Delia wrote: I recently worked on an internal design for a book, using black plus a spot (PMS) colour, but in the end I couldn’t delete the unused PMS colours from the Swatch palette. I would choose ‘select all unused’ in the swatch palette and the colour would be highlighted, but when I tried to delete it by dragging to the trash, the trash icon would be ghosted. You are not alone in this problem, Delia. This has plagued many InDesign usrs.
![Styles Styles](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125480791/134065738.png)
Do not use the backspace key to delete an Endnote Reference from Word! Highlight the citation in your Word document that you would like to delete.
Invincible color swatches (ones that cannot be deleted) usually occur when the spot colour has been used in a graphic (usually EPS, PDF, or PSD). Sometimes you don’t even realize the color is in the graphic, and there, and it’s not easy to figure out (though ).
Unless you change or delete that graphic, you won’t be able to remove the color swatch. However, occassionally, the color is really stuck, usually due to some kind of minor document corruption. One of the best ways to get the document back on track is to use File Export to create an InDesign Interchange (INX) file.
Editor’s note: INX has been replaced by IDML. For the rest of the article, where you see INX, you can mentally replace IDML. Then re-open that file in InDesign and you should be able to remove the color from the Swatches panel. Make sure to proof the new file carefully against the old one, as things can sometimes change a little in the conversion. Synchronize a Book Here’s another option for a stuck color swatch, if you’re sure it’s not in an image. Honestly, I’ve never tried this method, but I have heard that some people are also able to delete their color swatches after a book synchronization:. Create a new document that has a color swatch with exactly the same name as the one you’re trying to delete.
Use File New Book to create a book panel, choose Book Page Numbering Options from the book panel’s flyout menu, and disable Automatic Pagination (called “Automatically Update Page & Section Numbers” in CS3). Then add the two documents (the old one and this new one). Make sure the new document is the “master” document (click in the left column in the book panel).
Choose Synchronize Options from the book panel’s flyout menu and turn off everything except Swatches. Click Synchronize. If all goes well, you should now be able to delete that swatch. Deep INX Clean If the INX roundtrip and the synchronize tricks don’t t work, here’s one last attempt.
This is hard core, but it should work:. Export the document as an INX file. Open the INX file in a text editor (such as TextWrangler on the Mac, or Notepad in Windows).
Don’t use a word processor or anything that could add formatting to the text. Search for the name of the color you’re trying to remove. You should find it inside an XML tag named “colr”.
Remove that whole element (see what’s selected in the image below). Another tip I just discovered for those who find this thread through search. You will not be able to delete a swatch that is used in a paragraph style under Paragraph Rules Rule Above or Rule Below, even if it is NOT ACTIVE (no paragraph rule is on). I had to turn the Rule Below on, remove the defunct color swatch not in use in the paragraph rule that was also not in use, and then turn the Paragraph Rule off again to be able to select the color swatch with Select All Unused swatches and remove the unwanted swatch. Hi everyone, I’ve had this issue a few times and again recently.
There’s quick ways of finding out where those pesky lab colours come from. 1) Finding lab colours being used directly in InDesign (i.e.
Not within a linked file): Find Object To the right of “Find object format” click on the button with the loop which is “Specify Attributes to find” Under ‘Fill’ Select the lab colour and click ok Click ‘find next’ and it’ll show up any lab being used. Go through the same steps again but this time choose ‘Stroke’ instead of ‘Fill. 2) Finding lab colours being used within a linked file (and there can be many as we know! Export the Indd file as a pdf Under ‘Output’ ‘Ink Manager’ make sure the ‘All spots to Process’ box is NOT ticked (or it’ll convert everything to CMYK) In Acrobat pro, open PDF Print Production Output Preview You’ll see all the colours listed in the doc. Untick all boxes except the LAB colours.
Now the PDF will ONLY show colours that are lab – go through the pdf and find those evil colours Now that you know which embedded files have LAB colours, go to the original linked files and change the lab colours there. Don’t forget to relink the files once done! Hope this helps people out there:). Good morning! (Software used is IND v.CC-2017) I must have a truly messed up InDesign file because I have tried what I consider “everything” to delete this disgruntled swatch.
Where to begin I’ve tried changing my PMS 300 CMYK swatch (yes, CMYK) to a spot color. It won’t let me modify the swatch. The option to delete is grayed. The option to select unused swatches does not illuminate the pesky color. Using the separations panel doesn’t even show the color as a used ink.
