Undo's In InDesign

[monicab93211570]

I've recently updated my InDesign and now it only lets me make up to three undo changes. Very annoying... Before I was able to make as many undo's as I wanted. Is there a way to change this?

[Derek Cross]

That's strange it should be unlimited undo's.

Which version of InDesign and OS?

[monicab93211570]

I've got InDesign CC 2018. This only started happening after all my Adobe programs went through an update. InDesign is also very slow now and freezes a lot.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Maybe not what you are seeing, but remember that as soon as you do a ‘Save as’ instead of a ‘normal’ save, the undo buffer is reset to 0...

[monicab93211570]

That's a helpful hint but even before saving, I only have up to three undo's.

[Srishti Bali]

Hi Monica,

Sorry to hear about this. In this situation, I would suggest you to please follow Bill's suggestion of resetting preferences and share results.

Regards,

Srishti

[MNorris77]

Hi Srishti-

Any updates on INDD not allowing undos in excess? I am stuck with 3 max...

I have tried the solutions listed... and they work for a moment. But, then the issue returns.

Thank you!

Melissa

[MNorris77]

I just recently updated CC as well, and I too am having a problem with INDD only allowing 3 undos.

I deleted my preferences yesterday, and it worked. But, then again today it has started again that I can't go back farther than 3 undos.

Is there a permanent solution? Or just keep deleting preferences until the next update... where I hope it is resolved. Great Adobe added more undos in Photoshop, but was it at the expense of InDesign?

Thank you-Melissa

[Bill Silbert]

Perhaps if you trash your InDesign preferences the unlimited undos will come back.

To do so:

For Macintosh Users: The User Library folder in which InDesign’s preferences are stored is hidden by default on most Macintoshes. To access it make sure that InDesign is closed and click on the desktop to launch a Finder Window (Command-N). With this window in column view follow the path User>Home folder (it’s the folder with an icon that looks like a house—it may have the user’s name rather than “Home”) and click on the Home folder. With the Option Key pressed choose Library from the Finder Go Menu. “Library” will now appear within the Home folder. Within the Library folder find the folder called Preferences and within it find the folder called “Adobe InDesign” and the file called “com.adobe.InDesign.plist” and delete both that folder and that file. When InDesign is next launched it will create new preference files and the program will be restored to its defaults.

For Windows Users: You can try the quick way of resetting on a PC which is to hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift when launching InDesign and respond affirmatively when asked if you want to reset. There have been some recent reports that the window asking if you want to reset is not popping up but that the prefs are being reset anyway. If this works great but if it doesn’t you may have to manually delete them.

To do so:

On Windows 7 and above the preference files are hidden. To find them go to the Control Panel and open Folder Options and then click the View tab. Then select “Show hidden files and folders” or “Show hidden files, folders or drive options” in Advanced Settings. Then delete (or rename) the folder at the end of this path: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\<Version #>\<Language>. Make sure that InDesign is closed when you do this. When you relaunch the program it will create  new preference files and the program will be at its default settings.

The advantage of manually deleting preference files is that after you’ve reset up the program (make sure that no document window is open) to your liking, you can create copies of your personalized “mint” preference files (make sure that you quit the program before copying them—that finalizes your customization) and use them in the future to replace any corrupt versions you may need to delete.

[Colin Flashman]

I have a free plug-in on my mac from 65bit software called multido that may assist. As an added bonus, it adds menu items so that multiple undos can be done at once: https://www.65bit.com/software/multido/

So far as resetting preferences, my alarm-bells and claxons go off whenever I hear this suggestion. I've no doubt that the suggestion is made with best intentions, but what trashing preferences DOESN'T tell someone experiencing technical difficulties is the following: "you know all the settings you've made for your machine which you're used to? well, if you reset preferences, you're going to blitz them, so prepare to start again!"

Importantly, trashing preferences doesn't help if the problem:

• is an intended behaviour of InDesign;
• is operator error;
• is an inherent bug in InDesign;
• is the result of a corrupt file.

I've written about this elsewhere: https://colecandoo.com/2018/05/13/do-you-really-need-to-trash-your-preferences/

[Erica Gamet]

This...a thousand time, this, Colin! The "nuke it from orbit" option isn't always a good idea. And a reason I have very rarely ever trashed my preferences.

[Bill Silbert]

Please read the last paragraph in my post above (the one that is boldfaced). What you say about losing your settings when you trash preferences is true but if you follow the instructions in that last paragraph it becomes a very simple matter to replace the possibly corrupt preference file with a pristine copy that maintains all of the user's settings. I've been using this method for years and have thus never lost a custom setting when I've had to trash preferences. It makes trashing preferences a very useful tool for troubleshooting problems.