: Designers gained the ability to see on-canvas OpenType properties. By simply selecting text, users could access a menu to apply ligatures, fractions, and alternates instantly, significantly speeding up typographic workflows. Footnote Improvements
InDesign historically supported advanced OpenType features (such as ligatures, fractions, and stylistic sets), but the controls were buried deep in sub-menus. Version 12.1 revolutionized this by introducing a contextual "O" badge that appeared below selected text. By clicking this widget, designers could instantly see visual previews of font alternates, ordinals (2nd, 3rd), and true fractions, applying them directly without navigating complex character panels. This made typography significantly more intuitive. Adobe InDesign CC 2017 12.1.0.56
This update answered a long-standing request from academic and textbook publishers by introducing text wrap options for footnotes. It allowed footnotes to dynamically span across multiple text columns in a layout, drastically reducing manual adjustment times during final page assembly. Performance, Stability, and System Requirements : Designers gained the ability to see on-canvas
Additional issues reported included the disappearance of Middle Eastern (ME) typography features like RTL text and Kashida after updating (which was often fixed by reinstalling with the correct language preferences), slow shutdown times, and exported JPEGs/PNGs from Macs not being recognized in older versions of Microsoft Word [7†L4-L10][11†L22-L27][11†L33-L36]. Version 12