I’ve searched using the find object with this color selected as a fill and as a stroke. Exporting to an IDML does not fix color issues. It just caused more issues by losing fonts. That’s an entirely different animal that I won’t go into. I traveled the XML route and deleted the PMS 300 color from the inner XML files and that 100% broke the IDML file. The only thing I found to work is to transfer everything to a newly created file. It took a long while.
I’m just at a loss because this has happened more than once. Unfortunately, I am working with files from InDesign CS2 and have zero ideas as to what the people before me did to the files. It is a long and arduous process to renew all of these files and get them pristine! Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts as to what I can do, or what I did incorrectly.
Well, I tried clearing ALL unused styles and I located one of the used styles that originally incorporated this PMS 300 color, but was currently using a modified style. I changed all used styles to black or the correct PMS color. I tried removing the Pantone 300 color swatch from the XML files within the IDML exported file with an AppleScript compression app. I learned that if you re-compress the file, it compresses a mimetype file which needs to be uncompressed. That didn’t work.
There is a 100% Cyan swatch that is also stuck with the PMS 300 swatch. Neither of them allow me to remove or modify.
I was able to finally remove the Cyan swatch only after deleting all styles down to the basic styles. The Pantone color is still stuck. I can go on with my daily life and just not use these swatches, but it is quite annoying that these get stuck.
I’m out of ideas. Thank you for your help, Lucian!
Controlling the Quick Styles gallery Use the Styles Pane and the Manage Styles dialog to add a style to the Quick Styles gallery, remove a style from the Quick Styles gallery or change the order in which styles are shown in the gallery. The Quick Styles gallery, on the Home tab, provides a useful one-click method of applying a style.
To use it productively, move the styles you use most frequently to the front of the list. You can decide what styles are displayed there, and in what order. How to add a style to the Quick Styles gallery. First, display the Styles pane.
To do that, on the Home tab, click the dialog launcher in the Styles group (Figure 1). Or, as the screentip on that dialog launcher tells you, do ctrl-alt-shift-s (only experienced contortionists need apply). Cheap tricks with the Styles pane. You can drag the Styles pane around the screen and leave it anywhere. Click the top of the pane (where it says 'Styles') and drag.
You can dock the Styles pane to the right of the screen. To do that, drag it almost off the screen to the right. When it pops into position, let the mouse go, and the Styles Pane will dock there. Now you see the Styles pane (Figure 2).
Scroll down the list to find the style you want to change. Note that the list in the Styles pane may appear to be in an almost random order. If the style you want to add to the Quick Styles gallery is in the list, then all is well.
If you can't see your style, then click Options. In the 'Select styles to show' list, choose 'All Styles' and click OK. Now, you should see your style in the Styles pane. Within the Styles pane, right-click the name of your style and choose 'Add to Quick Style Gallery'. Figure 2 shows adding the List Bullet style to the gallery. Terminology trap!
Microsoft built Word 2007 and got it out the door so fast that lots of its terminology is inconsistent. On the Home tab, the big thing in the Styles group that displays thumbnails of styles is variously called the 'Styles Gallery' or the 'Quick Styles Gallery' or the 'Quick Style Gallery'. A 'Quick Style' is nothing more than a style that is being shown in the Quick Styles gallery on the home tab. The supertip shown in Figure 1 mentions the 'Styles window'. Elsewhere, it's called the 'Styles pane'.
How to remove a style from the Quick Styles gallery In the Quick Styles gallery, right-click the thumbnail for a style and then choose 'Remove from Quick Style Gallery'. How to change the order of styles in the Quick Styles gallery You can change the order in which styles appear in the Quick Styles gallery so that the styles you need most frequently are shown on the top row. If a style is on the top row, you can apply that style with just one click. Display the Styles pane, as you did above. At the bottom of the Styles pane, click the 'Manage Styles' button.
That opens the Manage Styles dialog box (Figure 3). In the Manage Styles dialog, click the Recommend tab. Find the style you want to change. If necessary, use the 'Sort order' box to display the list alphabetically.
Click the name of the style you want to add to the Quick Styles gallery. Click the 'Assign value' button and give it a number. Anything from 1 to 99. This determines the display position in the Quick Styles gallery. Click the 'Show' button. That ensures that the style is shown in the Styles pane.
In the 'Sort order' box, choose 'As recommended'. You can now see the order in which styles will be displayed in the Quick Styles gallery. To move your style up or down in the list, use the Move up, Move down, Make Last or Assign Value buttons. This article is copyright. You may, however, print any page on this site for your own use or to distribute to others, as long as you give it to others in its entirety, with no changes.
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