*** From the Archives ***
This article is from May 19, 2008, and is no longer current.
Just One Wish: A Bridge Panel
Hi. I’m Ted LoCascio and I’m the newest contributor here on the InDesignSecrets team. Before I get started with my first rant, I’d just like to say thanks to David and Ann-Marie for allowing me to be apart of this excellent online resource.
Recently, the other newest member of the IDS team, Bob Levine, posted an excellent tip showing you how to use Bridge with multiple windows in compact Mode. Many of you (myself included) found this to be very useful, especially since you can force Bridge to stay positioned above all other windows. What a great way to drag and drop images into your InDesign layouts!
Essentially, what this technique has allowed us to do is to create our own pseudo-Bridge panels, where we can easily access our layout assets. For a while now, I’ve been praying for Adobe to create this type of panel and place it in all of the Creative Suite apps. I think we should be able to access Bridge via an assets panel that is actually part of the interface, rather than manipulating Bridge (a separate application) to behave this way. Something similar to the Assets panel in Dreamweaver is what I’m envisioning here.
So I pose this question to my fellow IDS contributors and all of our online readers, am I the only one in our community that has this dream?
In the meantime, until I get my wish, let me add to Bob’s tip by suggesting that you try minimizing the Bridge windows to Ultra-Compact Mode. Now try placing them at the bottom of your screen, above the Dock in OS X or the Taskbar in Windows XP or Vista. By doing so, you can hide the windows as you work on your InDesign layouts.
When you’re ready to drag in some graphic or photo assets, click the Switch to Compact Mode button located in the upper right of either window. When you do, the windows will expand vertically to reveal your assets. When you’re through dragging in assets, click the Switch to Ultra-Compact Mode button in order to hide the windows again. For an even cleaner interface, try hiding the Dock or Taskbar as you work this way. The great thing about using Bridge this way is that you can do so with any of the Creative Suite apps, and not just InDesign.
 |
“Just one wish”, Ted? I find that hard to believe. :-)
InDesign is missing a lot things, and this is certainly one of them.
How many panels can we come up with?
How many versions of InDesign will there be before we get ALL the things we want in it?
InDesign does a heck of a lot at the moment, and when they put the Bridge Panel in and introduce spanning footnotes across columns, and an improved colour panel, then we’ll use it and say “Hurrah” then 6, 12, 18 months down the road we’ll be saying, “InDesign should do this” or “there’s a better way to do this panel”, “why can’t InDesign do more photoshop stuff?”
I’m not saying anything bad about wanting more from InDesign, or wanting extra things, like a Bridge Panel, I don’t think it’s a bad idea, in fact I agree with it and many other “wishes” for InDesign.
I just don’t think we’re ever going to be totally content with InDesign and the things it allows us to do. It’s just human nature, we’ll always want better, faster and nicer.
And that’s why I love this post. And long may they contain to come, because as important as it is to point out all the great Secrets of InDesign, it’s also equally important to highlight all the things we want InDesign to do!
Great post, and keep the wishes coming!
I think a Bridge panel in InDesign would be a terrible idea! No, actually, I’m just kidding. I think it’s a great idea, but jeez, we need some controversy around here sometimes, don’t you think?
In my mind, many of the features in Illustrator, Photoshop, and Bridge should be available while I’m within InDesign. I’m not saying make it one big program; I’m saying, use those other programs as “headless engines” that do cool stuff for me behind the scenes.
We already see that in action with the new transparency effects (such as bevel and emboss) which are basically running on a small chunk of the Photoshop engine running as part of “core technology” (as far as I know). Using some of Bridge as core tech inside InDesign would be great.
That said, I agree with Eugene: We all have lots and lots of things we want to see in CS4 and 5 and…
Well yes, having chunks of technology available would be nice. I think it was Anne-Marie that pointed out a while ago it would be nice to be able to double click a picture and it would make “whooosh” and open up a mini-photoshop panel to edit photos, or something along those lines.
And David, yes we do need controversy on here, I’m sure there’s someone out there that doesn’t agree with having a Bridge Panel in InDesign. I’m sure there are pro’s and con’s for the idea.
Leave it to me to stir up trouble with my first post! Doh!
