InDesign – no drag-and-drop?

[EdFredenburgh]

Is there really no text drag-and-drop facility in InDesign? or have I missed something? Is there a plug-in?

 

[lvixen]

What program are you trying to drag and drop from? Are you trying to keep parameters that are set in InDesign with the type you are trying to import? Can I have details on what exactly you are trying to do? Maybe I can help.

 

[EdFredenburgh]

No, much simpler: I'm just editing text within InDesign. You know, highlight text and drag to a different position – like you can in QXP, Word, even Outlook and Entourage.

 

[lvixen]

It doesn't look like you missed anything. The only way I can see to do what you want is to copy and paste. Although, I did find that if you select the copy and hold the control key, it will pop a menu where you can select a bunch of text tools, like copy, paste, some type preferences. It may not be the same, but it is a quick way to do it. Sorry I couldn't find the answer for you. You could always do a search for plug-ins to see if one has been created.

 

[jimoblak]

Nope - just use the hot keys to do this (CTRL-X / CTRL-V). Even though used by Microsoft, the method you are looking for is not so popular. I can't think of another Adobe app that could do this.

lvixen, consider purchasing a replacement 2-button Mac mouse that allows you to access those contextual menus without a hotkey. InDesign (and any other hip app) really flies without having to pound on the CTRL key so often.

- - picklefish - -

 

[lvixen]

Thanks for the info, but I don't need to access that particular feature. I was just trying to help. My text is pretty much set when implenmented. I work in retail.. so 200 sheets of toilet paper...is 200 sheets of toilet paper.

 

[EdFredenburgh]

Thanks for your postings. (Counting toilet paper sheets? ...the little sad corners in all of our lives...). As a last point: Jimoblak may be right and no Adobe programme has drag-and-drop text; but it's not a Microsoft peculiarity – Quark has it, and it is faster and more visual than Cut & Paste (especially using shift-clicking on each end of a selection). Anyway, thanks again.

 

[EdFredenburgh]

A late note on cutting, copying and pasting: no need to use Cmd-X, Cmd-C and Cmd-V – it's quicker using F1, F2 and F3 for Cut, Copy and Paste respectively.

 

[AdobeTim]

InDesign has to drag and drop text capability yet. It's become an oft-requested feature, however, so who knows...

 

[Genimuse]

It's been a while since I used Quark (since just after ID 1.0 appeared), but IIRC you could turn the text dragging feature on and off as a preference. This might be the best way to implement it, so those who are easily confused by it (and inexperienced users often are) can have it disabled by default.

It's probably the #1 thing I miss in InDesign.