Editor screen

What you see when the editor opens, what each part does, and how to move around and save.

Layout

The editor has four parts.

1. The top bar — on the left, the editor version and the document title. An * before the title means there are unsaved changes. On the right are buttons that concern the whole document. From left to right: Undo (Ctrl/⌘+Z) and Redo (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+Z), Zoom, Find/Replace (whole document), Character styles, Paragraph styles, Document Setup, Document info, Open Previous Version, Save, Proof print, Save PDF, Proof Preview, your plan badge, Language and Close editor.
2. The toolbar on the left — the tools that select and create objects. See the "Tools" article for the list.
3. The canvas in the middle — the workspace holding the pages and spreads, with rulers above and to the left.
4. The right panel — three tabs. The Attributes tab is the inspector where you change the selected object's properties, the Layers tab lists objects by Levels (stacking order, visibility and locking), and the Page tab holds the page list and master pages.

When you select an object on the canvas, the Attributes tab switches to that object. With nothing selected, the Attributes tab shows the document items (Margins, View, Separations Preview).

The Help Assistant button floats at the bottom right of the canvas. Hide it or bring it back with Hide the help assistant button / Show the help assistant button under View in the document items.

Related questions

• How is the editor screen laid out?
• Where is the inspector?
• What are the tabs in the right panel?

Moving around and zooming

• Scroll vertically with the mouse wheel and horizontally with Shift+wheel.
• Zoom with ⌥/Alt+wheel. Zooming is centered on the mouse pointer. ⌘/Ctrl+wheel and trackpad pinch do not zoom.
• The top bar's Zoom box shows the current zoom as a percentage. Type a number and press Enter to zoom to it. Click the ▾ next to the box to pick a preset zoom (25%–400%) or Fit to window. Zoom cannot go below 25% or above 400%.
• To pan by hand, hold Space and drag the canvas. The cursor turns into a hand while you hold the key. While editing text or a table cell, Space types a space, so it cannot pan. You can also pan by dragging with ⌥/Alt held — anywhere while editing, and otherwise when dragging an empty spot with the Selection tool (⌥+drag on an object duplicates it).
• Double-click the top-left corner of the rulers to reset the ruler origin.

Related questions

• How do I zoom in?
• How do I scroll the canvas sideways?
• Can I drag the canvas to pan?

Saving

Everything you edit is recorded continuously in a working copy on the server. Closing the browser or losing the connection does not lose the working copy; reopening the document continues from that state.

To commit the working copy to the document, click Save in the top bar or press ⌘/Ctrl+S. ⌘/Ctrl+S also works while editing text. If it takes a moment, Saving… appears first; when Your work has been saved. appears, you are done. After saving, the * before the title disappears.

Every save keeps that version of the document with the date and time it was saved (saving again without changes keeps nothing). To open a kept version, click Open Previous Version. If there are unsaved changes, you are asked to save first — Save and Continue saves and then opens the list, Cancel stops. The list shows the most recently saved version at the top and older ones further down, and the lines on the left show how versions connect: versions saved one after another share a single line, a version that branched off an earlier one is joined to it by a line that turns aside, and the document that is open now is marked Current. Pick one and click Open (or double-click it) to open it again. Opening deletes nothing. If you edit that version and save, a new branch grows from it, and every other version stays and can be opened at any time. Kept versions do not count toward your storage limit.

PDFs are made only from a saved document. If there are unsaved changes, the button in the PDF dialog becomes Save and create PDF.

Clicking Close editor with unsaved changes asks Save your work?

• Yes — save and close.
• No — discard this session's changes, revert to the last saved state and close.
• Cancel — stay in the editor.

Closing or reloading the browser tab instead also asks when there are unsaved changes, but in the browser's own "Leave site?" window (browsers do not let a page show any other window at that moment). Cancel keeps you in the editor; Leave keeps your changes as the working copy rather than discarding them — the dashboard card shows the Editing badge, and you can reopen the document to save it, or discard the changes with Close editor › No.

If some changes could not be sent to the server, ⚠ Save failed appears in the top bar. They are resent automatically once the network is back, so do not close the tab until the badge disappears.

If the same document is opened in another tab or on another device, the tab that had it open first shows Open somewhere else and can no longer edit. Continue in the newer window, or reopen the document from the Dashboard.

Related questions

• Does it save automatically?
• When should I press Save?
• A save-failed badge is showing
• I want to discard my edits and go back to the saved version

Undo and redo

• Undo: ⌘/Ctrl+Z or Undo (Ctrl/⌘+Z) in the top bar
• Redo: ⌘/Ctrl+Shift+Z (or ⌘/Ctrl+Y) or Redo (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+Z)

While you are editing text, undo first reverts your typing in that text; when there is no more typing to undo, it leaves text editing and goes on to undo object-level actions. After you leave text editing, undo works object by object. The undo history from a previous session is not kept when you reopen a document.

Related questions

• What is the undo shortcut?
• Undo isn't working

Observer mode

When you open a document shared for viewing in observer mode from the dashboard (your copy in the Shared folder or a link someone shared with you), or an administrator opens another user's document, the top bar shows Observer mode · read-only. In this mode objects can be selected but not moved or changed (a selected object shows no handles, only a thick outline in the color of its level), and Save, Document Setup, style editing, text editing, undo and Find/Replace are disabled. In the Layers tab you can only select objects and expand levels: reordering, show/hide, lock, and adding, deleting, renaming or recoloring levels are disabled (the eye and lock icons only show the current state). In the Page tab you can select pages and double-click to go to them, but adding, deleting, reordering and resizing pages, applying, adding, renaming or deleting masters, and section options are disabled. Close editor closes right away without asking whether to save. The toolbar shows only the Select tool and the Help Assistant is hidden. Of the shortcuts, only copy and select-all work.

Related questions

• What is observer mode?
• I can select objects but can't move them