How to Turn Off Layout Adjust Feature in CC 2019

[Mr. Met]

Good grief - how do you turn this adjustment thing off? There is no selecting or deselecting option. And, yes, I followed the link Steve posted.

[Steve Werner · Accepted solution]

@Mr Met,

I've branched this to a new discussion because the other discussion was about the  Control Panel.

As I wrote in the article I referred to to...

What’s New With InDesign CC 2019

... there are three places where it can be turned on.

To turn it off, revert the file back (File > Revert) without saving the changes.

To keep it from happening again,

(1) if you're in File > Document Setup, DON'T click the Adjust Layout button

(2) DON'T choose File > Adjust Layout, or (3) in the Properties panel, don't click the Adjust Layout button.

It's a great feature when you DO want to change the size of a document, the margins of a document and/or the bleed of the document, and have your artwork ADJUST with the layout!

[Parny]

Steve Werner, please see the page spread sample included. When I changed the inside margin, it re-threaded all chapters. Why the gutter connection? Maddening! Can I repair this without going page by page to thread the way I had it? ~ Lisa

[sargentrock2]

Steve -

Wait, it sounds to me like you're telling us how to turn off Adjust Layout when it magically comes on, but I don't see where I go at this point to turn the %$#*!!! thing off permanently. Please prove I'm wrong and show me where I can turn the thing off without reloading everything or risk losing all my personal preferences.

Yes, I can see the box to check to turn on this "feature", but it's always been off. Even now, when I see it's magically turned itself on, I turn it off. Then I open my file... and get the "feature" again. I've been using CC 2019 for more than a year now, I do not recall ever having this problem until today.

[Steve Werner]

I've never seen the feature magically turn itself on.

I'd suggest the two troubleshooting tips I usually suggest starting with: (1) if this happens only with one particular file, it may have become corrupted. Save the file as IDML (File > Save As > InDesign CS4 or later [IDML]. Then reopen the IDML file.

(2) If it happens with all files, you may need to restore you InDesign preferences or caches:

Adobe InDesign: Rebuilding Preferences and Cache Files ...www.rockymountaintraining.com › Adobe InDe...

[sargentrock2]

hmmmm... well, actually, when I woke up and opened a brand-new file to begin a layout a couple days ago, the "feature" came bouncing up as soon as I created a New Document. I also discovered that my New Document Creation window had reverted to the larger new one, and immediately changed that preference back to where it belongs.

I wasn't awake enough yet to think of going into Time Machine and finding an intact previous set of my InDesign settings, I just went into preferences and started changing things back to the way they were the night before when I quit working for the night. I'll probably trip over a few more "helpful" changes Adobe made to settings in my preferences. I do not like this, I do not like it one little bit. This does not look like a "file corruption", this looks like Adobe was wandering around on my hard drive without my knowledge or free-consent. If I was required to consent to these intrusions when I rented this software, I'm sure a shiver went up my spine.

[Juan Cano]

I am on the same boat, Magically and suddenly this "Adjust Layout" thing is turned on, does not work well enough for me to use, and I cannot turn it off. Why isn't the Turn on/off on the Document Setup window? Because that would make too much sesne? 

[H Chinaski]

I might have some input here. For me, the "feature" is always seemingly active when I change the document size, even though Adjust layout is off; my content elements move around on the screen when I change the document size. Which has always annoyed me.

However, today I found an explanation, at least in part. It's only the elements that are placed outside the document area, on the pasteboard, that jump around. And they do so in relation to the pasteboard. Anything placed on the document area, wholly or in part, stays where it should be.

So, for me it would be very helpful if Adobe could redesign the procedure of resizing the document, so that any placed content keeps its position in relation to other content as long as the Adjust layout option is off. Not in relation to the document area. (And if this would mean that some content ends up outside the pasteboard, a dialogue could inform the user that the pasteboard margins will be extended to avoid this.)

At least this should be a selectable alternative. I'll post a feature request about this.

[Greg Harbour]

I can't figure out how to adjust an existing document's dimensions without Indesign stretching elements across the pages and losing all the spatial relationships. 

Workaround is to adjust *page* dimensions with Page Tool in toolbar (Shift+P), also available in Properties panel's Edit Page button.

This adjust's page size without touching any elements on the page.

Then, update *document* dimensions to reflect the new page size.

As this is an individual page change, try applying it to your parent pages for multi-page docuements.