help! missing toolbar!

[narwhalsandwich]

Hi. I am sure other people have posted on this and that the answer is right in front of me, but I've looked through the forum and haven't found a solution to my specific problem. I've opened up InDesign CS5 and the toolbar that typically sits on the left of my screen is gone. This is the toolbar with the draw text box option, etc. As far as I know I haven't changed any of my settings. I've pressed tab to see if anything pops up to no avail. My screen resolution is as high as it goes. I am an InDesign novice and use it for pretty basic purposes.

Any idea where this toolbar might be?

Thanks.

[Peter Spier]

Operating System? How many monitors do you have?

[narwhalsandwich]

One monitor; Windows 7

[BobLevine]

Window>Tools

Bob

[narwhalsandwich]

Thank you--I have tried this and the only thing that happens is that the ruler on the left side of the screen disappears and then reappears when tools is checked.

[Peter Spier]

Do you see other panels? What color is the background?

[narwhalsandwich]

Everything looks essentially like it always did. The background is grey--there is a panel to the right with pages, layers, links, etc., and the toolbar along the top for wrapping text, rotating images, and so on.

[Peter Spier]

Try selecting another workspace. I'm thinking the one you are using might either be corrupt or you managed somehow to moove the toolbox off-screen.

[narwhalsandwich]

Thanks! creating a new workspace seemed to bring the toolbar back into sight.

[Peter Spier · Accepted solution]

OK, that means there's a potentially fixable problem with the old one. Try switching back and resetting it.

[1meanian1]

hit the tab button, poof!

[Peter Spier]

Tab shows/hides ALL panels, not just the Tools, so your problem was a bit different.

[kimberlyr84609125]

Oh my gosh, I've been searching for how long how to get this back....thank you!

[Jack]

I'm already in 'edit' mode, and and need to expand the active text box. Pressing 'Tab' simply edits text in the existing text box. IOW, the 'Tab' cannot help me here.

Any ideas appreciated, as always.

jwc

[Laubender]

Jack  wrote

… Pressing 'Tab' simply edits text in the existing text box. IOW, the 'Tab' cannot help me here. …

Hi jwc,

are you editing text in the Story Editing window?

Then press cmd + y on Mac OSX, that brings you back to Layout mode.
Pressing esc will select the text frame.

If you are already in Layout mode—you can see all the formatting of text—press esc only to select the text frame.

Regards,
Uwe

[Jack]

Thank.

Resolved by stopping and restarting inDesign. That seemed to have cleared whatever strange, error-state had been created earlier, when I first found the tool-bar missing.

Best,

jwc

[defaultm9hq9ekgtihq]

Thank you this TAB button was a poof thank you so much

[Bryce Heerink 012]

Help! the same thing happened to me

[pofliffeyd]

I lost the main toolbar on CS6 by accidentally hitting some shortcut on the keyboard... None of the above worked for me... 

Finally figured it out after playing around for a bit........ Window > workspaces > Essentials > Restore Essentials

[hui_okinawan26808548]

Thank you!  This solved the problem for me!!!

[mattp56306255]

Life Saver!

[katarzynab34755071]

Oh I just had exactly the same issue !!! Many, many thanks for a simple answer! It works !

[ikimmybee]

Aaak! This solved my problem! I've been up and about the menu already. Whew! Thank you!

[stephanieh4621873]

OMG! you saved my life...

thank you

[morganl92414293]

LIFE SAVING!! THIS IS THEEEE BEST!