Adobe InDesign: Feature Requests
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1. Description
2. Why is this valuable to you?
Thank you.
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5537 results found
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Make the start/end of a stroke highlight when you choose an arrowhead for the start/end in the Stroke panel
It is very frustrating when applying an arrowhead to a stroke when you don't know what InDesign calls the start or end of that stroke. It's not so bad when you've drawn a straight line but a number of times, we edit shapes to create complex lines. Then it's a case of trial and error as to which end you place the arrow (and most of the time, typically, you end up choosing the wrong end. I know there is the ability to swap these but it would be useful if when you hover over either the start or end drop down boxes it would highlight which end of the line you're going to apply the style to.
It is very frustrating when applying an arrowhead to a stroke when you don't know what InDesign calls the start or end of that stroke. It's not so bad when you've drawn a straight line but a number of times, we edit shapes to create complex lines. Then it's a case of trial and error as to which end you place the arrow (and most of the time, typically, you end up choosing the wrong end. I know there is the ability to swap these but it would be useful if when you hover over either the start or end…
2 votes -
Shadow-Effect for Text
Please make it possible to give only seperate words a Drop-Shadow
2 votes -
Keyboard Shortcut for Adopting Paragraph Style Sheets
Using the text tool, click in a paragraph.
Hold Option & Shift, then click a Style Sheet formatted paragraph
The paragraph that had the text tool in it is now formatted to the [Option/Shift] clicked paragraph's Style Sheet.
This is one of the most time saving keyboard shortcuts from Quark Xpress.
This saves countless hours for anyone formatting text, albeit a tri-fold, or a 1,000 page catalog.
PS: If you're going to mention Command/Return to bring up Style Sheets, this is not time saving. The user still has to scroll the curser around to select the Paragraph/Character Style Sheet, removing the time saving Keyboard Shortcut feature altogether.
Using the text tool, click in a paragraph.
Hold Option & Shift, then click a Style Sheet formatted paragraph
The paragraph that had the text tool in it is now formatted to the [Option/Shift] clicked paragraph's Style Sheet.
This is one of the most time saving keyboard shortcuts from Quark Xpress.
This saves countless hours for anyone formatting text, albeit a tri-fold, or a 1,000 page catalog.
PS: If you're going to mention Command/Return to bring up Style Sheets, this is not time saving. The user still has to scroll the curser around to select the Paragraph/Character Style Sheet, removing…
2 votes -
Autmatic High of Textframes and Tabel-Cells in steps/on grid
If a textframe has an automatic high, is dos not fit on the grid. it would be nice, when there would be the option "fit on grid" or/and "in steps of XX mm". The same probelm is in Tabels, when in one cell the text get lmultiline.
2 votes -
A archive/backup save feature
I recently was working on a highly important document. InDesign crashed AT THE SAME TIME as it was in the process of saving the file. I do regular saves, but because of how it crashed I couldn't revert to an earlier saved version of my file. My new workflow is to regularly save my work and I use sequential numbers e.g. filename-v01, filenam- v02. I also sometimes will use save as and create a new file called filename-backup and then I will have to do another save as to revert the document back to filename.indd. What would suit my workflow is I continue to save my file using my standard filename but I can create a 'backup' file at any time called 'filename-copy-day-time'. The extra details in the filename would be automatically added by InDesign. This would also not affect my ability to save my working file as filename.indd.
I recently was working on a highly important document. InDesign crashed AT THE SAME TIME as it was in the process of saving the file. I do regular saves, but because of how it crashed I couldn't revert to an earlier saved version of my file. My new workflow is to regularly save my work and I use sequential numbers e.g. filename-v01, filenam- v02. I also sometimes will use save as and create a new file called filename-backup and then I will have to do another save as to revert the document back to filename.indd. What would suit my workflow…
2 votes -
Mimic Text Box
For Example: If you have a list of people and you create a text box for each person that has a number in the text box.
Further in the document you would have a map that also has the numbers showing which person is situated where.
What would be very helpful is to have those 2 numbers (1 and 1, 2 and 2, etc.) be able to auto update the other.
So when someone is removed from the list, the person numbered 10 originally now becomes 9, which also auto updates on the map
2 votes -
Open pages of a pdf file in a single InDesign file
I always face this problem where I need to open a single page of a pdf. file to do amendment. It’s difficulty when my client doesn’t have the working file (indd). I hope adobe is allowing me to open all pages of a pdf. file in a single InDesign.
