Customize your workspace in InDesign

Discover how to arrange windows, access panels effortlessly, and create a workspace that caters to your unique workflow.

You can create a custom workspace by moving and adjusting document windows and panels. You can also save these custom workspaces so that you can easily switch back to them whenever required.

Rearrange, dock, or undock document windows

When you open more than one file, the Document windows are tabbed.

• To rearrange tabbed Document windows, drag a window’s tab to a new location in the group.
• To dock a Document window to a separate group of Document windows, drag the window into the group.
• To undock (float or untab) a Document window from a group of windows, drag the window’s tab out of the group.

Watch this short clip to learn how to dock, undock and rearrange Document windows.

Dock and undock panels

A dock is a collection of panels or panel groups displayed together, generally in a vertical orientation. You dock and undock panels by moving them into and out of a dock.

• To dock a panel, drag it by its tab into the dock, at the top, bottom, or in between other panels.

• To dock a panel group, drag it by its title bar (the solid empty bar above the tabs) into the dock.

• To remove a panel or panel group, drag it out of the dock by its tab or title bar. You can drag it into another dock or make it free-floating.

Watch this short clip to learn how to dock and undock panels.

Hide or show all panels

• To hide or show all panels, including the Tools, and Control panels, press Tab.

• To hide or show all panels except the Tools, and Control panels, press Shift+Tab.

Add, remove, and move panels

If you remove all panels from a dock, the dock disappears. You can create a dock by moving panels to the right edge of the workspace until a drop zone appears.

• To add a panel, select it from the Window menu and dock it wherever you want.
• To remove a panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (macOS) its tab, and then select Close.
  
• To move a panel, drag it by its tab.
• To move a panel group, drag the title bar.

Stack floating panels

The panel floats freely when you drag a panel out of its dock but not into a drop zone. The floating panel allows you to position it anywhere in the workspace. You can stack floating panels or panel groups so that they move as a unit when you drag the topmost title bar.

• To stack floating panels, drag a panel by its tab to the drop zone at the bottom of another panel.

• To change the stacking order, drag a panel up or down by its tab.

Collapse and expand panel icons

You can collapse panels to icons to reduce clutter in the workspace. In some cases, panels are collapsed to icons in the default workspace.

• Select   at the top of the dock to collapse or expand all panel icons in a column. To expand a single panel icon, select the icon.
  
• Adjust the dock width to resize panel icons and hide labels for a more streamlined view. Expand the dock width to display icon text.
  
• Drag panel icons to rearrange them within the dock, between docks, or as floating icons.

Use panel menus

Access the panel menu options using the panel menu icon  .

Scale the user interface

You can adjust User Interface Scaling of InDesign based on your requirement. When you launch InDesign with fresh preference settings, it identifies your screen resolution and adjusts the application scale factor accordingly.

To scale the user interface on your screen, follow these steps: 

Create and switch workspaces

Create and save the current panel size and position as a named workspace to easily restore it, even if panels are moved or closed. The names of saved workspaces appear in the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

Reset and delete workspaces

• To modify a workspace, select Windows > Workspace > Reset <Name of the workspace>.
• To delete a workspace, select Windows > Workspace > Delete Workspace.

More like this

• Toolbox
• Set preferences

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