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Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Save time when repositioning objects and paths

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Stefan Petri
By Stefan Petri Last updated on
Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Save time when repositioning objects and paths

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In this short tutorial, I would like to give you a few tricks on how to quickly reposition areas or paths.


Step 1

In my example, I want to swap this yellow line with the green line. To do this, I can select both lines by holding down the Shift key and then use the right mouse button to rotate the two lines by selecting Transform>Rotate by 180º.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Save time when repositioning objects and paths

Step 2

We can see that the two lines have been swapped. That's a great thing.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Save time when repositioning objects and paths

Step 3

This doesn't quite work as desired with the two arrows, for example. If I only want to change the direction of the arrows, so that the green arrow points downwards instead of upwards and the yellow arrow points upwards, ...

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Save time when repositioning objects and paths

Step 4

... then this would not work in this example via Transform>Rotate by 180º. The arrows would be repositioned.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Save time when repositioning objects and paths

Step 5

But that's not how I wanted it. How can I do it anyway? First I press Ctrl+Z to undo the repositioning.

At this point I have to go to the Pathfinder. There is an inconspicuous symbol here called Reverse Path: Changes the direction of a path, and when I click on that, exactly what I want to happen happens. The two arrows change direction.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Save time when repositioning objects and paths



That's a great thing. You either have to see if the 180º rotation is enough, and if that doesn't work, try it via the Pathfinder.

Stefan Petri
Trainer About Stefan Petri Together with his brother Matthias, Stefan Petri runs the popular specialist forum PSD-Tutorials.de and the e-learning platform TutKit.com, which focuses on the training and further education of digital professional skills. All courses by Stefan Petri