2 votes -
Native AI support.
Using links within AI to keep source files small is useless if INDD is a part of the workflow because INDD will not place AI files unless PDF compatibility is turned on. Turning on PDF compatibility in AI when saving embeds all links so linking files instead of embedding them makes no difference.
Please make INDD able to place AI files that have not been saved with PDF compatibility turned on.
2 votes -
Condition Sets: Show overrides when the set has a +
In every other panel, when there is a style override, resulting in a + symbol, if you hover over the symbol, it will tell you specifically what the overrides are. For example, a different type size, or font family or leading or something along those lines.
But in the Condition Sets dropdown, all you get is that there are overrides. And you can either clear them or redefine the set. But if I choose to clear the overrides, I have no way of knowing what the result will be.
2 votes -
Restore the page overlay display in the print dialog.
I previous version of InDesign and the initial releases of InDesign 2017, you could see quite clearly what would print on the selected sheet size. In the latest update as of Aug 2017, if I change a sheet from letter to legal that has been printed previously, letter is still selected in the dialog, but due to the preview sheet being legal and cannot see that there is a size mismatch without going through the individual dialogs. For reference, the portion of the document that would not be within the printable region showed as a different shade of grey, whereas the entire preview now shows white.
I previous version of InDesign and the initial releases of InDesign 2017, you could see quite clearly what would print on the selected sheet size. In the latest update as of Aug 2017, if I change a sheet from letter to legal that has been printed previously, letter is still selected in the dialog, but due to the preview sheet being legal and cannot see that there is a size mismatch without going through the individual dialogs. For reference, the portion of the document that would not be within the printable region showed as a different shade of grey, whereas…
2 votes -
When you highlight text - then select something else - it would be really cool if the same text was selected when you went back to it
When you highlight a block of text - then select a different element - it would be really cool if the text was highlighted when you went back to the text box and selected it.
2 votes -
Text Variables: option to replace Tabs
Currently, a tab in a paragraph (heading) carries into a text variable that is sourced from that paragraph style, causing major spacing headaches. There should be an option in Edit Text Variable window to replace tab with a user-defined number of spaces (or any other characters, while you're at it).
1 vote -
Feature Request: InPage-Style Urdu Nastaliq Kerning, Positioning, and Composition Engine for Adobe InDesign Dear Adobe InDesign Team, I wo
Feature Request: InPage-Style Urdu Nastaliq Kerning, Positioning, and Composition Engine for Adobe InDesign
Dear Adobe InDesign Team,
I would like to request major improvements to Urdu Nastaliq publishing support in Adobe InDesign.
Although InDesign supports right-to-left languages, it still lacks many professional Urdu composition features that are available in InPage and are essential for newspapers, magazines, books, and educational publishing.
The most important request is the introduction of an InPage-style Urdu Nastaliq Composition Engine.
Requested Features:
- InPage-style Urdu Kerning Engine
- Automatic contextual kerning between Urdu characters.
- Ligature-aware spacing adjustments.
- Removal of excessive gaps between words and letters.
-
Font-specific optimization for:
- Jameel Noori Nastaleeq
- Nafees Nastaleeq
- Mehr Nastaliq
- Faiz Nastaliq
- InPage-style Kashida Justification
- Intelligent Kashida insertion.
- Balanced line composition.
- Reduced dependency on word spacing expansion.
- Urdu Nastaliq Composer
- Dedicated composer specifically designed for Urdu Nastaliq.
- Better handling of multi-line Nastaliq text flow.
- Word and Character Position Controls (Similar to InPage)
- Move selected word or character Left.
- Move selected word or character Right.
- Move selected word or character Up.
- Move selected word or character Down.
- Fine positioning controls using keyboard shortcuts.
- Visual nudging tools for precise Nastaliq adjustments.
- Support for adjusting individual ligatures without affecting surrounding text.
- Improved Baseline Management
- Automatic baseline correction for Nastaliq fonts.
- Better alignment of words across multiple lines.
- Improved Ligature Handling
- Context-sensitive Urdu ligatures.
- Better OpenType feature utilization.
- Enhanced glyph substitution and positioning.
- Nuqta and Aerab Optimization
- Better placement of dots (Nuqta).
- Improved positioning of diacritics (Aerab).
- Collision detection and avoidance.
- Urdu Publishing Tools
- Newspaper composition presets.
