How to Lock, Unlock, Hide, Unhide, Delete InDesign Objects?

While dealing with InDesign you can use several of its features that will turn your task easily, locking objects are one of them.

By locking objects you can make sure that the objects are cannot be moved or modified from their actual place. Through this, you can prevent your layout from unintentional obliteration.

In order to lock objects of INDD file, you can use the Lock command, this will specify that certain objects of INDD file get fixed and can’t be moved in your layout. Locked objects are fixed on their locked position when a document is saved, closed, and then reopened.

After locking an object, it cannot be moved. But, you can select locked objects by turning off the Prevent Selection Of Locked Objects option which is present in the General preferences. You can also change the attributes like color and other things of a locked object.

Steps to Lock and unlock objects or layers

• If you want to lock objects, click on the edit column button present at the right of the eye icon.
• Drag across numerous edit column buttons to lock multiple items. OR choose the objects you want to lock, and then select Object > Lock > Selection.
• If you want to unlock InDesign objects, click on the lock icon present in the Layers panel for the object or layer you want to unlock.

If you are unable to apply the above-given tricks to lock or unlock the Indesign file then apply the following commands to lock and unlock objects:

To Lock Indesign

Scenario 1: In order to lock all objects that overlie the area of the selected object and that present in the similar layer, choose the object, and then select Object -> Lock -> All Artwork Above.

Scenario 2: If you want to lock the entire layers rather than the layer that includes a selected item or group, select Object > Lock > Other Layers or select Lock Others from the Layers panel menu.

Scenario 3: Locking all the layers is also very simple, choose all the layers in the Layers panel, and after it select Lock All Layers from the panel menu.

Also Read: 7 Ways To Troubleshoot Issues After Updating To InDesign CC 2017.1

To unlock Indesign

Scenario 1: If you want to unlock all the objects in the document, select Object > Unlock All.

Scenario 2: Unlock all the objects within present in a single group, choose an unlocked and visible object within the group. Keep pressing Shift + Alt (for Windows) or Shift + Option (for Mac OS) and select Object > Unlock All.

Scenario 3: In order to unlock all the layers, select Unlock All Layers option from the Layers panel menu to unlock them.

Learn other important InDesign Tricks

Steps to Create Nonprinting Objects

If you want to create some special objects that will appear onscreen, but will never be printed or disappear from the portable versions of the document then follow the below-given steps.

Selectively hide or show elements in a document, or make the layers non-printing.

1. First of all, you need to select the object or text frame that you want to make nonprintable.
2. Go to the Attributes panel. To do this navigate through Window > Output > Attributes.
3. Now, in the Attributes panel, choose Nonprinting.

Steps to Hide InDesign objects

If you want to hide any object then make it clear that the hidden objects are not printed or exported, and they cannot be selected.

Apply any of the below-given steps to hide/unhide InDD Objects:

In order to hide an object, choose the object and select Object > Hide.

To unhide or show hidden objects, select Object > Show All On Spread.

Steps to Delete objects in InDesign

It is very simple to delete INDD objects:

• Choose the objects and then press Delete button from your keyboard.
• Choose the objects and then choose Edit > Clear or Edit > Cut.
• Choose the items that you want to delete in the Layers panel, and then click on the Delete icon.

Steps To Repair Corrupt Or Damaged InDesign (INDD) Files On Your Mac

Step 1: Download and Install InDesign Repair Tool. Here, the main software interface shows about the features and capabilities. Click ‘Next’ to proceed further.

Step 2: In this section, you can click the ‘Select File’ button so that you can browse the desired destination in your Mac and then select the corrupt INDD file.

Step 3: Or, you can also select the individual volume or hard drive in order to check for all INDD files. After the INDD files are listed, you can select the troubled one and click the ‘Repair’ option.

Step 4: In the progress bar, you can see the process is on.

Step 5: The software opens up the repaired file with Adobe InDesign to show its preview when the file is repaired.

Step 6: When you click on ‘Save’, the InDesign Repair tool then save the repaired INDD file to the default location or to any other specified location.

Conclusion

All the above-given InDesign Tricks are completely tested, so don’t worry about the effectiveness. If you are facing any kind of error message and unable to troubleshoot or access your InDesign content then you should try InDesign Repair Tool.

This recovery software is specially designed to deal with all types of INDD errors and issues. You don’t need any professional skill or command while recovering InDesign file via this tool, as it is very simple to use and repair error showing InDesign file.