The strength of a loaded cursor
It happened. InDesign crashed. One moment I was working happily, and the next InDesign was gone with a message about quitting unexpectedly. (On Windows this would have been that InDesign had stopped working.)
I restarted the program. As expected, InDesign restored the document I had been working on. But there were a few surprises.
First, not only did InDesign restore the document I had been working on, it also restored the tabbed files that were sitting in the background.
Next, InDesign saved the loaded cursor information in the file I was working on. This was a real surprise. I didn’t expect the cursor to stay loaded after a crash. This meant I could still place the images in the cursor.
But the loaded cursor is even more robust than just that. InDesign also saves the information in the loaded cursor when you switch from one document to another. So you can work on one file and load the cursor, then work on another file, and then move back to the first document and the cursor stays loaded with the placed files.
Finally, the loaded cursor is part of the undo chain. Place all the images in a loaded cursor, do some more work, and then undo. The loaded cursor appears when you get to those undo actions.
So don’t panic or hesitate if you crash or move to another file. Your loaded cursor stays armed and ready to fire!
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Yes. I noticed the cursor stayed loaded before. I thought it was cool. At one time I wanted to bring a bunch of different images into a bunch of different documents and I was disappointed the cursor didn’t stay loaded going to a different document.
One of the best things though is that after an unexpected crash or something, the InDesign files are all still there and open. Which is very handy.
But I noticed one annoying thing, the files all open in reverse order. So the last file you had open in the last tab is now the first one. I don’t know why that annoys me. I might have a case of OCD here in terms of how my files are displayed on my screen. I’m very particular about it.
Now, if only every application did crash recovery as well as InDesign. I frequently cite it as the model of how to do crash recovery properly. If only Adobe would implement it in all its programs – and others would as well.
Adobe Muse has a similar auto backup in case of a crash. This is really useful especially since it is still in beta.
Absolutely, couldn’t agree more. InDesign backup and recovery is stellar. If I could choose one thing to be implemented across the suite it would be that.
Slightly OT, but I just force quit Muse with a loaded cursor (I know, I’m a meanie), and it recovered just like InDesign, with the same images in my cursor ready to be placed. You see them when you switch to Design view. So awesome.
I just tried this in InDesign CS4 at work and it turns out that the loaded cursor feature works in this version. I wonder if it works in CS2 since I have that at home. I doubt it though but will test it anyway. Good to know about this… thanks!
Now, if only every application did crash recovery as well as InDesign. I frequently cite it as the model of how to do crash recovery properly. If only Adobe would implement it in all its programs ? and others would as well.