I love the properties panel in InDesign. It's fantastic for beginners. I have them set up the interface to look a lot like PS and AI. I think it makes it easier to learn and feels more familiar if they have experience with the other apps. The properties panel in Illustrator has fantastic functionality. The panels are all there so you don't have to open the floating panels. The ... allows you to open the actual panel if you need more. I would like the InDesign Properties panel to work the same way. There are commands hidden in the paragraph fly out menu and we need to open the panel to get to them. The options for text wrap are limited in the Properties panel requiring that panel to be opened, etc. I would like to see each section have an elispe - ... - to pop open the panels. I don't teach the control panel to beginners - I think it's too overwhelming when first learning. Consistency between apps is always a good thing.