My palettes in InDesign are moving without my permission!
April 10, 2009 7:07 AM   Subscribe

Why are my palettes moving in InDesign?

I'm working with dual monitors and InDesign 5.0.4 (on Mac 10.5.6). Often, I'll come back to my desk, wake up my computer, and the palettes have moved to straddle the space between the two monitors, rather than staying where I've put them on my non-work space monitor. It gets frustrating that I have to reposition them several times a day. Why are they moving to what seems a default position, rather than staying where I put them?

(Let me know if you need any other information in order to answer my question properly)
posted by UnclePlayground to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)
 
Unfortunately I don't think there's an answer beyond "because Adobe sucks".

I think Adobe didn't make their preference files account for setups that use dual monitors. I use a Macbook Pro with an external monitor, and every single day when I connect the monitor and start up Photoshop, I have to reconfigure my palettes.

Although strangely, Illustrator seems unaffected.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:27 AM on April 10, 2009


If you make a custom workspace, you should be able to just make them go back to that after you wake up the computer. Yeah, it sucks, but the Adobe suite gets confused by multiple monitors sometimes.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:54 AM on April 10, 2009


I'm not sure if Adobe app palette windows can be accessed by AppleScript or not, but it might be worth investigating. If so, you could write a script (or just find one -- check macosxhints.com) to move the windows to a certain position and tweak the x/y values until they are where you want them. Turn on the script icon in your menubar, put the script in your scripts folder, and you have instant access. Every time you run the script, it will move the windows back to your preferred position.

Sorry I can't be of any direct assistance, but hopefully this gives you an idea that might work.
posted by bengarland at 8:10 AM on April 10, 2009


Is this possibly a problem with 10.5.6? I'm still on 10.5.4 (because of stories heard about Adobe/10.5.5 and 5.6 problems, and too many in-progress projects to risk the updates), with CS4 and dual monitors and have never had a problem with palettes moving in any app, Adobe or not. All my Adobe layouts are saved as custom workspaces, if that matters.
posted by dpcoffin at 8:59 AM on April 10, 2009


I'm still using CS3, so my answer was based on that.

Not going to pay the $500 to upgrade until the ad agency I'm freelancing for also upgrades. By then we'll probably have CS5.
posted by Fleebnork at 9:54 AM on April 10, 2009


« Older In/Around France at the end of May - help?   |   What are these wires for? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.