The 2017 release of InDesign CC addresses designers' most pressing needs and renders everyday workflows frictionless with speedier app performance, unparalleled stability, and time-saving features.
For a summary of features introduced in earlier releases of InDesign CC, see Feature summary | InDesign CC 2015 releases.
New in InDesign CC (April 2017)Now, while creating a document in InDesign, instead of beginning with a blank document, you can choose from a wide variety of templates, including templates from Adobe Stock. Templates include assets that you can build on to complete your project. When you open a template in InDesign, you can work with it just as you would work with any other InDesign document.
In addition to templates, you can also create a document by selecting one of the numerous presets available in InDesign.
For more information, see Create documents.
InDesign now has a brand new user interface that is flat, modern, and easy on the eyes. The tools and panels have new icons. You can change the interface to one of the four available color options designed for optimal user experience: Dark, Medium Dark, Medium Light,and Light.
For more information, see Workspace basics.
A. Previous user interface B. Current user interface (InDesign CC April 2017 release)
Now, while working with a multi-column text frame, you have the option to insert a footnote that spans across multiple columns on specific text frames or across entire documents. Select the Span Footnotes Across Columns option in the Document Footnote Options to enable this feature. Based on the selection, this option makes all the footnotes in the document either span across the columns or revert to the original behavior.
The option to span footnotes across columns is enabled by default for a new document created in InDesign CC 2017. However, the option is disabled by default for an existing document created in an earlier version.
For more information, see Footnotes.
With this release of InDesign, OpenType properties are now more discoverable. When selecting text or a text frame, you can click a badge that contextually displays the OpenType properties applicable to the selected text. Additionally, you can now preview how a particular OpenType property looks. If mixed fonts are present in the selection, then OpenType properties for all the fonts is displayed.
Apply OpenType properties to more than just one character. Now, when you select a text frame or text in a text frame, InDesign identifies the applicable OpenType properties for the selected text and provides an option to apply them.
For more information, see Using fonts.
The support for in-context menu, which was earlier available for Alternates and Fractions, is now extended to Ordinals and Ligatures (discretionary/standard). So now, when you select 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on, InDesign automatically suggests applying the Ordinal property to it. The ordinals are restricted to the English ordinals as of now.
Also, if you select ‘st’ from the word Start and a discretionary ligature exists for the characters, InDesign suggests that you apply that property. The same is applicable for standard ligatures.
For more information, see Using fonts and Format characters.
OpenType fonts usually have stylistic sets in them. InDesign displays these stylistic sets as Set 1, Set 2, and so on. It may be hard to figure out from the name what kind of stylistic set this may be. With this feature, the name of the stylistic set is used and is shown at various places in InDesign wherever they are referenced.
For more information, see Using fonts.
In previous versions of InDesign, if your document included multiple hyperlinks connected to the hyperlinks panel, it would load slowly. With this release, the Hyperlinks panel loads faster and gives much improved performance over previous versions.
This release of InDesign provides support for arrowhead scaling. Now, you can scale start and end arrowheads independently of line stroke weight, and switch them with a single click using controls provided in the Stroke panel.
For more information, see Apply line (stroke) settings.
The Customize Control panel functionality is now available in the Control panel. Also, when you click that option, the relevant tool widgets are expanded by default.
The preference to turn off the large tab height is now available in InDesign. You can find the preference under Preferences > Interface > Panels > Large Tabs.
For more information, see Workspace basics.
In addition to searching for Adobe Help, you can now search for Adobe Stock assets from within InDesign. Select Adobe Stock from the drop-down next to the search box to search for assets in Adobe Stock.
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