type: setting tracking preference

[tiana]

i have a question about tracking across the cs applications. in illustrator and photoshop, tracking goes in increments of one, in indesign they are increments of 10. how do i change this? i know it is the prefrences somewhere but im not sure where. it seems like it should be in the same place as kerning, but its not. or maybe i just cant change this?

-t

[MrJelly]

Is this when you're scrolling through values, or are you unable to manually set tracking in increments less than 10 in IND?

[tiana]

no, i can do it manually, but not when i use the up/down - this probably doesnt seem like much of a problem, but im using my laptop and dont have a 10-key for numbers so it becomes slow when i am doing a lot of adjusting.

[MrJelly]

Hmm... mine's on 20 increments :O

If you do it the new gee-whizz way by dragging the icon next to the input box, you can hold alt to have your increments go down to 1/10th standard, or shift for increments of 10x standard. I think that works on CS and CS2- only have CS2 handy.

[kevinf]

Set the kerning amount in the preferences to 1, then highlight your text and use the shortcut keys for tracking. Alt+left arrow and alt+right arrow. The text will track in increments of the value you input for kerning in the preferences. Ex: If you set 20 for kerning, it will track by 20 each time you use the shortcut keys, if you set 1 for kerning, it'll track 1 each time you use the shortcut keys.

Hold in cntrl+alt+left or right arrow keys to track by a multiple of 5 of the value you set for kerning. Ex: if you set a value of 1 for kerning, it'll track by 5, if you set a value of 5 for kerning, it'll track by 25.

[tiana]

i did try changing my kern to 1 em but it didnt seem to make a difference. prefrence changes do take effect right away right? or do i have to quit and they take effect next time it is opened like brushes or something? thank you for the tips on the multiple of 5 hot keys though.

-t

[kevinf]

Works immediately for me in Indesign CS2. This won't change the tracking box arrow keys in the type options menu... it will only affect the effects of the shortcut keys for tracking. As far as I can tell, you are stuck with the defaults for the tracking box arrows.