Another Annoying Bug: Shift+W triggers "Insert Math" with Preview Mode

Report · Mar 12, 2025

Yet another frustrating bug in InDesign: pressing Shift+W, which should activate fullscreen layout preview, now triggers the "Insert Math" popup.

For almost €70/month, can we expect a level of professionalism and reliability that matches the price we're paying? The persistent and unsolved "show tips" feature for beginners—which we still can't disable—is already irritating enough. We don't need new bugs making our workflow even worse.

Oh, and sorry to my fellow community members—after all, the only people likely to read this are users like us, not anyone at Adobe actually responsible for fixing it.

Report · Mar 12, 2025

You can file a bug report here - this is where Adobe responds and reacts to bug reports.

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs

What version of InDesign and what OS specifically? This could help track it if it is a bug to a specific issue somewhere.

Can you share any more details or steps to reproduce?

Posting here, we can try to help you.

Before you file a bug report - did you change your keyboard shortcuts at all?

I don't have any Keyboard Shortcut assigned to MathML insertion and this is default

Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts

Product Area: Object Menu

Scroll down to Insert MathML and check if there's a keyboard shortcut assigned to it.

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If that's not it it could be something else

Report · Mar 13, 2025

Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunatelly no SC is asigned to it. I'll report the bug in the proper channel. thanks for sharing the link as well

Report · Mar 13, 2025

Hi @danpinho,

Thanks for sharing your experience! I tested this on InDesign 20.2 on Windows, and Shift+W switches to fullscreen preview mode as expected. Were you able to check the keyboard shortcut assignment as Eugene suggested? Let me know if that helped or if the issue is still happening.

To dig deeper, could you share your exact InDesign version and OS details (as the expert already asked)?

As for the "show tips" feature, I totally get how frustrating it can be. The product team is aware and working on improvements. You might find this discussion helpful: https://adobe.ly/41O2LJx

Looking forward to your update!

^

Abhishek

Report · Mar 13, 2025

Mr. Rao,

I have been using Adobe products for 30 years now, and I have never been this frustrated. However, to answer your question:

I'm using a Mac, and everything is up to date. Each new OS release is installed cleanly, and InDesign preferences are never imported—I set them manually after every new OS installation.

Indesign: 20.2
OS.: Sequoia 15.3.2 (24D81)

I am a shortcut freak myself and i am sure it does not have a SC assigned to it. It's ramdon. After Shift+W it pops up on preview mode. Since i never user math on my projects, is not a delightful exp. imo.

I noticed your interactions in another thread where we complained about the tips popping up for new users. That was back in October, yet the tips still appear everywhere in InDesign. Please disable this feature.

Thank you.

Report · Mar 13, 2025

Some third party apps can cause Shortcut mysteries in InDesign.

For me - WebRoot caused major headache as InDesign shortcuts didn't work as Webroot was running.

Others have reported the Magnet app causing issues.

And most recently a program called Typeface.

Can you check if these are running on your computer and if disabling them works?

One quick way to know if it's a 3rd party app would be to start in Safe Mode and only launch InDesign. See if it works, and if it does you'll know it was something interferring.

You can then restart normally and try quitting background applications to see which one is causing the issue.

And to note - installing new apps doesn't even go smoothly, even cleanly, or without copying preferences etc, they still share some core library files.

One thing you can try

Try resetting your preferences:

Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.
A dialog will appear asking to delete the InDesign Preferences, select 'Yes' on this dialog.
Further info and instructions here if needed:
https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/kb/indesign-preferences-support-file-locations.html

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Another option is to do a clean install

Reinstalling rarely fixes everything - you can do a complete reinstall using the
Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

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Annoying popups will be back though, not much I can do about that.

Report · Mar 14, 2025

Hi @danpinho,

Thanks for sharing the details! I appreciate your patience. Could you try Eugene’s suggestion of running InDesign in Safe Mode to see if any third-party apps are interfering? If the issue doesn’t appear in Safe Mode, it’s likely caused by an external app.

As for the popups, I hear you. The product team is aware, and I’ll update you once there’s progress on improvements. Let me know how the shortcut issue goes!

^

Abhishek