Indesign Preferences / Units & Increments/ Ruler Units - Inches (Not Saving)

[Chad11111111]

This is a 2 part issue

To replicate go to:

Indesign-> Preferences

Select -> Units & Increments

Under "Ruler Units" by default 'Picas' is selected. 

Change that to "Inches for both Horizontal and Vertical

Hey Adobe "no one uses Picas as a form a measurement anyways, so why this is the Default for an English (US) program version is something you probably should fix"

File Select -> Save

 

Lets Test to make sure our changes to the preferences have changed.

This is part 2 of the Issue

File -> New -> Document

Page Size (Width and Height) are both shown in Picas. 

Click OK

Repeat Step 1 to view that the Preferences were not in-fact saved.

Indesign-> Preferences

Select -> Units & Increments

Back to Picas again.

The second part of this issue creates yet another issue as well. Because if you have 

Under Preferences/ General "Use Legacy "New Document" Dialog Checked, you have no way to change a New Documents Page Size Units to something like say Inches.  

(Note, all my other changes to Preferences Save with no issues. Deleting Preferences and Reinstalling them does nothing to resolve this bug)

Indesign 2022 V-17.0.1

MacOS 11.3.1

[Chad11111111]

^So just as a quick side note, because my status here says "Beginner" because I've only been on the Adobe Community since 2016 and been using Adobe products professionally for the last 22 years, Adobe feels that once you post something you give Beginners no means to edit their previous posts. And the post didn't look like that when I hit submit, and there is no way to delete it, so the perfectionist in myself is stuck with whatever that turned into with a random strand of text stuck in some sort of 15px Width column...  Awesome!

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Hi @Chad11111111 ,  when you set your Ruler Units Preference to Inches in step 1 did you make sure there were no documents open before making the change?   Ruler Units can either be an Application or Document level preference—if there was an open document when you made the change, you were changing the Ruler Unit preferences for the active document and not the Application.

[Chad11111111]

@ Rob day. Thank you You are correct. Mark this approved.

Why an Indesign Preference setting is applied Only in the case that no documents are open as a variable in how a preference setting get applied- that you don't have any control to override that variable other then closing out all documents is a very bad practice. A warning dialog box should come up after all variable settings asking what lever of that preference you would like to apply it to. 

What other Preferences are there that are document level dependant?

[rob day]

What other Preferences are there that are document level dependant?

Most preferences can be set for the application or the document. In the case of ruler units I could have multiple documents open and want different ruler units depending on the output—e.g. a document designed for screens might have its ruler units set to pixels, a print document might be set to inches, or points. I would want those ruler unit preferences to be saved with the document. 

As a shortcut, you can control click the Rulers and change the document preference.

[Chad11111111]

@rob day - I do like this now know option in Indesign.

However in Adobe's Creative Suite you then have Illustrator and Photoshop who have almost identical Preferences settings for Rules, yet you do not have this open document variable dependent option...

Is there a reason Indesign handles these preferences differently then PS and Illustrator?

[idyzyn]

After dealing with this same frustration for quite a long time, today I took the initiative to fix this. 
No documents open - edited preferences to inches - closed the preferences - quick InDesign - restarted InDesign

New document settings are in picas again.

Surely there's a way to change other than this, because it's not working. I hate having to change picas by typing in "inches" ever time I create a new document. 

Thoughts?

[rob day]

No documents open - edited preferences to inches

That should work.

You might try closing all docs and clearing your caches, then setting the units to inches, if that doesn’t work try clearing your preferences and set inches.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/reset-indesign-preferences-and-other-troubleshoo...

Or you could try this script, which will force all open docs and the application preferences to Inches. This would not affect the saved ruler units for existing documents.

var d = app.documents
for (var i = 0; i < d.length; i++){
    d[i].viewPreferences.horizontalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.INCHES;
    d[i].viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.INCHES;
};   
app.viewPreferences.horizontalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.INCHES;
app.viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.INCHES;

[rob day]

 no means to edit their previous posts

There should be an Edit Reply option when you click ... More

[Chad11111111]

The ... More option is not available. Yes I'm logged in.

[Mike Witherell]

When making your choices of preferences:

Make sure No documents open in order to make future documents behave the way you want. 
This is not retroactive to past documents as regards doc prefs.

Also, thereafter quit and restart InDesign, to write and use your new global prefs. That is very important!

A comprehensive list of app vs. doc preferences is available on https:/trainingonsite.com along with many other learning materials.

Picas and their sub-unit Points is the native measurement system of PostScript and most graphic designers do well to understand its advantages.

[Chad11111111]

Thank you Mike. It was already marked Correct with the exact answer you already provided.

As for a new document size being shown in picas, I really doubt anyone could tell me what 50.25 picas is in inches without a calculator. I know I can type in (in) after each number to change the variable. Also on your website I searched "Indesign Preferences" and was not able to find anything related to the subject. Next time please provide an exact link  pertaining to the thread as the general website seemed kinda spammy. 

[rob day]

I really doubt anyone could tell me what 50.25 picas

I think the Pica default might be a nod to the roots of typesetting where Picas were an important measurement system for copy fitting—the default is easily changed. The system is actually pretty easy—6 picas per inch, 12 points per pica, so 50.25 is actually 50p3. Without a calculator I can get close 8 1/3" plus 3pts—around 8.4"? But, then I can’t tell you how many inches are in 455 millimeters either, even with a calculator.