Five Quick Tips for Multi-State Objects (MSOs)

Multi-state objects are one of the most useful tools for adding interactivity to documents you want to publish to the iPad and other mobile devices. With them you can create slideshows and other cool interactive content.

Here’s five quick tips for working with multi-state objects (MSOs) in InDesign.
When you convert regular objects into multi-state objects, it’s like you wrapped a special interactive container around the objects.



It’s somewhat a like a group, except that you can only see and work with objects in one state at a time. To grab one object the active state, simply double-click on it.



To select all objects in a state, first select the MSO by clicking on it in the layout. Then click on the state in the Object States panel, or click on the Select Content button in the Control panel. Or simply double-click on one object in the state, then press Escape.




Pay close attention to the display in the Object States panel. It will tell you if you have the whole MSO selected, a single state, or an object within a state.






To add an object as a new state in your MSO, select both the object and the MSO and click on the new state button. To add an object to the current state, click on the star button in the panel. Or cut/copy the object to the clipboard, and choose Edit > Paste Into (Command+Option+V/Ctrl+Alt+V).



To duplicate a state, select it in the Object States panel and click on the Create new state button.