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MrMensah
Inspiring
December 10, 2020
Answered

How do you rename a sublayer/object in the Layer's Panel of InDesign 2021?

  • December 10, 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 6735 views

In the previous versions of InDesign all I had to do was double click on the name of the layer/object in the layers panel and I could then edit the name as needed. Now when I (single/double/triple) click on the layer name, the text highlights for a millisecond and then goes back to being greyed out.

 

This isn't a glitch with the OS/my mouse/touchpad because it works in Finder, Photoshop & Illustrator to rename files this way.

@Adobe A rename option in the layer's panel menu would be really helpful

Correct answer MrMensah

but having problems executing the script

 

You have to save the code in a plain text editor or ExtendScript Toolkit with a .jsx extension into your Scripts Panel folder.

/Applications/Adobe InDesign 2021/Scripts/Scripts Panel

 

Before running select the page item listed in Layers panel and run the script from the Scripts panel. You can also assign a key command.

 

 


Thanks Bob, this is what I did to install the script but it's not working. Is there a step I'm missing or a setting I need to change?

Anyway I figured out the answer to my original problem.

Undock the Layers Panel and let it float. Clicking on the name should now allow the name to be edited. It appears that this feature doesn't work for renaming Page Items that are under the layers if the Layers Panel is docked.

6 replies

F
franz_ted
Inspiring
April 2, 2021

I came here with this same issue. I was scanning the forums and saw something in passing about the panel being docked.

 

I undocked the panel and left it floating and now I can rename items just fine.

 

So it appears to be a problem while the panel is docked.

 

PS, I'm on a Mac with Big Sur.

    D
    defaultl2dcn3pi5o8u
    Inspiring
    December 23, 2021

    It's sad that I had to find this on a community post from April.

     

    Meanwhile, we get Parent pages so that is progress I suppose? No.

    Fishman_dan
    Fishman_dan
    Participant
    March 16, 2021

    I just "fixed" mine.

     

    I right-clicked the Layers panel and selected "Collapse to Icons". Then I pulled open the Layers panel, and I can change the name of the items (the click-pause-click to highlight now works).

     

    If I expand back to how it was, renaming doesn't work again.

     

    Annoying because I like to have everything on display, but I can work like this (and/or rename all the objects then Expand).

      L
      Community Expert
      LaubenderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 11, 2020

      Hi MrMensah,

      hm… There are no sub-layers in InDesign.

       

      What you might regard as sub-layers are perhaps nested objects in structures like groups or groups inside groups. Or pasted inside objects in graphic frames. Or objects in active states of buttons or MSOs ( MultiState Objects ) .

       

      That aside, it seems that some users on Mac OS X have problems to rename objects in the Layer Panel. We recently see some threads in the forum. All in common were that InDesign is running on Mac OS X. As far as I can see there is no known cause for this; also no direct fix.

       

      One workaround is to drag the Layers Panel out of its docked state with other panels. Then renaming should work as expected.. On Windows 10 I have no issues with that. My Layers panel could be docked or undocked.

       

      In any case, if you want to rename an object in the Layers panel, not the layer itself, select the object on the page and run the following ExtendScript (JavaScript) code which is a minimum version of the script code Rob provided:

       

      app.selection[0].name = "My New Name";

       

      The new name of the selected object is enclosed in straight quotes and is assigned to the name property of the selected object. Rob has a user interface for this so you prefer that.

       

      If you want to rename the layer itself, select an object on the layer you want to rename, run the following minimum code:

       

      app.selection[0].itemLayer.name = "My New Name";

       

       

      Note: The script code above will not work on selected text ( or selected tables or table cells ) .

      Make sure that you select only one single object.

       

      How to make a script file out of copy/pasted code, how to install the script file so that InDesign can see the script in the Scripts Panel and finally how to run the script, see Marc Autret's description:

      https://www.indiscripts.com/pages/help#hd0sb2

       

      Regards,
      Uwe Laubender

      ( ACP )

      M
      MrMensahAuthor
      Inspiring
      December 11, 2020

      Thanks @Laubender I was referring to Page Items (such as the <polygon> in the image below) when I said sub-layers.

       

      I tried executing these 2 scripts but was unable to.

       

      Figured out the answer to my original qeustion, it appears to be a bug:

      Undock the Layers Panel and let it float. Clicking on the name should now allow the name to be edited. It appears that this feature doesn't work for renaming Page Items that are under the layers if the Layers Panel is docked.

      Steve Werner
      Community Expert
      Steve WernerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 11, 2020

      In InDesign 2021 with macOS 10.15.7, I'm still not  having problem editing the names of  page items when the Layers panel is docked. See illustration below:

       

       

      rob day
      Community Expert
      rob dayCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 10, 2020

      Page items listed in a Layer (sub layers) don’t have a Layer Options dialog on a double-click—to rename it is two single clicks as Steve suggests. This may be an OSX problem. Check this thread:

       

      https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/can-t-rename-layers-indesign-2021-16-0-also-happened-in-2020/m-p/11550199?page=2

        Steve Werner
        Community Expert
        Steve WernerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 10, 2020

        No problem with InDesign 2021 on macOS 15.6:

         

        To edit a layer name, it's not double click: It's click - pause - click.

         

          BobLevine
          Community Expert
          BobLevineCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          December 10, 2020
          That's the method I prefer, but you can double click to bring up the layer options where you can also do the renaming.
          M
          MrMensahAuthor
          Inspiring
          December 11, 2020

          Thanks for your responses. I'm trying to edit the name of a Page Item which is like a sub-layer of a standard layer:


          I'm on Mac OS 11.0.1. (Big Sur) using InDesign 16.0.1 (2021)
          Clicking directly with a pause used to work on InDesign 15 (2020) with Mac OS 10 but when I updated to InDesign 16.0.1 (2021) on Mac OS 11, the rename feature stopped working properly. I updated the OS and InDesign around the same time. It appears to be a problem with a combination of both Mac OS 11 and InDesign 16
          I've tried clearing the Cache and deleting the Preferences and that hasn't worked. Trying the script that rob day suggested but having problems executing the script.


          BobLevine
          Community Expert
          BobLevineCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          December 10, 2020
          No problem here on Windows 10. Have you tried resetting your preferences.
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