Making Effective Use of the Info Panel
The Info panel is a useful tool in Adobe InDesign, especially when you need quick information about text, objects or characters. It is easy to overlook, but it can save time once you know what it shows.
Word Count
If you want to know how many words are in a section, highlight the text and use the Info panel to view the word count. It also shows the character count, paragraph count and number of lines.
This is useful when you need text to fit a specific space. Create and link your text frames, fill them with placeholder text using Type - Fill with Placeholder Text, then select the story and check the Info panel. You will then know roughly how many words to ask for when someone is writing copy for the layout.
Finding the Unicode Character
Sometimes an InDesign document contains special characters such as trademark symbols, copyright symbols or characters from another language. Highlight the character and look in the Info panel to find its Unicode value.