Adobe InDesign: Feature Requests
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1. Description
2. Why is this valuable to you?
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865 results found
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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…1 vote -
Add "Unmap All" to Map Tags to Styles
In the Map Tags to Styles popup panel, please supply a "unmap all tags" button. Sometimes we use the tags to prestyle text, but then apply manual overrides, and want to retain the manual overrides when importing new XML. We currently have to manually remove all mapped styles from the tags before doing that, which can be very tedious when working on large numbers of documents.
2 votes -
Export All Alternate Layouts as PDFs With Layout Name
I use the alternate layout tool a lot to group different sized content in the same InDesign file.
While I know I can select the layout as a range during export, it would be a huge timesaver to be able to export all of my layouts as separate PDFs and then just add the alternate layout name to the end of the PDF file.
Ideally this could be a check box in the export settings "export each alternate layout as a separate file"
12 votesInDesign versions CC2018 and above have an option called ‘Create Separate PDF Files’ in the Export PDF dialog. Using this option, you should be able to export all your layouts as separate PDFs.
Which version of InDesign are you using?Adobe InDesign team
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Please make the reflect tool work the same way as in illustrator!
It works completely opposite of Illustrator which makes it super confusing if you're switching between them (i.e. to do the same transformation, you have to use a horizontal reflection in indesign and a vertical one in illustrator.) A preview like in illustrator would be great too.
3 votes -
A new Switch tool
Instead of ctrl+c, and ctrl+v, it could be invented a new function that switches existing text from a sentence to another. I would find it particularly useful in tables.
Ex:
I would like green apples
I would like yellow lemonsSelect green, ctrl+whatever, select yellow
Now I have
I would like yellow apples
I would like green lemons1 vote -
Password requirements / limitation for publish online function
We are facing an issue, that we have to use a specific password, which the customer define and we have to use for protecting the documents. It's not allowed, to use a different password.
This password is longer than 20 characters, but you have rules for the password and one of it is defined, that the password has not to be longer than 20 characters.
That means for us, we cannot share any Adobe files with these customer, which means, that we have to use competitor tools, which allows a password with more than 20 characters...
Would be great,…1 vote -
Add Sticky Notes to Incopy like in Acrobat
The Layout and the the Editors work pretty close together in our company. The ability for the Editors to correct their text in the Layoutview is a nice thing for both... Layout and Editors. But we really miss the "Sticky Note" Feature known from Acrobat. When the Editors try to communicate, that they want changes being applied to the Design, thats not really possible with Incopy right now. For example, the editors would love to click the sticky note tool, so that they could place it right next to a picture and add their notes. For exmample: "make this one…
14 votes -
Making imported PDF edit more obvious in InDesign and fixing delays with mouse clicks
As a book designer who works with many long manuscripts, I do appreciate being able to import PDF edits into InDesign. That is a great new feature in the last few versions.
However, some edits are just too hard to spot in a spread. One can easily spot highlighted text (such as when the editors mark a phrase for deletion or replacement). But when the editors insert or delete commas and periods or choose a spot where they want to add new text, there is nothing obvious -- beyond a skinny, nearly invisible cursor -- to draw the eye. The…
5 votes -
Allow key bindings, shorcuts and function changes for mice
Similar yet from different worlds, AutoCAD is easy to navigate a layout by zooming in and out with the mouse wheel to where the curser is pointed, as well as to pan by clicking and holding the middle mouse button. Is there a way to do this already? However, it seems that InDesign only allows binding of Keyboard shortcuts. Mouse-bindings can further reduce stress and fatigue when working on documents for extended periods of (Coming from a Civil Drafter of 7yrs). It can also improve the speed of work completed by allowing the user to more fully tailor the InDesign…
1 vote -
Ribbon and tab interface
I would like to express my desire to have the current menu bar replaced with a Ribbon and tab interface, similar to what is found in Microsoft Office 2016. I believe this new design would significantly enhance efficiency and usability. The Ribbon format organizes commands and tools in a way that is much more intuitive, allowing users to access the functions they need with ease. Instead of navigating through various nested menus, which can often be cumbersome and time-consuming, the Ribbon provides a clear and visual way to find and use features. Overall, I think this change would greatly improve…
1 vote -
Swatch-panner [mark] if colors are added with ink management
If the colors are edited with [ink management]
than it would be helpful if you can see it in the swatch-panel
(Like the FullColor-marking behind the swatch)and
Make [ink management]-setting a PDF-export-setting (in LowRes for example)1 vote -
Object Style default option for the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) other than [None]
Hello and thank you for the opportunity to offer feedback! I have always used the Rectangle Frame Tool (F), primarily for images but also for text. I am trying to streamline options and defaults in InDesign as my work is now required to make all digital reports and other documents with accessibility requirements for screen readers. In trying to set the default of my frames to the [Basic Graphics Frame] object style with my updated changes or a custom object style, the object style immediately snaps back to [None] when I draw the frame. It doesn't matter how I draw…
1 vote -
Native Support for Bibliographic Citations and Plugin Integration with Reference Managers (Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, etc.)
