Thursday, January 31, 2008

Something that you can't do in InDesign

I've been asked twice this week if there is any way to select non-adjacent areas of text in InDesign. In other words, is there any way to select a section of text, skip over a couple of words, and then select another few words without deselecting the first selection? Microsoft Word (both Mac and Windows versions) can do this. And if I recall correctly, there is a QuarkXTension for doing this. But unfortunately, I know of no way to do this in InDesign. If you would find a feature like this to be useful, file an official Adobe feature request here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right ... those XTensions are called "The Grabbers" and are from Meadows Software. I know the people at Meadows -- they're based in a Chicago suburb -- nice guys.

On their web page, they show OS 9 screen shots; but if you go to the Prices page you can see that the Grabbers are available for Mac Quark vs 4-7... not for ID though. (Though Meadows does have a few other ID plug-ins.)

Grabbers product page:
http://www.meadowsps.com/site/main/grabbers.htm

Pricing/Ordering:
http://www.meadowsps.com/site/main/ordering.htm

I agree, I'd love to see this feature (or plug-in) in InDesign. I owned and used the grabbers when I used to use Quark and loved 'em.

Keith Gilbert said...

Thanks for the info, Anne-Marie!