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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[Léonard Roussel · Accepted solution]

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. 

[BobLevine]

There is nothing to fix. This is normal behavior on touch devices to make you aware of its existence. Choose another workspace and you shouldn't see it again.

[Léonard Roussel]

No it cannot be normal behavior: Like I said, the interface is fully unresponsive in that initial view, I am therefore unable to exit Touch workspace.

[BobLevine]

Is the laptop touch enabled?

[Léonard Roussel]

Yes, the touchscreen on the laptop works. I tried to bring the window over to the laptop screen to try to interact with the interface but again none of the buttons respond.

[B. De VITO]

Confirmed 7 of 2022.

This behavior is happening on my ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo Laptop. The solution does work for me. But on intiail load the UI is 100% non-responsive to ANY input from Touch or from Mouse/Keyboard. This is, without a doubt, a defect in the tool.

[EvaMarquette]

This is exactly what happened to me. And my laptop doesn't even have a touchscreen!

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out. With the Touch Workspace, you can create your layouts using hand gestures that InDesign converts into graphics. The Touch Workspace is supported on all Microsoft Windows touch-enabled devices. Besides tablets, this also includes touch-enabled desktops or laptop computers. To disable it please follow the steps shared in the correct answer of this post. For more information on the touch workspace, please check this article.

Thanks

Rishabh

[default37z913ggwc42]

There is absolutely something to fix, as the way to exit the workspace is not clickable. Just happened to me also, first time running Indesign after a rebuild.

Yes, obviously the thing is touch-enabled, as otherwise Indesign would not launch in touch mode.This is a bug, not a feature.

[Andy277865695ipv]

Same here - desktop with Cintiq. On first launch, Indesign is completely unresponsive on the non-Cintiq primary monitor because it's assuming the Touch workspace. Thanks to the workaround described above, I created an empty text file, changed the extension to INDD and opened that to change my workspace to anything non-touch.
It is bizarre to me that it assumes touch because touch seems so useless for this software.

[Susanna248990881sgi]

I just got a new Wacom Cintiq and am having the same problem, but managed to solve it: I turn off the tablet before opening InDesign. Then InDesign opens normally! None of the other solutions suggested here work; the software is completely unresponsive in "Touch" mode.

[TheMediaPerson]

I can confirm this is still happening in June 2023. Just got Indesign installed on a P15v Lenovo thinkpad with touch screen. On first app launch, the touch workspace is enabled and completely unresponsive to touch. I know my tough screen is activated because it has touch animation every time my finger touches the screen. I closed indesign and re-opened, then was able to change the workspace to a non-touch one. However, this is a bug, and still needs to be fixed. I remember having to deal with this on an older version of indesign as well. Currently I'm using 18.3 (2023)

[Martha M.]

January 2024, and this just happened to me. Luckily I found this thread right away, and your solution worked. Thank you! 

[sour-shark]

Thank you for the only answer that actually helped me. It says you're a "community beginner" but maybe you should be a "community expert." 

It's still a bug and they should fix it (i found a thread several years old about this same thing, so clearly it's a known issue) but at least i can use the program now. 

[Raymond26965993n8ct]

Just happened to me on a computer that has no touchscreen. So 1st problem is demo with no visible way to dismiss it. Second problem is mistakenly defaulting to touchmode on a computer with no touchscreen. The algorythm has some holes in it. I reported it as a bug and a feature request.

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the trouble. If you have any existing ID document, please try opening it and then changing the workspace. You can also try the suggestions shared in this discussion. Let us know how it goes. 

Thanks

Rishabh

[Shayna250665127vaw]

i tried opening an indesign document multiple times and was unable to disable the touch screen. Definitely a bug that needs to be fixed.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Shayna250665127vaw,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re still facing issues with InDesign getting stuck in the "Touch" workspace. I understand how frustrating this must be.

To help us get a clearer picture of the problem, could you please provide the following details?
- The version of InDesign you’re using.
- The details of your operating system (Windows version, build number, etc.).

Additionally, could you share a screenshot or a short screen recording of the issue occurring?

In the meantime, as a workaround, you might try resetting your workspace preferences. Here’s how you can do that:
1. Close InDesign.
2. Navigate to the following location on your computer:
   - "Windows": 'C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\Version [x.x]'
3. Rename or delete the "InDesign Saved Data" file.
4. Restart InDesign and see if the issue persists.

Reference on how to reset the preference: Set preferences in Adobe InDesign

Thank you for your patience, and we look forward to your update!

Thank you, 
Abhishek Rao

[DarlsChickens]

This happens to me every time I need to reinstall/reset InDesign. Here is what I can assess is happening: Indesign senses I am on a touch screen computer (I'm using a Microsoft Surface Pro), and opens in touch mode. However, I am using two monitors, and my second monitor (non-touch) is my primary display. @BobLevine, the bug is that I cannot touch/click/move anything. It is stuck frozen. I can't select a new workspace. Literally the only thing I can do is go to task manager and force it to exit.

I can fix this if, after  I force-close InDesign, go to my computer's display settings and set my surface screen as the primary monitor. Then, when I reopen InDesign, it opens on my touch screen and I can switch workspaces via touch (then reset my display settings how I want).

I don't use my touch screen often at all. This is a frustrating headache for me every time I reinstall InDesign or do a refresh on my computer to keep things tidy.

[Susanna248990881sgi]

So, once you change the workspace to non-touch, it stays set that way, at least until a program update? I've just been turning off my touchscreen monitor whenever I want to use InDesign, but if I could set the workspace to stay semi-permanently out of touch (ha), that would be a lot more useful.

[philc30713433]

This behavior as a default SUCKS. I have a convertible laptop on a docking station that I can't use a new install of InDesign on a new device at all becuase of thise awful, awful design decision. 

How can a company so integral to print and graphic design make such an awful user interface design choice? 

[sour-shark]

July 2023. It's absolutely not "normal" because every other CC app i have lets you use it without this weird behavior. If Adobe desperately needs the users to know touch mode is available, even though my graphics display pen is far more precise than a stubby human finger(?!?!), maybe they should try a friendly, closeable popup instead of a bizarrely aggressive mandatory tutorial lol 

[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.