InDesign

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Drag and drop text

You can use the mouse to drag and drop text in the Story Editor or in the Layout View. You can even drag text from the Story Editor to the layout window (or vice versa), or into some dialog boxes such as Find/Change. Dragging the text from a locked or checked-in story copies the text rather than moves it. You can also copy text or create a new frame when dragging and dropping text.

  1. To enable drag and drop, choose Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Type (Mac OS), select Enable In Layout View, Enable In Story Editor (InDesign), or Enable in Galley/Story View (InCopy), and then click OK.
  2. Select the text that you want to move or copy.
  3. Hold the pointer over the selected text until the drag and drop icon  appears, and then drag the text.

    As you drag, the selected text remains in place, but a vertical bar indicates where the text will appear when you release the mouse button. The vertical bar appears in any text frame that you drag the mouse over.

  4. Do any of the following:

    • To drop the text in a new location, position the vertical bar where you would like the text to appear and release the mouse button.

    • To drop the text in a new frame, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) after you start dragging, and then release the mouse button before releasing the key.

    • To drop the text without formatting, hold down Shift after you start dragging, and then release the mouse button before releasing the key.

    • To copy the text, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) after you start dragging, and then release the mouse button before releasing the key.

You can also use a combination of these modifier keys. For example, to copy unformatted text to a new frame, hold down Alt+Shift+Ctrl (Windows) or Option+Shift+Command (Mac OS) after you start dragging.

If the text you drop doesn’t have the proper spacing, select the Adjust Spacing Automatically option in Type Preferences.