How do I prevent the workspace from closing when I close a document?

[davidt12412601]

I'm currently running v18.3 on Windows. I would like to keep my selected workspace visible at all times. When I close a document, the workspace also closes. This is a new behavior that started when I upgraded from 16.4.3 to 18.0. (My company normally updates InDesign every two years, due to the need to update extensions.) Additionally, every document switches the workspace to "Essentials" when opened, unless I changed the workspace with the file open and resaved the file. 

Is there a setting somewhere to force the selected workspace to remain selected? I guess I can add an event listener to set the workspace on every document open and close, but that seems like an unnecessarily brute-force approach. Plus I would prefer to be able to change the workspace manually at times and have that workspace remain selected until manually changed again. 

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[John D Herzog]

In Preferences, under General, uncheck the "Show Home Screen When No Documents Are Open". I think that is your problem.

[davidt12412601]

I no longer have that option in this version.

[John D Herzog]

That is weird. Since they have added the home screen, I have seen that preference. Are there any startup scripts that could be changing your preferences? If not maybe try rebuilding them by holding control+alt+shift when starting InDesign.

[davidt12412601]

I checked a couple of coworkers machines, and see that they all have that option. Oddly, starting with ctrl-alt-shift held only gives me an "allow this app to make changes?" dialog instead of the usual reset preferences dialog. Updated to 18.5 with no change in this problem.

[John D Herzog]

It seems that the problem is following up the versions. This person has some ways to clean up your preferences.

https://creativepro.com/rebuilding-indesign-preferences/

I would maybe try the options given under this header.

Where InDesign Preferences Files Are Stored

[davidt12412601]

Removing preference files and letting them rebuild also didn't fix it. I guess I'll have to fully uninstall and clean. Don't have time to do that at the moment, though, so I'll put up with it until the next lull between projects.

Thanks for trying to help!