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Repeat last action feature

Please, make something like MS Word, that you can repeat your last action just pressing F4. That could save a lot of time.

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Marcello shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

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  • Koos commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I totally agree with Andrewtb333, this would be a huge time-saving feature for everyone.

    For instance, changing the colour of multiple pieces of text within a paragraph (assuming this text could already have a character style applied, so changing colour can't be done with a character style hotkey).

    Current actions:
    - Select text, move mouse to swatches, change colour, move mouse to another piece text, select, move, change, move, select etc.

    With a 'Repeat last action':
    - Select text, move mouse to swatches, change colour, select another piece, press [hotkey], select, press [hotkey] etc.

    And 'Step and repeat' and 'Transform again' would become obsolete.
    I referred to Autodesk Maya earlier, which has this function under the 'g' key/

  • Andrewtb333 commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    There are some comments below that indicate people don't understand what we're asking for. I have set up a shortcut in InDesign that is essentially "transform again", which is fine in certain circumstances. Someone mentioned ctrl + alt + U which is step and repeat, sure, that's also good.

    What we mean though is what F4 does in Word. If you apply a style to some text, you can click on more text and press F4: the same style gets applied. You can change the colour of something: click something else, F4, same colour. Insert a table row: F4, you get another, and another. It repeats the last thing that you did, and it's such a time saver. Perform action, then click-F4-click-F4-click-F4.

    Take applying text styles. In InDesign yes, you can apply a keyboard shortcut. But it's modifier key + keypad so it's always two hands. Click, *hands off mouse to keyboard*, apply style. Repeat. And that's if you already have a shortcut key set up. With Word, you can select text, click a style, then click-F4-click-F4 and you're done.

    AND it applies to nearly everything you do with formatting, deleting, inserting (some table formatting actions aren't included but that's about it)

  • Peter Fahrni commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I used to be able to grab a box, duplicate and offset it, and then apply option command 3, which would give me a repetitions of that last step (the duplication and that exact offset. That was an extremely useful feature for me and I cannot quite wrap my head around why it's gone.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This seems so obvious, and demanded. Would be a huge time saver, as it is in MS Word and other programs!

  • Andrewtb333 commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    In case the latest comments don't make sense, they were in response to an Adobe person marking this as "solved" by suggesting that we could assign a shortcut key to one of the "transform" functions. That part of it seems to have disappeared (or not been part of the conversation here, as it announced itself via an email and a link to response let here).

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    'Transform again' is not the same as 'Repeat action' - by 'action' I mean ANY action. It is very useful ability to repeat any action. For example when assigning styles to non-contiguous paragraphs, or when merging many cells in a table. There is much more situations where repeating last action is very helpful and saves time. I use it in MS Word, and I used it when working in Corel Ventura. I know that sometimes function that looks simple is hard to implement, but this one looks simple at first glance: store last user action, repeat it on currently selected object if permitted.

  • Andrewtb333 commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This isn’t really the same thing. Word can repeat something like “apply that paragraph style” or “insert a table row”. I already have F4 assigned to “transform again individually” or whatever it is so that if I move or resize an object I can repeat it, but it only applies in limited scenarios.

  • Philippe Maintigneux commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Sorry, I find this a stupid answer. What is asked for is a function to repeat any action. You propose to change shortcuts. You are not answering the question. You are just asking us to change the way we work by changing the shortcuts we are used to... Stupid.

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