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Tip of the Week: New Links Panel Icons

This InDesign tip on the new Links panel icons was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on August 18, 2016.

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If you work in a collaborative environment where you share files with colleagues, you’re probably used to mysterious things popping up in InDesign from time to time. For example, you might spot some icons you’ve never seen before in the Links panel.

Like a shopping cart, three dots, and a cloud.

InDesign Tip new Links panel icons

The shopping cart means the image is an unlicensed Adobe Stock image. You can also see its status is unlicensed if you’re showing Link Info in the Links panel.

InDesign tip license Adobe Stock images Links panel shopping cart icon

So someone searched Adobe Stock using the CC Libraries panel, and added a preview image to a library. And then they added the preview image to the InDesign layout. But they didn’t choose to license the image yet.

Double-clicking the shopping cart icon in the Links panel is a shortcut to license the image.

InDesign tip license Adobe Stock images Links panel

While the image is being licensed, you’ll see three dots in the Links panel, like a progress bar of sorts. And the Link Info status tells you it’s being downloaded.

InDesign tip license Adobe Stock images Links panel progress icon

And when the image is finished downloading, you’ll see a cloud icon.

InDesign tip license Adobe Stock images Links panel cloud icon
Also notice that the Adobe Stock watermark is now gone from the image in the layout, another clue that the image is licensed, visible even without the Links panel open.

Thanks to Bart Van de Wiele for pointing this out!

Editor in Chief of CreativePro. Instructor at LinkedIn Learning with courses on InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP, Inkscape, and Affinity Publisher. Co-author of The Photoshop Visual Quickstart Guide with Nigel French.
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