Tim Cole's InDesign BackChannel

Sandee Cohen (aka. Vector Babe) is the author of many fine books, including the definitive InDesign Visual QuickStart Guides. If you're new to InDesign, carpe Cohen! (sieze the Babe)--you need this book.

Here are Sandee's insights and tips for modifying your InDesign keyboard shortcuts:

• I always use the Mac ctrl key because it is never used by an Adobe shortcut. I wish there was a similar key I could use for Windows. This reminds me that I wish Adobe made a keyboard for Windows that would give those users an extra key for shortcuts, etc.
  
  
• I add a Contextual Text shortcut to the Selection Tool so that I can easily switch to the tool when within a text frame. This shortcut is ctrl+V to make it easy to remember. [Product Area: Tools; Command: Selection Tool; Context: Text]
  
  
• Contextual shortcut to Direct Selection tool ctrl+A. [Product Area: Tools; Command: Direct Selection Tool; Context: Text]
  
  
• I add shortcut for Select Container, ctrl+C. [Product Area: Object Menu; Command: Select Container]
  
  
• I also add shortcut for Select Content, ctrl+option+C. [Product Area: Object Menu; Command: Select Content]
  
  
• I add ctrl+E for End Nested Style Here as I use it in the captions for my Visual QuickStart books. [Product Area: Type Menu; Command: Insert Special Character: Other: End Nested Style Here]
  
  
• I have added another shortcut to Select to End of Story (ctrl+Down Arrow), because I often work on a laptop keyboard that is difficult to use with the the factory shortcut. [Product Area: Text and Tables; Command: Select to End of Story]
  
  
• I also have added ctrl+` (under the tilde) to swap the character and paragraph attributes in the Control Panel. I use that key because it's all the way over under that area of the screen. I find the factory shortcut impossible to remember.[Product Area: Views and Navigation; Command: Toggle Character and Paragraph Modes in Control Panel]
  
  
• On a related note, I have changed Illustrator's cmd+D for Transform Again to cmd+option+3 to match InDesign's. And then I added a keystroke for Illustrator's Place command to match InDesign's. I use the Place command in both programs so often I felt it easier to have consistency across the suite.