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Smart Layers Panel

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[Windows][Mac][InDesign][Layers]

Some documents have fifteen layers. Others have everything on one layer. Either way, moving objects means opening the panel and dragging a square. Smart Layers is my own panel. One shortcut opens it right at your cursor. Click a layer name and the selected objects move there. It also sorts objects into layers by type, and saves layer templates and visibility sets. Two versions: one for Windows, one for Windows and macOS. Now with the option to create layer groups, just like in Photoshop. Works with InDesign 18.5 and newer.

open manual ↗

price

15 €

14 days trial →

* Prices do not include payment processing fees charged by the Gumroad platform.

What it does

27 features

The list

The palette appears at the cursor on Ctrl+Alt+Wheel — no trip to the Layers panel
Filter by typing: a hundred layers become three
Object counts per layer, on the spread and in the whole document
A mark shows which layers carry what you have selected
The list reorders itself after every change in the document, Ctrl+Z included

Layer groups

Layer groups, which InDesign does not have at all
Collapse them and forty rows become five
The eye and the padlock work the whole group in one click
Groups are stored in the document — a colleague sees them on their machine
Anyone without the plugin opens the file perfectly normally
Remove a group and keep the layers, or delete it with everything on them

Moving, deleting, undo

Selected objects onto another layer in one click
Reorder by dragging, several layers at once, or a whole group
Merge, duplicate, rename, 28 layer colours
Delete unused layers with one command
Deleting says first how many objects would go with the layer
Every action is a single undo, bulk ones included

Autosorting objects by type

Text, images, vectors, shapes and lines — each type onto its own layer
The automatic mode works out the layer order that breaks the fewest overlaps
The whole document, or only what you have selected
One Ctrl+Z undoes the whole sort

Templates and sets

Layer templates: your structure with its colours in one click
Visibility sets for language versions and leaflet variants

Settings and the rest

Three themes, size 100–200 % for large monitors, 3 to 25 rows
Alt on the eye isolates a layer, Alt on the padlock inverts the locks, Shift + wheel moves a layer
Templates, sets and settings carry to another computer in one file
English and Czech interface and manual, works offline

Changelogv3.2.1

3.2.12026-10-16

Fixed

**The panel no longer works in the background.** It used to read the whole document every half second — hidden behind another tab, while a document was being closed, while a dialog was open, even with no document at all. Now it stops completely when it is not on screen, keeps still while a document is closing or switching and while InDesign shows a dialog, and otherwise asks only a handful of cheap questions, reading everything only when something has moved or every two seconds. On a 150-layer catalogue that is the difference between a sixth of a processor core and almost nothing — and far fewer calls into InDesign at exactly the moments it least wants them.
The panel listens to InDesign now (document closing, opening, switching, selection changing, quitting) instead of guessing from a timer.
A plain text log, `smart-layers.log`, records what the panel did and how long it took; Settings shows where it is. If InDesign ever goes down, the last lines say what the panel was doing at the time.

3.2.02026-10-08

Changed

**The trial is now a free licence key.** Instead of fourteen days counted from the first start, you get a free trial key from Gumroad and paste it into the same box a purchased key goes into. The days are counted from your trial purchase, so reinstalling the plugin, moving to another computer or clearing its data no longer adds days — and no longer takes any away either.
Without a key the panel shows the layer list no more: Settings, the manual and the Licence window stay open, and the commands that change the document ask for a key.
**Licence…** now offers *Get a free 14-day trial* as well as *Buy the full version*, and thanks you once, in the window, after a purchase.

3.1.12026-10-06

Nothing changed in the panel. The version follows the AutoHotkey palette, where the 14-day trial did not start on a computer the tool had never run on.

3.1.02026-10-06

Added

Layers that hold only guides now say so. Instead of a nought the row shows how many guides are on the layer, marked with a g — `4g`.
Clicking the colour bar of such a layer selects all its guides on the spread you are looking at, the way the Layers panel selects objects.
A 14-day trial and a licence. Everything is on during the trial; afterwards the layer list, the filter, the selection, the eye and the padlock keep working, and the commands that change the document ask for a licence.
**Licence…** in the panel menu shows how much trial is left and takes a Gumroad key. One key activates your other computers and the AutoHotkey palette as well, and a confirmed licence keeps working for 30 days without internet.

Changed

Deleting a layer with no objects but with guides on it now says so before it goes ahead.

3.0.12026-09-21

Changed

A locked layer's padlock is now orange, so locked layers stand out. Before, it was only a little brighter than an unlocked one and easy to miss. The orange follows InDesign's interface brightness: brighter on the dark settings, deeper on the light ones.

3.0.0

Version this changelog starts from.