A common troubleshooting step in many programs is to delete the "preference" file for an application that is acting up. This file (or files), which stores your user preferences, such as your preferred measurement system, color of your guides, etc., can be come corrupt and make the application unstable or behave strangely. When the file is deleted the application creates a new, fresh copy of the file.
To easily delete the preference file in InDesign, InCopy, Photoshop or Bridge, hold down command-option-shift-control (Macintosh) or control-alt-shift (Windows) immediately after you click the icon to launch the application. Keep holding the keys down until you see a dialog box asking you if you want to delete the preference file.
Does this work with older versions? I've been trying it with my ancient version of ID2.0 and I'm not getting any luck.
ReplyDeleteJoanne, I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to your question. I can't remember what I did yesterday, much less in 2002 when I was teaching InDesign 2.0! I can verify that it goes back at least to CS2 (version 4.0), since I still had a copy of that here to test.
ReplyDeleteThis feature was introduced with InDesign CS (actually it was "borrowed" from Photoshop).
ReplyDeleteThank you sooooooo much Keith!!!! This solved it. This made my week! I couldn't figure it out for the life of me.
ReplyDeleteFor those who have this problem, it took me a few tries to figure out that you need to have these keys (Cntr-Alt-Shift) pressed, literally right after you click the icon, before the pgm even starts loading anything.
Tks again it's a life saver (literally)!!!
You rock! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis worked for me in photoshop, but it's not bringing up the dialogue box in indesign...? I'm on version CS3
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. I have been having an issue where my Pages Panel has been acting funky, scroll bars go away and pages won't tile, sometimes the panel wouldn't open at all. I had uninstalled and reinstalled the suite several times and it kept happening. Deleted the Preference files and now it works!
ReplyDeletethanks keith.It worked for me.:)
ReplyDeleteyour a champ Keith!
ReplyDeleteHarry
My mac pro doesn't have the alt key so my only option is command option shift control choice. I have the problem in Indesign CC. I do this trick, but my pages doesn't appear or to delete preferences.
ReplyDelete