I recently got a call from a student who was having a big problem drawing lines with the Line tool (\). He clicked-and-dragged with the Line tool and as soon as he deselected his newly-drawn line (Command + Shift + A [Control + Shift + A on PC]), it disappeared from his layout. What was this about? Was it a bug?
No, it’s actually a default combined with an InDesign oddity. The Default Stroke for the Line tool is None, as it is for all drawing tools (object creation tools) in InDesign. You could change this default for the application by clicking on the Line tool and adding a black, or any other color stroke with no documents open. But this would also change the default for ALL drawing tools, except for Frames (containers for images or type). This, in my opinion, is far less of a problem than a previously mentioned InDesign oddity. Open paths (other than Frames) that have no Stroke and Fill, including objects drawn with Line, Pencil, and Pen tools, cannot be seen when they are not selected. Finding these invisible paths is not easy. It takes a lucky click with the Selection tool or the Select All command (Command + A [Control + A on PC]). To me, changing the default to a black stroke seems to be a far better option.
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
