Everyone who works with Adobe InDesign realizes there must be more to this fantastic program. It is so versatile on it’s own, but if you dig deeper, there is still lots to learn. Here are 25 quick tips on how to improve and get more out of your experience.

25. Cmd-D (Ctrl-D) is the keyboard shortcut to place an image.

24. If Caps Lock is activated when you insert placeholder text, a different passage of Latin will be used.

23. InDesign will automatically update a linked image after it has been edited using Edit Original within InDesign, but will only flag it if edited otherwise.

22. Cmd-Option-Shift-C (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-C) is the keyboard shortcut for fitting content to frame. Cmd-Option-C (Ctrl-Alt-C) is the keyboard shortcut for fitting a frame to content.

21. Tables can be nested and table cells can be merged or divided in many combinations. Play with these options to get accustomed to them and understand how they work.

20. The Registration color prints on every ink plate. In CMYK, that means anything with Registration applied to it prints in cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. It’s not a nice rich black, but a nice color of mud. That’s why it’s usually reserved for Registration Marks.

19. Placed TIFF and PSD images do not preserve vectors; EPS and PDF do.

18. Refer to the Help function. It might surprise you with how useful it is!

17. Guides cannot be duplicated by Option-dragging, but can be duplicated with Edit –> Duplicate or Edit –> Step and Repeat.

16. It’s easier to work with Book files from the Book palette than by opening the file itself.

15. Multiple undos can undo actions executed before a subsequent save.

14. The Autocorrect preferences in InDesign allows you to customize what InDesign flags for correction.

13. Hold Shift while selecting a print, document or PDF preset (from their respective menu items in the File menu) to execute the preset without dialog boxes.

12. Use the Absolute Page Numbering preference to work with a multi-section InDesign document in terms of absolute page numbers.

11. The Text Wrap palette can accept negative values, creating text overlap of a specific value.

10. In long documents, the more master pages you use the better.

9. Create all your master elements on a new, top-level layer to ensure they are on top of your entire document.

8. The Underline Options in the Character palette flyout menu allows for customized underline styles.

7. Book Page Numbering Options can set chapters to always begin on odd (right-facing) pages.

6. All tables are anchored inside a text frame.

5. When cropping an image or moving an image within a picture frame, click and hold a second before dragging. If you are patient and wait a second before dragging you’ll then get a transparent overlay of the rest of the image being cropped off.

4. Use the space bar to “grab” your document to quickly navigate around. Make sure your text cursor is not active inside a text box first! Hit ESC before trying this.

3. The TIFF file format can hold any kind of data the PSD file format can, but it is non-proprietary and can also be compressed for smaller file sizes.

2. Export as “INX” to make compatible with earlier versions of InDesign.

1. Press “W” to enter Preview mode, which displays the document as it would be printed.