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Léonard Roussel
Léonard Roussel
Participant
April 19, 2021
Answered

InDesign Stuck in "Touch" Workspace on First Launch, Unable to Click or Use Shortcuts

  • April 19, 2021
  • 24 replies
  • 25180 views

Hello. Brand new laptop (HP Zbook with touchscreen, Windows 10), just installed InDesign and open for the first time, I get this unfriendly "touch" screen (see screenshot) but cannot click (or touch) anything, or press any keyboard shortcut. I also tried what's described here without success (this is the first time I open InDesign on this computer). I'm running out of ideas, please help, thanks!

 

<Title renamed by moderator>

    Correct answer Mike-Witherell

    This worked for me on Windows 11:

    1. Right-click on the Start  menu and select Device Manager.
    2. In the Device Manager window that opens, select the arrow next to Human Interface Devices to expand it.
    3. Under Human Interface Devices, right-click on HID-compliant touch screen and select either Enable device or Disable device depending on which action is desired.
    4. If there are multiple HID-compliant touch screen devices listed, repeat the steps for each device.

    24 replies

    Show previous replies
    S
    SPollok
    Participant
    November 15, 2022

    I am experiencing the very same problem. My computer doesn't have a touchpad what could cause the problem. Yesterday, it worked fine. Today it freezes on said touchpanel screen upon opening the software (I refuse the word app). I cannot click on anything. I also cannot open an existing project to cricumvent it. I have a deadline, so help would be highly appreciated!

      D
      Debbie15A9
      Participant
      November 25, 2022

      I just ran into this on a new InDesign install on my Asus laptop with touch screen. There was a button below the gestures that I touched and after a couple screens of a tutorial, it let me access the menus to select a different (non-touch) workspace.

       

        B
        Barney26144364s644
        Participant
        September 16, 2022

        I had a similar problem just now on my little 13-inch Elitebook. My solution was to quit INDD and go into the system settings to change my display settings ("Change the size of text, apps, and other items") from 150% scale down to 100%. Once the computer was at 100% scale, I then launched INDD and could see and interact with the menu that toggles from "Touch" to other modes. After switching it out of Touch mode, I went back into the system settings to change the scale back to 150%.

          A
          aslaton8
          Participant
          December 4, 2021

          InDesign is doing this to me too. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and nothing worked. I tried doing what you did and that didn't work for me. It just froze again.

           

            I
            Ian255802463804
            Participant
            August 9, 2022

            Experiencing similar difficulty!

              M
              MoonsideKid
              Participating Frequently
              March 10, 2023

              Your screenshot is identical to the problem I'm having. Initial install on Microsoft Surface Pro laptop; disabled touch mode on the laptop with no change in the issue. Tried unistalling and reinstalling--nothing. I also have no previous InDesign files to use as a workaround like the original poster did. I wonder why no one from Adobe has posted any response to this thread...there's just the one answer which doesn't seem helpful to almost everybody.

                Léonard Roussel
                Léonard RousselAuthor
                Participant
                April 19, 2021

                Ah, I think I just solved it for myself. Closing InDesign and opening an existing .indd, THEN disabling the Touch workspace worked for me. I'd still like Adobe to be aware of this and look into it. 

                  L
                  Community Expert
                  LaubenderCommunity Expert
                  Community Expert
                  September 8, 2023

                  Hi @Léonard Roussel ,

                  it happened to me this year with InDesign 2023 version 18.3 and version 18.5 as well.

                  On a brand new windows 11 laptop where Adobe Creative Cloud was installed the first time.

                   

                  What I noticed is this:

                  The first time InDesign was started up InDesign was not responsive at all.

                  And I had a different scaling of the GUI than you showed in your screenshot in April 2021:

                   

                   

                  With InDesign 18.3 I had to force quit the app to move on:

                  After the second startup InDesign presented itself like that, with a little tutorial:

                  At this point I still could not quit InDesign 18.3 with a keyboard command. And I could not change the workspace.

                  I had to follow the little tutorial up to the end. Only then I had the chance to switch to a different workspace!

                   

                  Nearly the same thing happend with InDesign 18.5 on the same machine, but this time the keyboard command for quitting the app worked after the first start up. In both cases only the second startup gave me the chance to change the workspace.

                   

                  Regards,
                  Uwe Laubender
                  ( Adobe Community Expert )

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