Disable welcome screen in InDesign 12.1

[Paka222]

I recently moved to InDesign CC (2017.1 12.1.0.56 build) and I can't seem to find where to disable the welcome screen. Other posts have said to look in the "What's New" tab, but I don't have a "What's New" tab, I only have a "Work" and a "Learn" tab. Neither of the tabs has anything that allows me to turn off the welcome screen. Please help – I really hate that welcome screen and I really don't understand why Adobe makes it so difficult to shut off for those of us who don't want it.

[davidblatner]

In the Preferences dialog box, General pane, (press cmd or ctrl-K), you can disable the "Show Start Workspace When No Documents Are Open" checkbox.

[Paka222]

Thanks for the quick response, but it didn't work. The screen still appears when I open the program and when I open a document and close it again. I even restarted after changing the option and it's still there.

[davidblatner · Accepted solution]

The next checkbox down "show recent files" is also turned off?

Does the checkbox in the preferences dialog box get turned on again after you quit and restart InDesign? If so, then something is stopping the preferences from being saved.

Also, while no documents are open, try changing the workspace (Window > Workspace) to something other than [Start], like Advanced.

[Paka222]

Yes, thanks, that worked... the recent files no longer show up. I guess there's no way to change the background of the screen to none as it appeared in previous versions of InDesign? Right now it's grey. I preferred seeing the desktop in the background for quick switching between screens, but if not I can use my hot corners.

[davidblatner]

Sounds like you need to choose View > Application Frame (only available on the Mac). That should turn off the background.

[Paka222]

Oh, thanks, that worked... but I found it under Window>Application Frame instead of View. Thanks for all your help.

[lisac22653434]

The changing of workspace sorted it for me, thanks!

[gmetrixcc]

Is there a way to do this using extend script?

[Laubender]

Hi Daniela,

you best ask this here:

InDesign Scripting

Regards,
Uwe