Unlike Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign lacks built-in tools for managing bibliographic citations, in-text references, and automated bibliography generation. This is a major limitation for users creating academic papers, scientific publications, books, theses, or any long-form documents with sources.Currently, we rely on workarounds like:Drafting in Word with citation plugins (e.g., Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley), then placing static text into InDesign.
Third-party scripts (e.g., zot2indd for Zotero), which are unofficial and limited.Requested features:Native dynamic citation fields (similar to Word's References tab) for inserting in-text citations and auto-generating/updating a bibliography.
Official plugin/extension support or API integration for popular reference managers like Zotero, EndNote,…2 votes -
Text and Hyperlinks - Tag a Hyperlink visually
The ability to see if a word is hyperlinked on a page with several hyperlinks visually, like you can with an anchor item. There is no way to see if a word is hyperlinked unless you open the Hyperlink panel and go thru the list of all the hyperlinked items on that page. Is there a way to create a visual cue like if the word was misspelled or something like that to quickly know what words are hyperlinked on a page. More of a visual cue to know quickly and also if you hover over the hyperlink, like an…
3 votes -
Embed file option while placing the image in the page
Many-a-times after placing a Image, we need to Embed that as we don't want that to stay connected to the source.
That's why what we want is that before placing a Image, there should be a Link/Embed Option as there is in Illustrator so that I do not have to manually go to Links Panel and Embed it from there for every single Image. It will faster the work process2 votes -
Scroll Bar Access
Panels should not overlap the page vertical scroll bar. Instead they should snap on right side of the pasteboard [Offset the width of the scrollbar] allowing access to the scrollbar. saving you have to close panels
8 votes -
Use Opt-click for "update all cross references"
In the links panel, opt-click on the update button updates all changed links. It also has a tool tip for doing so. I have been told opt-click is a 'standard' in many Adobe apps. But "update all cross references" is not so easily found. It requires to make sure no cross reference is selected and then click the update button. This is not intuitive and hard to find. Change to opt-click (with tooltip). Check for any other place that an update button exist and unify the UI in the same manner.
1 vote -
Preflight. Hidden pages
It would be great if we had the option to add hidden pages to the preflight.
When working with long documents, if your pages panel is small it might be difficult to see a hidden page.
For translation projects, it might be essential that only text that is going to be visible in the final pdf is actually present in the indd /idml file so hidden pages should be identified and deleted.
2 votes -
Display a button's multiple actions/events
If we are able to add multiple events to buttons, the only way we can see those actions is to pro-actively switch to that event (via the Event drop down in the InDesign Buttons and Forms panel) or by exporting an interactive PDF and viewing the actions in the button's properties dialogue box in Acrobat.
Ideally, if an object is turned into an interactive button, the panel should change to reflect that. Within the new space, if a button is applied an action via the event drop down, line items should appear similar to the way actions aggregate. Another…
2 votes -
Include possibility to switch writing direction for Hebrew and Arabic in all language versions, not just the ME one.
I am using the Swedish version of InDesign CC and sometimes need to be able to write in Hebrew. But the possibility to change writing direction is only available in the Middle Eastern version, which changes all menus and panels into English. I want to be able to keep all menus and panels in Swedish, but still be able to switch writing direction for Hebrew (and Arabic). I suggest that you include this possibility in all language versions, not just the ME one, so that the original local language can still be used in the user interface.
11 votes
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