Adobe InDesign CS5 : Object Layer Options, Object-Level Display Settings

Object Layer Options

When you import layered Photoshop PSDs, PDFs, Adobe Illustrator files (AI), and InDesign (INDD) files, you can control the visibility of each layer in that file. Adjusting the graphic’s layer visibility in InDesign enables you to control its appearance in your layout without having to edit the file in its native application.

Adjusting Layer Visibility

To control the layer visibility for a placed graphic, follow these steps:

1.	Select the placed PSD, AI, INDD, or PDF file with the Selection tool and choose Object, Object Layer Options; this displays the Object Layer Options panel.
2.	In the Show Layers section of the panel, an eye icon appears in the visibility column next to each layer’s name; click the visibility column to turn the layer’s visibility on or off (see Figure 1). Figure 1. To control layer visibility for placed images in InDesign, click in the visibility column of the Object Layer Options dialog box.

If the graphic contains Photoshop layer comps, you can choose to display one in InDesign by selecting it from the Layer Comp dropdown list.

When you edit a layered graphic in its native application and update the link in InDesign, you have the option to keep the layer visibility overrides that you chose upon import. To view layers as they are currently saved in the PSD, select either option from the When Updating Link drop-down list.

Check the Preview option to view your changes in the document as you make them. When you finish, click OK to close the dialog box and apply your changes.

Object-Level Display Settings

InDesign can let you control how graphics that are placed in your document are displayed on your monitor. You can change the display settings for the entire document or for individual graphics. You also can change a setting that either allows or overrides the display settings for individual documents.

Applying Object-Level Display Settings

If applying the High Quality Display setting to a large document slows down your computer, consider switching the document setting to Typical Display and applying High Quality Display overrides only to specific objects as needed. Follow these steps to apply the High Quality Display override to a selected object:

1.	Enable the Allow Object-Level Display Settings option in the View, Display Performance submenu.
2.	With the document display option set to Typical Display, select an object (or objects) with either selection tool and choose Object, Display Performance, High Quality Display. You can also set object-level display settings via the contextual menu (see Figure 2). To do so, Control-click (Mac) or right-click (Win) the selected object. Figure 2. You can choose object-level display settings from the contextual menu.
3.	Proceed to choose the object-level display setting from the Display Performance submenu.

You can change object-level display settings at any time. To clear local display settings for a selected object (or objects), choose Object, Display Performance, Use View Setting. To clear all object-level display overrides, select View, Display Performance, Clear Object-Level Display Settings.