Celebrity Keyboard Shortcuts: Casey D'Andrea
Casey D'Andrea is an InDesign expert, trainer, consultant, and the patron saint of keyboard shortcuts. Casey has done his own makeover of InDesign CS3's keyboard shortcuts, functional area by functional area. In addition to creating his own customized keyboard shortcut file, Casey also produced a layered PDF file that hi-lites his changes, and adds some color commentary to explain many of his changes.
It's a must-have collection of keyboard shortcut ideas, and you can download the shortcut file and the accompanying PDF here.
Casey works at Loop, and IT services company in Ontario, Canada.
Here is Casey's email regarding his updated keyboard shortcut set:
WHY DID I MAKE THIS?
It was always disconcerting when trying to track down a specific command. Some are not well advertised and there are indeed some great ones tucked in there! Your options are limited as the "show set" button within the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog presents a raw text listing of all the commands. You could also use InDesign's well laid out help system. By the way, that's over 1200 commands, and no, I did not count them manually ;-)
I've been using InDesign since 1.0 and over the years I added my own custom shortcuts. I've reworked, reorganized and laid out the complete list of commands that can be assigned keyboard shortcuts. In CS3, they've added new panels as well as included previously bundles items, i.e. scripts, incopy plug-ins. You can quickly search for the command you're curious about.
WHERE CAN YOU DOWNLOAD IT?
http://www.box.net/shared/17c14bp84t ---- access to all individual files
Since there has been issues with Adobe Exchange I've given up on trying to have it posted. I don't really have a website (read: too busy), so I decided to use Box.net, a free file hosting service. If you click on the following link it will take you to a page contain all of the files, including the CS2 versions. Simply navigate the folders like you would your Desktop and download what you want. The zipped files (archived via the Finder) contain all the files for each version of the document -- indd, pdf, indk
WHAT ARE THE DETAILS?
I'm going to keep working on improving these files when I have time. I've yet to update the Windows-based shortcut file for CS3, but I will.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Constructive criticism, feedbacks, suggestions, etc.
Maybe someday I'll generate the same kind of file for Illustrator and Photoshop. A rather ambitious thought, so no promises ;-P
INDESIGN CS3 DOCUMENT
name: InDesign-CS-Shortcuts-1210-Mac.indd
+ using CS3 bundled fonts, Myriad Pro, Minion Pro
+ plus system font, Lucida Grande
+ multiple layers- factory default shortcuts
- custom shortcuts - you can copy make your own changes
- toc, tips, common elements
- rationale - gives my reasoning for changing or adding shortcuts
- CS3 - new and improved commands - mimics the blue colored menus
+ some tips that might prove helpful
- option key is your friend
- context specific shortcuts
- CS3 - quick access panel for shortcuts (courtesy of indesignsecrets.com and dtptools.com)
+ decent use of staple InDesign features
- object styles - tip boxes, funky dashed line, rationale boxes and pointers
- anchored objects - rationale boxes and pointers
- bookmarks and hyperlinks - realized when exported to PDf
- nested styles - saving TONS of manual formatting within each line
- paragraph rules - to achieve the alternating rows effect
- master pages
- corner options, if you can spot it
- CS3 - text variables, well one
- CS3 - incorporated style groups
- CS3 - updated colour schemes, toned down
- CS3 - renamed layers, swatches, styles
PDF DOCUMENT
name: InDesign-CS-Shortcuts-1210-Mac.pdf
+ layered to toggle what you what you want
- default
- custom (on by default)
- new and improved
- rationale
+ bookmarks navigation panel and hyperlinks
- TOC works
- clicking back on product area names or header take you back to TOC
- bookmarks panel includes tips
- active links for indesignsecrets.com and dtptools.com
- active links for my email and company website (bottom right, back page)
+ embedded shortcut set file
- pop open Attachments navigation panel to access / download the shortcut set file, 1210 possibilities.indk
- to give all users access copy to Applications / Adobe InDesign CS3 / Presets / InDesign Shortcut Sets /
EXTRAS
name: InDesign-CS-Shortcuts-375-Mac.indd
+ a much-requested InDesign document that includes only the shortcut-assigned commands
+ the corresponding PDF, InDesign-CS-Shortcuts-375-Mac.pdf
Comments
This is an incredible resource for keyboard shortcuts. It looks as though a ton of time has been put into designing the PDF's. Thank you very much.
Posted by: Ben Leivian | October 22, 2007 12:31 PM
This second comment is for including the native files! Wow!
Posted by: Ben Leivian | October 22, 2007 12:33 PM
Yup, I was frustrated, and this was the result. Glad you like it Ben. As far as the native files go, that was pretty much the whole point. Giving others an opportunity to tweak it as they see fit. ;)
Oh, and Tim, wayyyyy too much props for this guy. Hopefully folks can get something from it. Man, that pic is killing me! LOL
Posted by: Casey D'Andrea | October 22, 2007 6:10 PM
Casey, thank you very much for making these files! I made a number of fascinating discoveries in your file, and have already implemented some of your excellent, rationale-based ideas.
Posted by: Klaus Nordby | November 11, 2007 7:09 PM