Ack! All My Tools and Panels Disappeared!

[Erica Gamet]

I often get the question (usually in a panicked voicemail/email): "Where have all my panels and tools gone in InDesign?! Have I broken InDesign?"

It's actually an easy thing to accidentally hide these without even knowing it.

If your screen suddenly looks like the screenshot below, you most likely hit the Tab key when not in a text frame. That clears all the panels (including the Tools and Control panels), giving you more of your artboard to work with. Just hit Tab again and they should come right back.

[jane-e]

Good tip, Erica—I wish we could click “Helpful” on a first post!

[Erica Gamet]

I get asked a lot, and I noticed there was an old, closed question asking the same (with another answer). It's not a big or earth-shattering thing, but it's a common question for sure.

[jane-e]

Hi Erica,

Yes, I get it all the time, too—this is one of those "tricks" that works in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and even the first version of PageMaker.

Now that you have commented, I can click "helpful", because some people report turning off their computers trying to solve this one!

See you next month?

[Erica Gamet]

Yup! I'll be there!

[Srishti Bali]

Hi Erica

Thanks for sharing such content. This will surely be helpful to many users in the community.

Regards,

Srishti