in CS3 it only opens the ruler. I’d never noticed because I never use the shortcut to close the ruler.
For thoses tired on having to do many undo… 65bit Software has released their Free Multido CS3 plugin. It add a menu with the last 100 step forward and backward.
https://www.65bit.com/products/multido/multido.shtm
I really do hope Adobe sort out this issue. It is sooo annoying. Thanks for the above link, for the amount I use normal to preview mode I’m dead in the water………… Help Adobe…….
Wow, David, they made Undo more robust? I must say I’ve never noticed Undo being either fragile or slow. At least, it’s never crashed on me, and I don’t recall ever noticing a delay. But adding preview toggle to the undo queue is out of character for Adobe. They’ve spent s-o-o-o much time and energy speeding up the workflow. I think it must have been an oversight, and now someone in engineering is saying “Oops…”.