Expert: InDesign Pro - 7/10/2009

Question
QUESTION: I am a beginner to indesign and I can't work out why I have one object sat on top of another and the colour of the top object does not show up. When I click on the top object using the selection tool and hold the mouse click the colour does show up, but when I release the mouse again it goes back to a grey colour.

I have already selected 'arrange' and 'bring to front' to bring the object in question to the top.

Your help gratefully received

I have why I have one object sat on top of another but the object on the top

ANSWER: Hey Dee, thanks for the question.

I think there might be a simple answer and it has to do with your Display Performance in your Preferences.

Find them by clicking Preferences under the InDesign menu in the menu bar on a Mac or under the Edit menu on a PC (shortcut, Cmd-K/Ctrl-K). Click the Display Performance tab and select High Quality. This will show all high-res previews of your images.

InDesign lets you control this because if you're in the final text-editing stages of a large document with many high-res pictures, you may want to turn them off while you jump around your document to keep your RAM usage low.

Another Tip: You can right-click on any image within your document and choose Display Performance from the menu to control image-level displays.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.

Scott


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Scott

Thanks for your message, unfortunately this solution didn't work. Please can I ask you for some more ideas?

thanks

Dee

Answer
Hi Dee, here is the problem.

There are Object Effects put on the arrows. However, whoever put them on, used the Direct Selection tool to apply them, so now you will need to use the Direct Select tool to take them off. The Direct Selection tool is the white arrow, the Selection tool is the black one.

So, here's what to do; choose your Direct Selection tool (white arrow), and while holding down Shift, click each arrow in the group to select them all. Holding Shift will let you select them all at the same time.

Once you select them all, click on the Effects panel. If it's not showing, choose it under the Window menu.

I think once you do that, you'll notice someone has placed a Soft Light transparency mode. Choose Normal in the Mode drop-down menu. They have also applied a drop shadow. If you want to remove that, you can double-click where it says Object in the Effects panel and it will open the Effects dialog. You can also choose Clear All Transparency in the Effects panel fly-out menu in the top-right corner.

Hope this helps, if you need any further info, let me know!

Scott