Participant

Answered

ALT and drag to duplicate an object creates 3 objects instead of 1 in InDesign 2020 on macOS

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
January 30, 2020
6 replies
7969 views

Hello! I am working with In-Design CC 2020 and I noticed that when I use alt and drag to duplicate an object, it's not working as I used to know, but instead, it creates something like step and repeat!

It creates 2 more objects! It's so frustrating.....

{Renamed by MOD}

Performance

Correct answer Kevin Stohlmeyer

I'm also an ACP so I tried all the normal troubleshooting prior to posting.

Resetting the current version and removing caches did nothing.

The solution we found was to completely blow away the folders for any version of InDesign in the ~Library/Caches and ~Library/Preferences and then restarting the entire machine not just the current version.

The user had 2018 and older folders still in the Library from previous upgrades.

I'm theorizing that leaving previous version preference or cache from an older install may have been causing the issue.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

I understand that this is a bug because it is happening unexpectedly to many of you, but you can also harness this as a feature. (And one I was personally unaware of.)

It's similar to Edit > Step and Repeat but with equal distribution between the outermost objects. If you can get your fingers to cooperate, you can duplicate an object with Alt/Opt and then add/subtract shapes in the middle with the up/down arrows while continuting to hold down the Alt/Opt and mouse button.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Here is a comprehensive troubleshooting guide:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshooting/m-p/11990234

Mike Witherell

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Correct answer

Community Expert

I'm also an ACP so I tried all the normal troubleshooting prior to posting.

Resetting the current version and removing caches did nothing.

The solution we found was to completely blow away the folders for any version of InDesign in the ~Library/Caches and ~Library/Preferences and then restarting the entire machine not just the current version.

The user had 2018 and older folders still in the Library from previous upgrades.

I'm theorizing that leaving previous version preference or cache from an older install may have been causing the issue.

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi Kevin,

that's something I also experienced with InDesign when several versions are or were installed.

To get a clean install or a clean trashing of preferences and chaches best temporarily remove also the preferences and caches for all other installed versions of InDesign.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

A

Annie Kitchen

Participant

I am having this issue, only when I use Alt and drag, it creates two copies. It just started doing this today.

InDesign 2021
Windows 10

S

stigatleb

Participant

On Windows: Pushing the arrow up on the keyboard while holding Alt and drag (a bit tricky with only two hands, but use the Alt-gr) will give you more duplicates. Pushing the arrow down on the keyboard while holding Alt and drag will reduce number of duplicates.

O

oswaldob89621093

Participant

You are a GENIUS!!

M

manwithcomputer

Participant

How has this not been fixed yet? It's a really annoying issue!

Srishti Bali

Community Manager

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this. That's definitely not normal. I would request if you can share a few more details like:

Exact version of InDesign and operating system.
Is the issue related to a specific document? If yes, could you please share the document with us? You can upload it to the creative cloud and share the download link.
Has this feature ever worked on this system?

Regards,

Srishti