Adobe InDesign 2026, full screen toggle change - BUG

Report · Oct 29, 2025

I use Adobe inDesign in pallet mode, so not 'Application Frame' mode, with toolbars at the top and left docked and pallets docked to the right.

Click the the expand traffic light button in the top left used to just expand the window so that it still showed the dock at the bottom and the pallets to the right, if they inadvertently went behind the pallets or dock.

Now it just goes full screen mode which I don't use and is useless for a pallet rich application like InDesign, and is impossible to get out of, unless you move & undock the toolbars out of the way so that when you move your mouse to the top, the window buttons reappear.

This is so broken it's unbelivable you've shipped it like this.

The only fix for this is to go into Application Frame mode which doesn't work for me because I need to see the Finder desktop when there's no documents open.

It's a bug because holding down the option key and hovering over the expand button, changes it into a + sign but it does nothing when you click it.

Adobe Photoshop 2026 behaves the same, but Adobe Illustrator works as InDesign used to..

So the fix is to just make it work like Illustrator.

Report · Oct 28, 2025

Oh! Thank for the explaination. I also experiment the behaviour you talk about with the window being oversized and behind the tools. It's frustrating and not productive at all.

Report · Oct 29, 2025

it shiuodk resize to avoid the palettes (inc tool palette) as all perviosu verisons. this new way is insane

Report · Nov 02, 2025

I have this problem too. I run on macos 26.0.1 and indesign v21. I updated indesign 5 days ago and my operating system a few weeks ago. This issue did not start until I updated to indesign v21. It's super frustrating and it takes so much time to adjust it. It even changes when I open a new dokument when I already have a dokument open and have adjusted the size to fit in my free space on my screen. PLEASE fix this really fast🙏 It's almost so I look for another program I can work in, it's so frustrating.

Report · Nov 02, 2025

I think that's probably the most annoying part of it! The fact that it doesn't stay consistent across multiple documents.

Report · Oct 30, 2025

I'd just like to bump this to show my support for this too as I use this ALL the time as per @Coldd . I also hate the full screen option. It has always annoyed me in Photoshop and now you bring it to InDesign. At least Illustrator is safe for now.

Report · Oct 31, 2025

On Mac OS 26.0.1 using Indesign 20. I like to use Indesign without the application frame so I can see and click to my desktop when needed. With the previous version of Indesign clicking the green button on the window would maximize it to fit without the tool frames. Now when I click the green button it goes complete full screen and I can only undo this by moving toolbars out of the way to get to the green button again to click it. Anyway to get this to behave like it did in the previous version?

Report · Oct 31, 2025

Hello @Ben__P,

Thanks for reaching out. Could you try resetting your current workspace or using one of the default workspaces to see if it helps? Also, try enabling the Application Frame and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

Report · Oct 31, 2025

Here is a video of one of the bugs in action.
For whatever reason, many of my documents open with the bottom of the window juuuuust out of view. In previous versions, clicking the green traffic light button in the upper left resized the window so the bottom of the window was now in view. In 2026, this is no longer the case. Now, it jumps around. Watch!

Report · Nov 03, 2025

I was going to post a movie but yours covers it perfectly.

Non-application frame documents are completely broken, with the document window flashing as seen in this post.

I get this flashing occuring and on some documents, option clicking does nothing at all.

Also I’ve just discovered that ID now doesn’t save the window position between saves.

I open a document, re-size the window so it’s not behind the pallets and expand the size of it.

Saving and re-opening the document, it defaults to a standard position, behind the toolbar and a smaller window size.

I cannot do this every single time I open a previously saved ID document - I open dozens of ID windows a day.

You clearly haven’t tested non-application frame set ups - please fix this.

Report · Nov 03, 2025

Mine is a little different then Damians video. I have attached a screen recording. Also I did try with a default "essentials" workspace and the same issue persists. I thought I could live with the glitch but am moving back to the previous version of Indesign till this is resolved. Every document I have open as well when it tabs is a different size, so I can resize one window then switch over to another job tab and that is a different size. Very frustrating.