I guess you’re right…I do have more than one wish when it comes to adding potential new features; however, this one is at the top. InDesign is an awesome application, and it always has been. But Bridge is still somewhat new and I think could be incorporated into the suite a lot better. I am always amazed out the number of designers that I encounter on a regular basis who simply do not use Bridge at all. I think if we could access the application from within the suite apps rather than launching a whole separate app, Bridge might catch on with designers.
That said, it’s hard to believe that Bridge is only on version 2.0 with CS3. I am sure there will be improvements made in the versions to come that will benefit all users of the suite.
Okay, 40 lashes with a wet noodle, then hang me by my thumbs…I find bridge somewhat cumbersome. I am the only one on my mac and so I find navigating to my odd and assorted files pretty darned easy. Of course, I don’t use file names like XYZ42qA5 either. I make them as descriptive as I possibly can and store them where they make sense. That old lesson about the computer being a huge file cabinet still holds true.
I think Bridge is probably really cool, I just haven’t found a major advantage to using it yet. I’m still trying though!
Currently, Bridge is not only cumbersome for some users, but also very slow. When you compare it side-by-side with other Adobe photo asset management apps such as Lightroom or even the Photoshop Elements Organizer in Windows, it becomes obvious that it has some serious catching up to do.
That said, I still love the concept of Bridge being “the gateway between apps” in the suite, and I encourage designers to try implementing it into their workflow. The drag and drop functionality alone, as well as the suite color management sync option make Bridge worthwhile to designers.
I think a Bridge panel is a great idea, whenever that happens. But for now, I’m comfortable with using it in compact mode.
Welcome to the party Ted. Maybe we should start a bridgesecrets.com.
The really neat thing about switching modes in Bridge is that it remembers where it was on your desktop. So even if you go from full screen to compact and move the window, when you return to full screen it moves right back to where it was.
A Bridge panel in InDesign would be great, but I’d want that panel in Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc. What I don’t want is the duplication of code and the RAM it would consume for it to be in all of those programs. In other words, if I have multiple Adobe apps open, I don’t want multiple Bridges open.
What I’d really like is for the Bridge panel launch Bridge in the background and be able to use this one application within all of the Adobe applications.
it’s a shame that when you drag and drop text document(s) from bridge into indesign, it doesn’t allow you to choose “show import options”… nor does it alert you to missing fonts. It’s great for what it is but there’s definitely room for improvement if they want us integrate it into our workflow.
Trish, using Bridge, if you want to place a Word document into InDesign and get the import options for the RTF or DOC file then use
File>Place in InDesign and hold down the SHIFT key and it will place it into indesing showing the import options.
This works for any file type that you use File>Place in InDesign using Bridge.
Gary said: “What I don?t want is the duplication of code and the RAM it would consume for it to be in all of those programs.”
The coding heads at Adobe are pretty smart, among other things, memory and I don’t think we outsiders should take it for granted that *apparent* multiple instances of Bridge in the various CS apps would *necessarily* entail any big resource drain. As my quick tests showed, multiple instances of mini-Bridges entailed no worrisome memory drain.
But I agree with Ted that the current version of Bridge is often way too slow. And I take it for granted that there are dozens of engineers and managers at Adobe who agrees with this, too, and that they’re working on it. CS4 might contain many pleasant surprises yet . . .
Setting aside Bridge. What would be cool is to have Ignore Text Wrap on the Text Wrap Panel. Anyone else find it cumbersome to have to open a dialog box to make this happen? Plus I get a lot of queries on how to do this and a lot of people say they were looking for it in the Text Wrap Panel.
It would be nice to be able to switch that in the Control Panel or the Text Wrap Panel.
Keep in mind that the text wrap and the ignore text wrap settings are applied to two different objects so there could be some conflicts if you weren’t careful.
Why not just set up an object style for ignore text wrap? Assign a keyboard shortcut to it and you’ve got a one click solution.
That is very true Bob. I could do that. But as I said, I hear a lot of people look for the solution in the Text Wrap Panel, given this it shows they are newish to the software, so creating object styles and shortcuts might seem a bit blah to them.
Your suggestion is an excellent one and I’ll pass on the advice.
I know its been a while since anyone commented on this post but there is a free script from lightning brain called image library loader, this allows you to select a folder of images and this will appear as a panel in Indesign and all you do is drag and drop the images in to InDesign, its pretty much exactly what you are after Ted!