Participant

Question

Cursor Placement Offset in InDesign on MacBook Trackpad (macOS Tahoe)

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
March 10, 2026
5 replies
165 views

Hi everyone - I have just bought a new MacBook and everything seems to work except for the mouse in InDesign. I have just tried working with text on a document created on the previous computer. I need to place the curse quite a bit higher than the text that I wish to select. I am using the trackpad on the MacBook. Any suggestions would be gratefully received!

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hi David and/or Default,

Have you experimented with resetting InDesign preferences? Of the 4 different methods of resetting, maybe also try method 3 about the cache reset.

As for the fonts, OpenType fonts began to replace original T1 PostScript fonts starting in the year 2000. At the beginning of the year 2023, Adobe closed down support for those old fonts in InDesign 2023 v18.2. You don’t say what your font format is, but chances are this is related to old PostScript fonts. Replace them with current OpenType fonts and thereafter, check for reflow issues. Painful, I know.

Mike Witherell

D

defaulto5uoroeakau0

Participant

Any solutions yet. This started happening after I updated to Tahoe OS on MBP M1 magic mouse. Especially a PROBLEM! in InDesign (2020)!! Thought it was just OS problem and tracking, bought new pad for mouse and keyboard, didn’t help. I tried to update to 2026 and of course now it won’t read any old fonts loaded. So screwed there too!! I did try to build a new document in 2020, same problem continued.Also tried the reset preferences. did nothing but loose my preference.

leo.r

Community Expert

InDesign 2020 was released way before Tahoe and is not supported, so there’s no guarantee it would function as expected there.

I tried to update to 2026

Just to make sure: so do you have a cursor issue in InDesign 2026 or not?

and of course now it won’t read any old fonts loaded

Can you please elaborate on this… Normally, there should be no issue loading fonts in either version of InDesign. What do you specifically mean by “old fonts”? Can you post any screenshots that illustrate the issue? Are those fonts from Adobe Creative Cloud or local fonts on your machine? Does the problem affect all fonts or only specific ones?

D

defaulto5uoroeakau0

Participant

Leo.r - yes frustrated continually w a company I’ve paid tens of thousands $$ to over many many years. User since AI88 & original PSD using Aldus Pagemaker. always problems since CC. Always.

and to clarify. No I didn’t test 2026 because any older fonts - probably PS don’t load in matching Tahoe & Indesign. Quick try. I’ll investigate cursor in 2026 today. But that won’t help if I can’t use the docs original fonts. Haven’t figured out either so instead of one problem I have multiple problems. Some w Abode and probably some w Apple.

specifically using or editing my old files that use old fonts. As well I am faced w being a Quark user but trying to convert to paying for single service. Thus starting over w new docs in indesign. And yes perhaps I should have been more diligent upgrading but would like one machine (m1) to be smoothly running. without Apple Rosetta warnings and without font problems or adobe problems.
Currently rushing to edit something.
thank you for reply and feedback back. Will jump back to this after other projects.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @DavidBanney,

Thanks for sharing the details and the screen recording. Adding to the suggestions shared by the experts, could you please try manually resetting the InDesign preferences? You can follow the steps shown in the video at the bottom of this article to reset the preferences: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html

If the issue persists, please try renaming a couple of Adobe support folders and then relaunch InDesign. Go to /Library/Application Support/Adobe and rename the CEP folder to CEP.old. If that does not help, please rename the UXP folder to UXP.old from the following locations: /Library/Application Support/Adobe and ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe, then restart the machine and test again.

If the behavior continues, it will also help to start the Mac in Safe Mode to rule out any third-party application interference that might be affecting cursor positioning. You can follow the steps here: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

Also, I noticed that you are currently using InDesign 2020. Would you mind updating to the latest version, 21.2, and checking if the issue still occurs? Please let me know if there is a specific reason you are staying on the older version.

Please try these steps and let me know how it goes. Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

Barb Binder

Community Expert

This is odd.

I’m curious if this behavior persists in a new file, or is it only in the one specific file.

If it’s this one file and not any others, I’d be happy to take a quick look. You can attach it in a reply here (public) or send me a direct message (private).

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Barb Binder

Community Expert

I’m on macOS Tahoe 26.3.1 and InDesign 21.2 and not experiencing that using my trackpad or mouse so I don’t think it’s a Tahoe/InDesign-specific issue. You still might check your  > System Settings just to make sure you don’t have an unexpected setting.

I’m curious if the file you opened has a baseline shift enabled. That would replicate the behavior you are describing and is used occasionally for special effects.

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

DavidBanneyAuthor

Participant

Thanks very much Barb - I tried changing the Baseline Shift but that made no difference, and I looked up the System Settings and couldn’t see anything unusual there - I have added a couple of pictures. The first is of the file that I was working on (same with other files) - to highlight the line that is highlighted I had to place the cursor two lines above it. The second pic is the trackpad settings.

Many thanks again

David