Report · Nov 03, 2025

hold alt and drag a corner to resize the window from the middle.

Its by no means a fix but it makes it a little less painful

open indesign doc -> move window down and to the right -> alt drag corner to get it al in

repeat

Report · Nov 03, 2025

This seems more ownerless than just using Application Frame, which, for some reason, I cannot assign to a hot key.

Report · Nov 03, 2025

_onerous_

Report · Nov 04, 2025

i cant be dealing with aplicaiton frame so im making do best i can

Report

Edit: Found it. Application Frame is assignable, but for some reason, it's under the View menu, and not Window, where it lives.. Quick toggle should be a decent workaround until this is fixed.

Report · Nov 05, 2025

I have reverted to using Indesign 2025 as the changes in 2026 are nice, they do not alter or really improve how I work. The frame issue in this whole thread is a reall annoyance and will keep me from updating till resolved. Hopefully something that can be fixed easily and quickly.

Report · Oct 31, 2025

Yes, me too! (maybe that's the movement they'll act on)

Seems like the Mac way of handling windows is the ugly step-child and Adobe couldn't care less about any behavior outside the Application Frame workflow. All window behavior in Adobe products on Mac is fncked up one way or another. (been dealing with an Illustrator window problem since 2019)

It may ultimately be because of changes to macOS, but they are the operationg system. The apps need to get on board.

Outside of the Windows-centric Application Frame way of doing things... it's broken, it's wrong, it's defective, whatever.

Fully agree with Diguru-Studio and Coldd.

Report · Oct 31, 2025

Have you "upgraded" to Tahoe yet? I'm still on the latest sequoia here, because Tahoe is pretty broken still. I wonder if this bug persists there too. Do you know?

Report · Oct 31, 2025

Have you "upgraded" to Tahoe yet? I'm still on the latest sequoia here, because Tahoe is pretty broken still. I wonder if this bug persists there too. Do you know?

By @Damian5FE4

Yes, it's on all systems.

Report · Nov 01, 2025

Yes. Current on Tahoe.

I have had no functional issues with Tahoe itself.

Ugly as hell with changes seemingly for the sake of change, but functions fine.

Report · Nov 01, 2025

I know this isn't a forum for it, but Tahoe has successfully made my second external monitor stopped working pretty consistently. I have to constantly monitor and delete my display preferences, for example.

Report · Nov 05, 2025

Not touching Tahoe until Adobe update their post about macOS compatibility, chances are I'll skip this macOS version entirely.

Report · Nov 05, 2025

meh, im on Tahoe and besides this bug (which is not to do woth Tahoe) Adobe's "fine" - in the usual sense as in acrobat crashes and freezes randomly

Report · Oct 31, 2025

I agree, that this bug in InDesign and Photoshop is annoying. I use InDesign on different machines. Currently I test the new version on an iMac 2019 with Sequoia 15.7.1. This behaviour is the first thing I saw after I started the 2026 InDesign. How can Adobe ship something buggy like this? Where are the Beta-testers?

Please, Adobe, fix this bug asap!!! We don't wanna work in this application frame! Until the bug is not fixed, I'll not update our working machines. Thank Gos I saw this bug quickly on a test machine.

Report · Nov 01, 2025

Just chiming in to agree with Coldd. Working in InDesign before v21 was no problem if you chose not to use the Application Frame. I do not like the Application Frame and choose not to use it. Choosing not to use the Application Frame has never been a problem before and continues to not be a problem using the just-released Illustrator v30, but is totally broken in InDesign v21. This is under macOS Sequoia 15.7.1 and I imagine macOS Tahoe as well.

So please Adobe, whatever changed to the windowing in InDesign v21, change it back to how it worked in all the previous versions for those of us who don't use the Application Frame.