items missing from my workspace - how to get them back

Sounds like you closed your Control panel. Go under the Window menu and select Control. That panel is contextual and changes depending on which tool you've chosen.

It's frustrating when your panels are missing!  Having a custom workspace can help you recover them quickly.

1. If the panels are no longer visible, you might have to reconstruct your workspace again.
2. Bring the panels back onto your screen from the Window menu and submenus.
3. Once they're visible again, you can resize them, and dock them to the sides of your screen, keep them floating, gang them into one tabbed panel, do whatever you want to rearrange them how you wish.
4. Then, save the setup as a custom Workspace. From the Window menu, select Workspace / New Workspace. Name it whatever you'd like. This will help in the future when a panel (or more) becomes missing, you can Select Window / Reset XYZ Workspace to reset your custom workspace.

@sivey << when I click Type/Character or Type/paragraph I cannot seem to see all the options I had in those categories previously!>>

You should be able to find all of the categories or options by expanding each panel's options. For example, Window / Type & Tables / Character brings up the Character panel, but by default it shows only the basic settings. To expand the options, select the panel's Options menu (upper right corner) and select Show Options.

Hi,

With nothing selected try pressing tab.

if not, ”reset” the workspace.

Select Window > Workspace > Reset [Workspace Name]

-Aman