If you’re working on a book, manual or otherwise long document and you have a lot objects that you want to apply “styles” to (such as drop shadows, feather amount, borders, etc.), consider using Object Styles. Object Styles are similar to text style sheets in that they save the settings you apply to one object and place them in a palette for use on other objects. To use Object Styles, set up an object the way you want it to appear and go to the Options flyout menu of the Object Style palette. Select New Object Style, give it a name and click OK. Now that your style is set up, you can select several objects or one at a time and simply click on the Style in the list of the Object Style palette or assign a custom keyboard shortcut to apply the style.
Category: InDesign
Save time by dragging files to an empty frame in InDesign
Did you know that you can drag a graphic, photo, PDF or text file onto an empty frame in Adobe InDesign from the OSX Finder or Adobe Bridge and InDesign will fill that frame with the file you dragged. Not only does this feature save you the time of sizing the placed item once it’s in your document (because you already have that frame sized correctly, right?), but it can save you dozens of clicks in a navigation box if you already have the folder with those graphics and text files open in the Finder. You can also drag files from the Finder to InDesign without having an empty frame in your document, but InDesign just places them at 100% size in your document. This option is great if you don’t know where exactly you’re going to place the images just yet or what size you’re going to make them, but you want to see what they look like for comparison in your layout.
Fixing the “bold type” problem in InDesign
If you’ve run into a problem where Adobe InDesign either prints, or exports as PDF, your document and some type is appearing bold when it shouldn’t be, there’s a simple explanation and solution. The problem is that you most likely have some form of transparency working on top of the type that is being affected. Many times it’s either a .psd file with a transparent background or an object with a drop shadow applied to it that is overlapping a box of text. During the flattening process, the type gets rasterized or outlined and this is what causes the “bold effect.” To avoid the problem, make sure that you either move the text on TOP of the object with the transparency, or better yet, put all your type on its own layer and move the layer to the topmost level in the Layers palette.
InDesign shortcuts for scaling, shearing and rotation
Did you know that you can Option + Click an object with the Rotation tool in Adobe InDesign to bring up the Rotation dialog box? You can also hit Option + Click with the Shear tool to bring up the Shear dialog box. 
And for scaling you have an added option of Option + Clicking with the Scale tool and not only bringing up the Scale dialog box, but in that dialog you have the ability to automatically make a copy of the object and scale that, rather than the original. And don’t forget, InDesign uses the spot you Option + Click as the reference point for these options. So for instance, if you Option + Click on the bottom right selection handle of an object with the scale tool, InDesign keeps the bottom right of the object where it is and scales from all sides down or up from there.
Quick jump between InDesign pages
Lets say you have a multi-page document and you’re jumping between two pages to see how text flows, etc. There’s an easier way than using the Command + J and number command. You can use the Command + Page Up/Page Down keys. For example, if you’re on page 2 and jump to page 8 normally, you can hit Command + Page Up to quickly go back to page 2 and then hit Commaned + Page Down to go back to page 8 again.
Using InDesign’s Absolute page numbers
If you’re working on a book or other document using InDesign’s Page Number and Section Options where page one is NOT the starting page in your numbering scheme, you’ve probably run into the problem where using the shortcut Command + J to jump to a specific page doesn’t take you where you want to go. For example, you have a 10 page document and you’ve set your automatic page numbering to actually start on the third page of the document. If you jump to page one, you actually end up on page three of the document, rather than the first page because the Command + J shortcut uses the Automatic Page Numbers as the guide to where to go. The simple workaround is to use the plus key. If you wanted to go to the first page in the document (not page one as it is numbered) you would hit Command + J then +1 – This tells InDesign to jump to the Absolute page in the document, in this case, the first page in the pages palette.
Adding more pages to your InDesign document
When you want to add a new page to your InDesign document, Command + Shift + P is the quickest way to do it. The keyboard shortcut will add one new page after the currently selected page in your document. Another way is to Option + Click on the New Page button in the Pages palette, which will open the Insert Pages dialog box. This method will allow you to specify the number of pages to insert and where to insert them, as well as what Master page to use.
Show Import Options in InDesign temporarily
Did you know that you can get the Import Options dialog box to appear when placing an image without actually having to turn it on by default by checking the Show Import Options checkbox? Well you can. Simply hold the Shift key down when pressing the Open button or double-clicking on the file name in the Place dialog box. This will temporarily turn on the dialog.
Importing more than one PDF page into InDesign
Did you know you can import more than one page of a multi-page PDF in InDesign CS2 simply by turning on the Show Import Options in the Place dialog box? Once the options box is open, you simply choose which pages from the PDF you want to import (or select All to bring them all in). Once you click OK, you’ll see the normal Place PDF cursor, except that every time you click, another PDF (in order) is placed until all PDFs have been placed in your document. You can also Option + Click to place all the pages at the same time on the same page.
Save InDesign page palette space & scrolling
Did you know you can save yourself some scrolling and screen space with InDesign’s Pages Palette? If you’re like me, you’re constantly moving between pages in long documents. ID’s default is to display the page icons in the Page palette vertically. This makes for a lot of scrolling and takes up more screen space to see more than just a few pages at a time. You can choose Palette Options from the Pages palette’s pop-up menu and de-select the Show Vertically check boxes for Pages and Masters panes.