Manipulating Layers

Using the Layers pane, you can select and manipulate entire layers. These changes affect all the objects on the layer ‚ for example, if you hide a layer, all its objects are hidden; if you move a layer up, all its objects display in front of objects on lower layers. Functions that affect an entire layer include hiding, locking, rearranging, merging, and deleting.

Selecting layers

The active layer, containing the pen icon, is always selected. You can extend the selection to include other layers the same way you multiple-select objects: Shift+_click for a continuous selection and z +click or Ctrl+click for a noncontiguous selection. When layers are selected, you can move them within the stacking order of layers, modify attributes in the Layer Options dialog box, merge them, or delete them.

Hiding layers

When you hide a layer, none of the objects on that layer displays or prints. You might hide layers for a variety of reasons, including to speed screen redraw by hiding layers containing high-resolution graphics, to control which version of a publication prints, and to simply focus on one area of a design without the distraction of other areas. To show or hide layers using the Layers pane, do one of the following:

Click the eye icon in the first column to the left of a layer's name . When the eye's column is blank, the layer is hidden. Click in the column again to show the layer. You can also double-click a layer and check or uncheck Show Layer in the Layer Options dialog box.
If no layers are hidden, you can show only the active layer by choosing Hide Others from the palette menu.
Regardless of the state of other layers, you can show only one layer by Option+clicking or Alt+clicking in the first column next to its name. All other layers will be hidden.

If any layers are hidden, you can show all layers by choosing Show All Layers from the palette menu. You can also Option+click or Alt+click twice in the first column to show all layers.

Note ‚

When you use the Package command (File ‚ Package, or Option+Shift+ z +P or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P) to prepare a document for a service bureau , InDesign includes only visible layers. This lets you hide the layers containing different versions of the document and be sure that they aren't accidentally printed.

QuarkXPress User ‚

You cannot print hidden layers in InDesign CS as you can in QuarkXPress 6. You must make them visible before printing.

Locking objects on layers

When you lock a layer, you cannot select or modify objects on it ‚ even if the locked layer is active. You might lock a layer containing boilerplate text or a layer containing a complex drawing that you don't want altered . Locking and unlocking layers is easy, so you might lock one layer while focusing on another, then unlock it. To lock or unlock layers using the Layers pane, do one of the following:

Click the blank box in the second column to the left of a layer's name. When the pencil icon is displayed, the layer is locked. Click the pencil icon to unlock the layer. You can also double-click a layer and check or uncheck Lock Layer in the Layer Options dialog box.
If no layers are locked, you can lock all but the active layer by choosing Lock Others from the palette menu.
If any layers are locked, you can unlock all layers by choosing Unlock All Layers from the palette menu.
You can toggle between Lock Others and Unlock All Layers by Option+clicking or Alt+clicking the blank box or the pencil icon.

Note ‚
When you lock an object to a page (Object ‚ Lock Object, or z +L or Ctrl+L), the object stays locked regardless of its layer's lock status.

Rearranging layers

Each layer has its own front-to-back stacking order, with the first object you create on the layer being its backmost object. You can modify the stacking order of objects on a single layer using the Arrange commands in the Object menu. Objects are further stacked according to the order in which the layers are listed in the Layers pane. The layer at the top of the list contains the frontmost objects and the layer at the bottom of the list contains the backmost objects.

If you find that all the objects on one layer need to be in front of all the objects on another layer, you can move that layer up or down in the list. In fact, you can move multiple-selected layers up or down, even if the selection is noncontiguous. To move layers, click on the selection and drag it up or down. When you move layers, remember that layers are document-wide so you're actually changing the stacking order of objects on all the pages.

Note ‚

You might be accustomed to moving objects to the front of the stacking order to make them easily editable. Working this way, you might be tempted to bring a layer up to the top of the layer stacking order so you can edit it easily, then move it back to its original location. Try to get out of that habit, though, and into the habit of simply showing the layer you need to work on and hiding the others.

Combining layers

If you decide that all the objects on one layer belong on a different layer ‚ throughout the document ‚ you can merge the layers. When you're learning about the power of layers, it's easy to create a document that is unnecessarily complex (for example, you might have put each object on a different layer and realized that the document has become difficult to work with). The good news is that you can also merge all the layers in a document to flatten it to a single layer. To flatten all layers:

Select the target layer (where you want all the objects to end up) by clicking on it.
Select the source layers (which contain the objects you want to move) in addition to the target layer.

Shift+click, or z +click or Ctrl+click, to add the source layers to the selection.
Make sure the target layer contains the pen icon and that the target and source layers are all selected.

Choose Merge Layers from the Layers pane's palette menu.

All objects on the source layers are moved to the target layer, and the source layers are deleted.

Note ‚

When you merge layers, the stacking order of objects does not change, so the design looks the same ‚ with one notable exception: If you created objects on a layer while a master page was displayed, those objects go to the back of the stacking order with the regular master-page objects.

Deleting layers

If you've carefully isolated portions of a document on different layers, then find that you won't need that portion of the document, you can delete the layer. For example, if you have a U.S. English and an International English layer, and you decide that you can't afford to print the two different versions and one dialect 's readers will simply have to suffer, you can delete the unneeded layer. You might also delete layers that you don't end up using to simplify a document.

When you delete layers, all the objects on the layer throughout the document are deleted. To ensure that you don't need any of the objects before deleting a layer, you can hide all other layers, then look at the remaining objects on each page. If you think you might need them later for this or another document, you can drag them to the pasteboard or place them in a library.

Using the Layers pane, you can delete selected layers in the following ways:

Drag the selection to the Trash button.
Click the Trash button. (The current layer ‚ the one with the pen icon ‚ will be deleted.)
Choose Delete Layer from the Layers pane's palette menu.

If any of the layers contain objects, a warning reminds you that they will be deleted. And of course the ubiquitous Undo command (Edit ‚ Undo, or z +Z or Ctrl+Z) lets you recover from accidental deletions.

Tip ‚

To remove all layers that do not contain objects, choose Delete Unused Layers from the Layers palette.