Creating a Typography Workspace

At last count, there were 3,572 different palettes in InDesign. That's an exaggeration, but sometimes it doesn't seem like much of one. InDesign palettes are so numerous you would swear they breed like rabbits when your back is turned. A great many of these palettes you'll seldom or never use, no matter how illustrious your InDesign career. Thankfully, InDesign gives you unprecedented control of your workspace, allowing you to saveand recall at any timethe current sizes, positions, and groupings of your palettes. The names of workspaces appear in a Workspace submenu of the Window menuor you can make a custom keyboard shortcut to switch to your workspace with a specified key combination.

First, arrange your palettes the way you want them. Create groupings that make sense to you, close those palettes you think you'll seldom or never use (if you need them at any time, they are under the Window menu), then float or dock those you want, where you want them. Choose Window>Workspace>Save Workspace and give your workspace a name.

Figure 1.13. My custom workspace (with palettes expanded).

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Having saved your workspace, you can load it at any time by returning to the Window menu, choosing Workspace and sliding over to your saved workspace. Alternatively, you can make yourself a keyboard shortcut to load the workspace.

Choose Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts.
Click New Set to create a new shortcut set without overwriting the default keyboard shortcut set..
For Product Area, select the area containing the command you want to define or redefine, in this case the Window Menu.
In the Commands list, scroll down to Workspace: Load 1st Workspace (you can create shortcuts for up to five workspaces).
In the New Shortcut field, press the keys for your new keyboard shortcutI use Ctrl-F12. (Leave the Context list set to Default so that the shortcut functions in all situations.)
Click Assign to create the new shortcut.

Now that you've laid the groundwork for an efficient workflow, let's take a look at getting type into our documents, using InDesign's text-flow methods.