Frame, style, and page shortcuts, master pages and threaded text, and a multi-page layout workflow from setup through preflight.
| Category | Action | macOS | Windows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tools | Selection tool | V | V |
| Tools | Direct Selection tool | A | A |
| Content | Type tool | T | T |
| Drawing | Pen tool | P | P |
| Frames | Rectangle Frame tool | F | F |
| Color | Eyedropper tool | I | I |
| View | Zoom tool | Z | Z |
| Content | Place (import file) | ⌘D | Ctrl+D |
| Type | Character panel | ⌘T | Ctrl+T |
| Type | Paragraph panel | ⌥⌘T | Ctrl+Alt+T |
| Type | Create outlines | ⇧⌘O | Ctrl+Shift+O |
| Type | Text wrap panel | ⌥⌘W | Ctrl+Alt+W |
| Pages | Insert page | ⇧⌘P | Ctrl+Shift+P |
| Layout | Step and Repeat | ⌥⌘U | Ctrl+Alt+U |
| View | Fit page in window | ⌘0 | Ctrl+0 |
| View | Fit spread in window | ⌥⌘0 | Ctrl+Alt+0 |
| View | Actual size (100%) | ⌘1 | Ctrl+1 |
| View | Toggle Preview mode | W | W |
| History | Undo | ⌘Z | Ctrl+Z |
| File | New document | ⌘N | Ctrl+N |
Page Layout Building Blocks
Master Pages
A template page applied to many document pages at once — headers, footers, and page numbers set on a master update everywhere it's applied, in one edit.
Frames
Every element lives in a frame — a text frame, graphic frame, or unassigned frame — created with the Frame/Rectangle tools before content is placed into it.
Threaded Text
Click the frame's out-port then click another frame to flow text across multiple frames/pages automatically — the core of multi-page article layout.
Liquid Layout / Layout Adjustment
Rules for how objects reflow when a page size or orientation changes — set per master page or document, useful for adapting one layout to several output sizes.
Styles System
Paragraph Styles
Character Styles
Object Styles
Table & Cell Styles
Set up master pages before content
Build the shared header/footer/margins/columns on a Master first — every page based on it inherits the change instantly.
Define paragraph styles before typing body copy
Headline, Body, Caption styles created up front mean a global font change is one style edit, not a manual find-and-fix pass through every page.
Thread long copy across frames
Place the full article text into the first frame, then click-drag the out-port to the next frame on each following page.
Preflight before export
The Preflight panel flags missing fonts, low-res images, and overset text in real time — clear every warning before generating a print-ready PDF.
Quick Tips
⌥⇧ / Alt+Shift while dragging an image frame's corner to scale the frame and its content together, keeping the aspect ratio intact.