- Book publishing presets.
- Urdu typography presets.
- Nastaliq-specific paragraph settings.
- Urdu Keyboard and Editing Enhancements
- Better Urdu text editing experience.
- Improved cursor behavior in Nastaliq text.
- Advanced Urdu proofreading and composition tools.
Many Urdu publishers continue to rely on InPage because of its superior Nastaliq composition quality and precise word-positioning controls. Bringing these capabilities into Adobe InDesign would greatly benefit the Urdu publishing industry and help professional publishers adopt InDesign as their primary layout and publishing platform.
Thank you for your consideration.
Feature Request: InPage-Style Urdu Nastaliq Kerning, Positioning, and Composition Engine for Adobe InDesign
Dear Adobe InDesign Team,
I would like to request major improvements to Urdu Nastaliq publishing support in Adobe InDesign.
Although InDesign supports right-to-left languages, it still lacks many professional Urdu composition features that are available in InPage and are essential for newspapers, magazines, books, and educational publishing.
The most important request is the introduction of an InPage-style Urdu Nastaliq Composition Engine.
Requested Features:
- InPage-style Urdu Kerning Engine
- Automatic contextual kerning between Urdu characters.
- Ligature-aware spacing adjustments.
- Removal of excessive gaps between words and letters.
-
Font-specific optimization for:
- …
1 vote -
Added PDF export tag to character styles for accessibility
In InDesign, it would be helpful to have the option to export our style as an Artifact in the Character Styles tab, under "Markup Export". This would be very useful for accessibility, allowing for the automation of things like formatting bullets as Artifacts.
1 vote -
InCopy on the web to all language versions
Can you please stop with making features available in English version only. Those of us who work in an international environment or organization needs feature parity, and in this day and age, where AI takes care of 99% of translation and testing it cant't be that hard.
We pay for InDesign and expect to not be discriminated.
1 vote -
Redesign UserVoice forum
In this sad, poorly designed forum, if you click an attached image, then click back to the forum, the idea you viewed disappears and a different idea is presented.
When you attempt to post an idea, your email appears as the idea title.
Which makes it unclear where to place the title and where the content of the post. In the end, your feedback is posted with your email as the title, and thus has to be deleted and reposted.
Please redesign it.
1 vote -
Streamlining adding new pages of different sizes
I often work with files with multiple sized pages in them. I want the print specific features of indesign, however adding different size pages to a document is a clunky and confusing process. Instead of having to 'create alternate layout' could you not just modify the 'edit page size' menu to have a 'add different size page' option.
1 vote -
Recadrage PDF Importés (avec du texte non vectorisé) et Export / Framing of Imported PDF (with not vectorised fonts) & Export
ENGLISH
When you crop a placed PDF in Adobe InDesign that contains live (non-outlined) text, the exported PDF still keeps all text data located outside the cropped frame. As a result, PDF text search can still find and highlight invisible text that is hidden outside the visible cropped area.
This behavior makes little sense from a user perspective: if a PDF element is cropped in InDesign, the expectation is that everything outside the cropped frame should be removed from the exported PDF — or at least excluded from text search and selection.
Currently, InDesign only masks the content visually. The hidden text remains embedded in the exported PDF, even though it is no longer visible. This creates several problems:
- PDF searches return results in invisible areas
- Copy/paste may include hidden text
- Accessibility/readability can become inconsistent
- Sensitive or unwanted text may remain inside the final exported document
- File content does not match the visible layout
This issue especially affects workflows involving imported PDFs containing OCR text or non-vectorized text layers.
Expected behavior:
When exporting a PDF from InDesign, any content outside the cropped frame of a placed PDF should either:- be truly clipped/destructively removed from the exported PDF structure, or
- at minimum, be excluded from searchable/selectable text content.
At the moment, the crop behaves only as a visual mask, not as an actual content clipping operation.
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FRENCH
Faire en sorte que sur InDesign quand on recadre un PDF (avec du texte non vectorisé) et qu’on exporte ce PDF cela n’affiche plus le texte en dehors de la zone recadree.
Car actuellement quand on recadre ce genre de PDF, et qu’on exporte le PDF, et qu’on fait une recherche de texte sur ce PDF cela recherche et affiche des résultats même dans le texte invisible masqué en dehors du cadre.
