InDesign Training - Basics & Tricks (Free)

Create custom menus and panels in Adobe InDesign

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Stefan Petri
By Stefan Petri, Stefan Riedl and Matthias Tschinkowitz Last updated on
Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

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For different tasks in layouting, different workspaces with the most frequently used panels and menu commands are also needed. To meet this need, InDesign already comes with a series of predefined workspaces.

There is a basic environment with only the essentials, an advanced one with a bar of the most important panels, a typography environment that provides all the important tools for working with texts, or one that has been optimized for designing interactive screen documents.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

However, when working in one of the included workspaces, you will often need additional panels or you will also realize that others are just wasting valuable space and complicating the overview because they are hardly used.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

For this reason, views can be freely arranged and saved so that you can recall your exact layout and structure when needed.

A good starting point for this is the workspace Advanced. Click on the small arrow to the right of the name of the current workspace in the menu bar and choose the desired one.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

Immediately, InDesign will arrange a corresponding panel bar on the right side of the screen. If you do not need specific ones, simply drag them to the left with the mouse button pressed to remove them from the bar. Then you can close the panel by clicking on the small close cross or move it to another location, e.g., to a second monitor.

To add other panels to your own workspace, simply open them via the Window menu. Then drag them with the mouse button pressed into the panel bar on the right side of the screen, where they will dock to the other panels, or move them to your preferred location.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

Similar to the panels, the menus can also be customized to your own working style.

Since you never need certain menu items when working on specific tasks, and the plethora of the standard view makes it difficult to overview, you can simply hide them permanently and then save the whole thing so that you can activate this layout at any time when needed.

You make the settings in the Edit>Menus menu.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

Here you can hide the unnecessary menu entries by clicking the checkbox in the Visibility column and removing the checkmark.

To make other frequently needed menu items more visible, you can color them and highlight them accordingly. Click on the Color column and then on the small drop-down arrow. Now a list of possible colors will be displayed from which you can choose one.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

When you open a menu now, you will see your new design.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

You now want to save this workspace permanently so that you can recall it next time or after interim changes in the arrangement. To do this, click on the Window>Workspace menu and select New Workspace.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign

Here, give it a meaningful name for you. Then you can decide whether both the new order of panels and their positions on the monitor as well as the recently adjusted menus or just one of them should be saved under the name of the new workspace.

Custom menus and palettes in InDesign



After clicking on OK, you will find it in the Drop-down menu in the top right corner of the menu bar.

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
Stefan Riedl
Trainer About Stefan Riedl Stefan Riedl, once a trained banker, later studied graphic design and is a trainer for all topics related to desktop publishing with over 250 tutorials to his name. For five years, he was editor-in-chief of "Commag" - the online magazine for image editing and web design on PSD-Tutorials.de. All courses by Stefan Riedl
Matthias Tschinkowitz
Trainer About Matthias Tschinkowitz Matthias Tschinkowitz is a trained printing technician and has been working in the graphics industry for many years. His daily work involves working with InDesign, Acrobat and the like and constantly exploring new possibilities for effective data handling. All courses by Matthias Tschinkowitz