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

[Léonard Roussel]

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!

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[Secret_Asian_Man76]

I come from 4 years in the future and say, yes, yes there is. It's happening again in ID 2025 and it's desktop with ZERO touch anything.

[NikoGarbacz]

Love this thread! If you're 4 years in the future, I'm 4 years and a month and a half. Same. Dang. Thing! 

Glad I saw the tip to create a txt file and rename the extention to .indd - worked like a charm!

[Laubender]

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 )

[JBHakim12]

Thank you, Leonardo, for saving my InDesign on my desktop. This is STILL happening in August of 2024.

[ericl49164123]

Still occurring in September 2024.  This just occurred after installation of InDesign Beta. Touch workspace should never be the default.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @ericl49164123,

Thanks for reaching out and sharing your experience! I can understand how frustrating it is to encounter this issue, especially when you’re trying to get started with InDesign. 

Could you please provide the details of your operating system and the version of InDesign you're currently using? Additionally, it would be really helpful if you could share a screen recording demonstrating the issue. This way, we can better understand what's happening and work towards a solution.

Looking forward to your response so we can assist you further!

Thanks, 

Abhishek Rao 

[aslaton8]

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.

[Ian255802463804]

Experiencing similar difficulty!

[MoonsideKid]

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.

[Barney26144364s644]

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%.

[SPollok]

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!

[Debbie15A9]

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.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Just as a more general answer, don't most dual-mode devices have something like an app list where the preferred usage mode can be set? Something like associating certain file types with apps — is there no "open this app in Touch mode, this one in Keyboard mode, etc." setting?

[Kelsey28207856c84e]

I had the same probleam and unfortunately none of the solutions above worked for me.
While I was playing around I found a very easy solution...

Windows Settings --> System --> Tablet --> Change "When I sign in" dropdown to "Never use tablet mode".

Tada!

[Susanna248990881sgi]

I tried this and it still opened in tablet mode, on the regular desktop monitor, even! 

[Gena5FC6]

When opening InDesign, hold down "Control + Shift + Alt" as it's loading (or "Apple + Cmd" if on Mac).  It will give you the option to delete preferences - say yes. Then you can use your mouse instead of the touch screen.

[Kate37797735bz1a]

This worked! Tghak you so much! I wouldn't have known what to do unless you had offered this solution - it is a massive bug that Adobe needs to fix!!!

[justinm79878682]

It's March 2025 and I just installed the Beta as I have an ARM processor. The only thing that worked for me was the above solution. One hint is hold Ctl + Shift + Alt all the way through to Indesign opening and completing it's loading and then it doesn't show the touch screen window, if you let go those keys to early the touch screen still shows up. This is a ridiculous bug that has now been in a couple of releases. ARM processors have been in tablets and laptops for a long time now and there still isn't a fully compatable version? The only thing worse is trying to reload windows 11 from scratch on an ARM processor.

[aReuhl]

Thank you that worked for me although I still had to start a new document and switch the workspace to Essentials.  BTW on a desktop workstation Windows 10 with zero touch capability unless I attach an iPad using Duet Display and never had this behavior with any Adobe software for past 20+ years until ID 2024.  Pretty silly.

[Element Project]

I uses to deal with this problem for a while, but not long ago i found a setting in Preferences > Touch workspace > uncheck switch to touch workspace when keyboard detached.  Not show how long this option been there but i uses to fight this every time i remote in to indesign.  It was a pain to fix remotly all the time.

[LNMB]

This just happened to me on my desktop. I don't have a touch screen monitor, nor do I have any type of touch input connected to the tower. It's 100% a bug.

[Elliot-S]

This is one of the most ridiculous UX decisions ever. I've had to disable the touchscreen on my laptop so I can actually use InDesign. Do better, Adobe

[Laubender]

@aReuhl said:

"… although I still had to start a new document and switch the workspace to Essentials.  BTW on a desktop workstation Windows 10 with zero touch capability unless I attach an iPad using Duet Display …"

Hi Michael,

thank you for pointing this out!

That's a new one for me. That issue goes deeper than I ever thought…

Until now I only experienced the touch workspace with laptops that had a touch screen ( plus a keyboard, of course ) .

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

[xitixen]

Just happened to me on a desktop with only keyboard and mouse interfaces - it's never had a tablet or touchscreen or stylus. I hadn't opened InDesign in a few months, and would not be able to use it at all if 1) I hadn't found this thread, 2) didn't have an old .indd file that wasn't archived. At the very least, the first time Touch Workspace is used, the user should have the option of selecting which workspace they want to use - and be able to select it with a mouse, an arrow key, or a finger. Out of all the suprises I've been getting opening Adobe apps, this is the one that flummoxed me the most. It may not be a bug, but it is a terrible idea to be so confident in the new features you want to share with users that you deny them the chance to get something done first and experience the wonders when they have the time to do so.

[xitixen]

Didn't help that it just came off the heels of Microsoft being equally "helpful". Had to reboot to finish remapping a drive and when I did, instead of getting back to my project I had to sit through a full-screen introduction to the wonders of AI and how CoPilot will change my world. I'm already familiar with the topic and have used several versions. Had to search for ways to turn off CoPilot so I could get back to work without having a chatbot interrupting. Is this Clippy's revenge? I just wish I could update my tools on my timeframe, not whenever the infrastructure decides it wants to make friends.