My tools palette has disappeared

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
July 18, 2010
8 replies
92354 views

To say I am a novice at InDesign would be to insult most novices. But I do put out a decent product knowing just what I need to know and bumbling my way through the rest.

So today I am working and suddenly my tools palette disappears. I closed the program, waited a bit, and then restarted it. It is still missing. I rebooted my maching (Win7). No tools palette. I went back to another project hoping I did something on this project that made it disappear and it would show up elsewhere. Nope.

I though that maybe it was just missing from my screen so I made the screen smaller (seeing lots of pages) hoping it had slid all the way to the left. Nope.

Nothing I do seems to bring it back. Of course I first went into Windows and there it was checked. I unchecked it and shut down. Started up again and it had remained unchecked. I checked it and my page shifted a bit to the right but still no tolls palette.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks,

Kathie

Performance

Correct answer Stix_Hart

Try pushing the tab button with nothing selected, this hides all tools....

G

Grafffffique

Participant

I have this problem in 2026: here's how I fixed it:

1. File > User Settings Export. Export your settings to somewhere

File > User Settings Import: Import the thing. InDesign will give a warning and that you should click on restart.
Click on restart
Success!!
Send a Bill to Adobe for your wasted time

D

DiscoveryChurch

Participant

I think you need to go to window/tools

saeedalkarmi

Participating Frequently

Try to hit Tab or Shift+Tab!!

K

kacym91738426

Participant

I'm having the same problem. I'm not a novice, but I am no means an expert. I use InDesign CC daily at my work. Yesterday I was working and all my extra stuff (control, tools, character, paragraph, ALL extra windows) *poof* gone. Just my main workspace with my artwork. My InDesign window is not floating off to the side. I've moved the entire window as well as the project tab to make sure nothing was hiding. But I can't find my items.

When I check the Window drop down, all my items are unchecked. I have to recheck everything. However, as soon as I close out of InDesign and reopen, everything is closed again. I haven't touched my settings, but could something have glitched that I need to check? I never mess with the preferences so I'm not sure if there would be something wrong or not.

jane-e

Community Expert

The first thing to do is to Reset your current Workspace.

Also, be aware that pressing the Tab key will clear the panels (and bring them back).

Does that work, or is it something else?

K

kacym91738426

Participant

I did see the earlier comment about the Tab key, but nothing happened for me until I opened all of the windows (control, tools, etc.) again, then the tab worked. But as soon as I opened another document, or closed out then reopened InDesign everything was gone again.

I didn't think about resetting the workspace, so I just did that. Closed out of InDesign. Reopened. Created a new blank project and still nothing