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michicurrier
Participant
February 10, 2016
Answered

Can't change my PDF Export settings

  • February 10, 2016
  • 7 replies
  • 12597 views

I'm working in InDesign CC and I am trying to export a high quality PDF, but it is not letting me change; compatibility, or standard to a high-quality setting. It actually won't let me change anything in the menu that has a drop down. Any suggestions/ideas? Everything is up-to-date.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer tammyfatfish

I had this same problem and I accidentally came up with a solution that worked for me, and it's really simple.

Try clicking and holding the drop-down menu and dragging the mouse to the item you want to select then let go of the mouse button.

I usually click on a drop down menu and then click again on the item I want to select. This normally works, however, in this case there seems to be a glitch that doesn't let you do that.

I hope this makes sense and helps someone out there!

7 replies

Participant
May 18, 2018

@tammyfatfish this really helped me. Thanks!

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
April 14, 2018

@michicurrier and everyone.

I've had this problem on our Mac workstations, but never on our Windows workstations. Doesn't matter whether we're using external mice or built-in trackpads.

Has anyone verified whether it's a Mac-only glitch?

Can you chime in here what platform you used when it happened?

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
Participating Frequently
April 16, 2018

On a Mac for me.

stadler_cj
Participant
April 14, 2018

Thanks! I had this same problem. I could change settings yesterday, but not today. Turned out I was using the mouse pad on the mac, and now I'm using a mac external mouse. This works, and it explains everything! Thanks.

tammyfatfish
tammyfatfishCorrect answer
Participant
August 29, 2017

I had this same problem and I accidentally came up with a solution that worked for me, and it's really simple.

Try clicking and holding the drop-down menu and dragging the mouse to the item you want to select then let go of the mouse button.

I usually click on a drop down menu and then click again on the item I want to select. This normally works, however, in this case there seems to be a glitch that doesn't let you do that.

I hope this makes sense and helps someone out there!

Participant
September 25, 2017

YES! That works!!!

boomer_sk
Participant
July 20, 2017

I'm experiencing the same issue. Resetting preferences or just relaunching ID is only a temporary fix, the issue returns when ID is open for a while.

Participant
May 11, 2017

Since @Simulacrum reported having this problem more recently than the original post, I'll go ahead and leave this here. Maybe it will help other people searching for answers as well.

I just encountered the same bug here. None of the drop-down menus in my Export dialog were accepting any changes. The solution that worked for me was to reset InDesign's preferences.

In CC, you can do this by quitting the application and then relaunching it while QUICKLY pressing control + command + shift + option all at once. If you press all four keys as soon as InDesign begins to launch, you should see a dialog box saying "Startup Alert: Delete InDesign Preference files?" Click "Yes," and you'll hopefully have an InDesign that behaves correctly. Good luck.

P.S. You do have to be very quick on the draw. If you don't get the dialog box, just quit and try again.

Mike Witherell
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 11, 2017

I, for one, would like to see Adobe change away from this 3- or 4-key reset click. It should be simplified to some sort of reset button in preferences, maybe. Don't know why, but on some computers, I have had to try to reset with this keyboard shortcut, and I have tried over and over again, while InDesign doesn't see the reset shortcut, and I wait for it to load and shut down over and over. I wish there was just simply a button to click in preferences when I want to blow prefs!

Mike Witherell
Steve Werner
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 11, 2017

I totally agree!

But I just discovered this a short time ago. The current version of Photoshop CC 2017 already has this. Look at this screen capture:

BobLevine
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 10, 2016

Does this help?

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/indesign-tools-panels-dont-respond.html

Simulacrum
Participant
May 1, 2017

No it does not help