Razor-sharp InDesign recipes

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

All videos of the tutorial Razor-sharp InDesign recipes

Step 1

Now comes the quickest trick of all time. What do you mean by trick? Basically, it's almost always the basics. We have an object here with a minimal drop shadow, and we would like to apply it to the five circles.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 2

What's the quickest way to do this with the same setting? We go to the Effects paneland see that an effect (fx) is already available.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 3

Double-click on the fx to open the effect settings. Here you can see what is set, and in our case this is just the drop shadow with an opacity of 50%. This is exactly what we want.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 4

To apply the effect, we need to press and hold the left mouse button on the fx, don't let go and drag it onto the object of our choice. Even if the mouse pointer signals that it is not working, it will still work.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 5

We release it and see that the drop shadow has been transferred.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 6

Of course, we could also create an object format. This means that we select the object that already has the drop shadow and create a new object format.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 7

In the object format options, we can see what is included. We call it "Drop shadow", and under Object we see that a drop shadow is set.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 8

Either we click on each object individually or we select several objects at once by holding down the Shift key. Click on Drop shadow to apply the effect.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 9

As I said, it's all very simple. Click on the object that has a certain effect, drag the fx symbolto the desired object that is to have this effect via the Effects control panel.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 10

This is a nice option and works for all things. Even if we set the outline to 0 pt (1) and deactivate the drop shadow (2), i.e. remove the drop shadow (3).

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 11

We click again on an object with the drop shadow effectand drag the fx to the desired circle to transfer the drop shadow.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 12

If we also want the contour, we would have to set this separately via Contour...

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 13

... or we can add the drop shadow via the object formats, because the contour is also stored there. We see a plus sign after Drop shadow, which means that the contour has not been applied here.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects

Step 14

We right-click on the drop shadow and delete it by clicking on Delete deviations and see that everything is as we want it to be.

Adobe InDesign tips & tricks: Quickly apply effects to other objects