Know your defaults

As you type in InDesign or create shapes, the text appears with a font and size and color, and shapes appear with a stroke (a border) and a fill inside the shape. They automatically appear with whatever has been set as the defaults, and then you change the text or the shape to what you want.

But that wastes a lot of time, changing things every time you create them. So it’s really important to set your own defaults. It’s this easy: Choose what you want to see before you create it.

That is, if you plan to create a lot of type in 11-point purple Garamond text, then first make sure nothing is selected. Either get the black Selection tool and click on an empty space, or go to the Edit menu and choose “Deselect All” (learn the keyboard shortcut so you can do it quickly whenever you want).