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Participant
September 22, 2018
Question

InDesign: Cannot edit text

  • September 22, 2018
  • 5 replies
  • 12866 views

Hello,

editing text is almost impossible: Only after double-clicking 20-30 times the cursor starts blinking in the selected box and lets me type my text,

sometimes it doesn't work at all!

I tried with STRG + (2x)click, Escape, Selection tool/Direct selection... without success.

InDesign version is 13.1 x64.

Can someone help?

This topic has been closed for replies.

5 replies

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 24, 2018

Please spin open your Layers panel for the spread and post a screenshot. We may be able to see the issue.

Scott Citron
Legend
September 23, 2018

Is your text editing problem associated with a specific InDesign file, or all InDesign files?

Participant
September 23, 2018

Hi Scott,

it seems to happen to all files (athough, since I only use InDesign for a

monthly flyer, each file is a copy of the previous one).

On Sun, Sep 23, 2018 at 9:17 PM Scott Citron <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

Scott Citron
Legend
September 24, 2018

One easy thing to try is to uninstall and then re-install InDesign. If you try this, make sure to allow the uninstaller to delete all existing Preferences.

Community Expert
September 23, 2018

Hm,

maybe this is related to the bug described below if you follow the link?

First character is skipped while typing on Windows

There is a workaround or a bug fix you have to install personally.

The bug fix does not come with the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App.

Regards,
Uwe

Participant
September 23, 2018

Hi Uwe,

thanks for your proposal, however my symptom is slightly different: "When

you highlight some text ..." --> I don't even get that far, the cursor

remains in the old box and nothing happens in the new box.

Bill Silbert
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 22, 2018

Double-clicking once in a text frame should change the selection tool (black arrow) into the text tool. That is normal. 20-30 times is not. Is this behavior happening when the text tool is chosen rather than the selection tool? It is also possible that your text frames are below another object either in stacking order or on another (lower) layer. All that being said it is not normal behavior so I would first suggest that you try trashing your InDesign preferences.

To do so:

For Macintosh Users: The User Library folder in which InDesign’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that InDesign is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N). With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe InDesign” and the file called “com.adobe.InDesign.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

For Windows Users: You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so:

On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create  new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

Participant
September 23, 2018

Hi Bill,

thanks for your proposal - however after resetting the preferences the same

issue occurs...

On Sat, Sep 22, 2018 at 12:37 PM Bill Silbert <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

Bill Silbert
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 23, 2018

You said that all of your files are copies of each other. If that is so have you tried creating an entirely new file to see if the problem persists? If it is a problem even with new files then I think that it might be time to uninstall and reinstall in the following manner:

In the app section of your Creative Cloud desktop app click on the “V” next to the app’s (InDesign) name and choose the “Uninstall” option from the pull-down menu that appears. After you’ve run the uninstall then use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems. Then reinstall the program through the Desktop app. Before you reinstall, once again trash all preference files to make sure that your install is completely clean. Then launch Indesign and see if the problem is still there.

John Waller
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 22, 2018

Moved from Creative Cloud forum.