Quand on recadre sur InDesign un bloc d’un PDF importé qui contient du texte non vectoriel je ne vois vraiment pas pour quelle bonne raison le PDF continue d’afficher toute la police qui est en dehors de cette zone recadrée, ça n’a aucun sens ni aucune utilité car par définition quand on recadre un bloc, c’est qu’on veut pas ce qu’il y a autour…
ENGLISH
When you crop a placed PDF in Adobe InDesign that contains live (non-outlined) text, the exported PDF still keeps all text data located outside the cropped frame. As a result, PDF text search can still find and highlight invisible text that is hidden outside the visible cropped area.
This behavior makes little sense from a user perspective: if a PDF element is cropped in InDesign, the expectation is that everything outside the cropped frame should be removed from the exported PDF — or at least excluded from text search and selection.
Currently, InDesign only masks the content visually. The…
1 vote -
Native PDF/UA-compliant export in Adobe InDesign (European Accessibility Act)
With the entry into force on June 28, 2025 of European Directive 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act, EAA), the production of accessible digital documents has become a legal obligation for a wide range of public and private operators working in the European market. The regulation requires that electronic documents — including PDFs — conform to the PDF/UA standard (ISO 14289-1) and the technical standard EN 301 549.
At present, Adobe InDesign is not capable of natively exporting PDFs that are PDF/UA compliant and verifiable with third-party tools such as PAC. This limitation forces professionals to rely on third-party plugins or manual corrections in Acrobat Pro after every export — resulting in additional costs, operational inefficiencies, and the risk of errors in every production cycle.
Bringing InDesign into compliance with these requirements is today a legal necessity for thousands of European professionals who use the software daily to produce institutional communications, reports, publications, and technical documents subject to EAA obligations. It would also demonstrate Adobe's genuine commitment to the values of inclusivity and accessibility.
The native implementation of these features would eliminate dependency on third-party tools, reduce production costs, and ensure that Adobe InDesign maintains a competitive position aligned with the current European regulatory landscape.
Supporting accessibility is not merely an ethical choice — it is today a concrete responsibility toward the millions of users with disabilities and toward the professionals who produce content for them every day.Thank you for your attention.
With the entry into force on June 28, 2025 of European Directive 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act, EAA), the production of accessible digital documents has become a legal obligation for a wide range of public and private operators working in the European market. The regulation requires that electronic documents — including PDFs — conform to the PDF/UA standard (ISO 14289-1) and the technical standard EN 301 549.
At present, Adobe InDesign is not capable of natively exporting PDFs that are PDF/UA compliant and verifiable with third-party tools such as PAC. This limitation forces professionals to rely on third-party plugins or manual…1 vote -
Native PDF/UA-compliant export (European Accessibility Act)
With the entry into force on June 28, 2025 of European Directive 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act, EAA), the production of accessible digital documents has become a legal obligation for a wide range of public and private operators working in the European market. The regulation requires that electronic documents — including PDFs — conform to the PDF/UA standard (ISO 14289-1) and the technical standard EN 301 549.
At present, Adobe InDesign is not capable of natively exporting PDFs that are PDF/UA compliant and verifiable with third-party tools such as PAC. This limitation forces professionals to rely on third-party plugins or manual corrections in Acrobat Pro after every export — resulting in additional costs, operational inefficiencies, and the risk of errors in every production cycle.
Bringing InDesign into compliance with these requirements is today a legal necessity for thousands of European professionals who use the software daily to produce institutional communications, reports, publications, and technical documents subject to EAA obligations. It would also demonstrate Adobe's genuine commitment to the values of inclusivity and accessibility.
The native implementation of these features would eliminate dependency on third-party tools, reduce production costs, and ensure that Adobe InDesign maintains a competitive position aligned with the current European regulatory landscape.
Supporting accessibility is not merely an ethical choice — it is today a concrete responsibility toward the millions of users with disabilities and toward the professionals who produce content for them every day.
Thank you for your attention.
With the entry into force on June 28, 2025 of European Directive 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act, EAA), the production of accessible digital documents has become a legal obligation for a wide range of public and private operators working in the European market. The regulation requires that electronic documents — including PDFs — conform to the PDF/UA standard (ISO 14289-1) and the technical standard EN 301 549.
At present, Adobe InDesign is not capable of natively exporting PDFs that are PDF/UA compliant and verifiable with third-party tools such as PAC. This limitation forces professionals to rely on third-party plugins or manual…
1 vote
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