Preferences include settings such as panel positions, measurement options, and display options for graphics and typography. Preference settings specify how InDesign documents and objects behave initially.

Set general preferences

This section covers preference settings in the General tab of the Preferences dialog box. For information on other preferences, search for the appropriate setting.

Customize user interface scaling

Configure scaling preferences in InDesign to uniformly scale the user interface based on your screen resolution. Elements of the user interface are scaled accordingly, making for comfortable viewing on high-resolution monitors. When you launch InDesign with fresh preference settings, it identifies your screen resolution and adjusts the application’s UI scaling accordingly.

Note: UI scaling is not supported on screens with low resolution.

To set the user interface scaling:

• (Win) Select Edit > Preferences > User Interface Scaling
• (macOS) Select InDesign > Preferences > User Interface Scaling
  

In the User Interface Scaling dialog, use the following options to customize the Interface:

• UI: Adjust the UI sizing slider to increase or decrease the scaling of the UI based on your requirement. In general, high-resolution monitors need a higher scaling factor. A preview of the scaled UI is displayed next to the slider. Restart InDesign to apply the updated settings. If you choose to restart later, changes will take effect the next time you launch InDesign. 
  The number of stops displayed in the slider depends on the resolution of your screen. More stops are displayed for screens with higher resolutions.
  
• Cursor: When enabled (ON by default), this option scales the cursor icons in proportion to the UI.
• Anchor Points, Handle, and Bounding Box Display Size: Adjust the slider to scale the display size of anchor points, direction handles, and bounding box.

Set defaults

If you change settings when no documents are open, your changes set the defaults for new documents. If a document is open when you change settings, the changes affect only that document.

Similarly, if you change settings when no objects are selected, your changes set the defaults for new objects.

Change default settings for new documents

Specify default settings for new objects in a document

Restore all preferences and default settings

When InDesign is behaving erratically, deleting preferences (also referred to as “trashing preferences” or “removing preferences”) often solves the problem.

It’s a good idea to make a backup copy of the preference files called InDesign Defaults and InDesign SavedData. Instead of removing your preferences, you can copy these backup files over the problematic corrupt preference files and not lose any customizations.

Mike Witherell provides a detailed list of which files are affected when you restore preferences in Adobe InDesign Presets (PDF, English only).

Perform the following step as per your OS: 

• Windows: Start InDesign, and then press Shift+Ctrl+Alt. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.

• macOS: While pressing Shift+Option+Command+Control, start InDesign. Click Yes when asked if you want to delete preference files.

Various program preferences and default settings are stored in the Adobe InDesign preferences files. These files, including the InDesign Defaults file, are saved each time you exit from InDesign. For manual deletion or renaming, the location of the preference and cache files are as follows:

About InDesign styles and presets

You can store settings for reuse, including settings for the following items:

• Creating paragraph and character styles. (See Add paragraph and character styles.)

• Creating object styles. (See Object styles.)

• Creating table and cell styles. (See Table and cell styles.)

• Creating PDF export presets. (See Customize Adobe PDF presets.)

• Creating print presets. All the attributes in the Print dialog box are included in the style. (See Print a document or book.)

• Creating trap presets. (See Trap presets.)

• Creating transparency flattener presets. (See Flatten transparent artwork.)

• Creating table of contents styles. (See Create TOC styles for multiple lists.)

• Saving the workspace configuration.

• Creating document presets. (See Define document presets.)

• Creating stroke styles. (See Define custom stroke styles.)

In general, change the feature settings in the dialog box, and then save the settings. Styles and presets are stored in the document in which they are created. You can use the settings from another document by importing or loading the styles and presets from that document. In addition, most presets can be exported or saved to a separate file and distributed to other computers.

Mike Witherell provides a detailed list of presets in Adobe InDesign Presets (PDF, English only).

You can also share styles and presets across all documents in a book file. For more information, see Synchronize book documents.