LikeFindsLike for Adobe InDesign

What Does LikeFindsLike Do?

Simple answer: LikeFindsLike instantly selects all similar objects on your page or spread, eliminating the tedious shift-click-click-click process of selecting scattered elements one by one.

Instead of manually hunting and clicking each similar frame, select one object, hit your keyboard shortcut, and watch all similar items get selected instantly.

Installation instructions and download links can be found further down this page.

Please Support This Free Tool

LikeFindsLike has been free for over 17 years and has saved countless hours for thousands of InDesign users.

But “free” doesn’t mean “free to maintain.” Every InDesign update requires testing and potential fixes.

Server hosting, development tools, and ongoing support all cost real money.

Your donation doesn’t cover these costs, but it tells the developer that this tool matters to you and is worth keeping alive.

If nobody donates, free tools like this disappear. Not from greed, but from the simple reality that maintaining software without any indication of value is unsustainable.

When you donate (any amount: $5, $10, $25), you’re not just saying thanks for past work, you’re voting for this tool to survive the next InDesign version update.

Every donation helps shoulder the real costs of keeping LikeFindsLike working for everyone. Consider it an investment in your future productivity and the InDesign community’s continued access to essential workflow tools.

If this tool has saved you even 30 minutes of tedious clicking, consider donating the equivalent of what your time is worth.

Your support ensures that this gap-filling tool remains available when Adobe still hasn’t built this essential functionality into InDesign itself.

Stop The Selection Shuffle

The old way: When you need to select multiple similar objects scattered across a page:

  • Shift-click-click-click through dozens of similar frames
  • Easy to miss items – forget objects hidden behind others
  • Accidental deselection – one wrong click loses your entire selection
  • Time-consuming – minutes spent just selecting objects

The new way: Click one object, press your assigned keyboard shortcut, and instantly select all similar frames. Done in a split second.

Perfect For These Scenarios

  • Mixed layouts – Pages with intermingled image frames and caption text boxes
  • Catalog design – Selecting all product images while ignoring price boxes
  • Magazine layouts – Managing multiple similar elements across complex spreads
  • Template cleanup – Quickly selecting and modifying groups of similar elements
  • Brand consistency – Finding and adjusting all instances of similar frame sizes
  • Bulk modifications – Applying changes to multiple scattered objects at once

Intelligent Selection Options

Configurable Similarity Criteria

  • Frame type – Select only text frames, only image frames, or ignore type entirely
  • Size matching – Find frames of similar dimensions
  • Shape recognition – Identify objects with matching proportions
  • Tolerance settings – Allow slight variations while still considering objects “similar”

Smart Comparison

  • Flexible matching – Objects don’t have to be identical, just “close enough”
  • Multiple attributes – Compare size, shape, rotation, and more
  • User-defined tolerance – Set how strict or loose the matching should be

Keyboard Shortcut Integration

Essential For Efficiency

LikeFindsLike is designed around keyboard shortcuts for maximum speed:

  1. Assign shortcut – Go to Edit → Keyboard Shortcuts → Active Page Item → Select All Similar
  2. Recommended key – F8, F9, or another single-key shortcut
  3. Lightning workflow – Click object → press shortcut → instant selection

Context Menu

Right-click any selected object → API → Select All Similar (slower but available without shortcuts)

System Requirements

  • InDesign 2024 or newer (for older versions, use legacy LikeFindsLike)
  • Windows or Mac
  • APID ToolAssistant (free supporting plugin)
  • PluginInstaller (free tool for installation and donations)

Pricing

  • Completely free – Full functionality, no limitations
  • Optional donations – Support continued development and maintenance

Installation

Step 1: Download required files

Step 2: Install PluginInstaller

In case you had not already installed it before:

  1. Download PluginInstaller (free tool for script management)
  2. Extract and place in convenient location (Applications, Desktop, etc.)
  3. Run PluginInstaller – it configures itself automatically
  4. If you don’t have an account yet, create one. WRITE DOWN YOUR UNLOCK CODE.
  5. After relaunching PluginInstaller, always check the Accounts window and verify your account is unlocked! If it is not, nothing will work.

Step 3: Install APID ToolAssistant

  1. Close InDesign completely
  2. Find your InDesign Plug-Ins folder (usually in the InDesign application folder)
  3. Create a Rorohiko subfolder inside Plug-Ins
  4. Extract APID ToolAssistant files to the Rorohiko folder

Step 4: Install LikeFindsLike

  1. Extract the LikeFindsLike download
  2. Copy LikeFindsLike.spln to the same Rorohiko folder
  3. Restart InDesign

Below some screenshots similar to how the Rorohiko folder should look:

Step 4: Configure LikeFindsLike

  1. Configure criteria: API → Like Finds Like → Configure…
  2. Set comparison rules – frame type, size tolerance, etc.
  3. Assign keyboard shortcut – Edit → Keyboard Shortcuts → Active Page Item → Select All Similar

Step 5: Donate

  1. Open PluginInstaller. Verify your account is unlocked.
  2. Use the Store window in PluginInstaller, browse the catalog and find LikeFindsLike. Click the link in the Store window to add the bookmark into the Installing and Ordering window.
  3. Donate some amount

Usage

A typical example usage is to manage pages that have multiple copies of a few intermingled frame types – for example, there are image frames for some pictures, and each of those image frames is accompanied by a caption frame right underneath.

The first step is to tell LikeFindsLike that we want to select similar frames based purely on size – i.e. we don’t want to differentiate between text frames and image frames.

Select the API – Like Finds Like – Configure… menu item

This brings up a configuration dialog box.

By default, the Same frame type as selected checkbox will be checked. Uncheck it so LikeFindsLike knows not to look at the frame type (image frame vs. text frame).

Now select a single image frame and then right-click (Win) or control-click (Mac) the selected frame to bring up the context menu.

Pick the API… – Select All Similar option. And presto… all frames are now selected, ready to be manipulated.

In the configuration dialog for LikeFindsLike you’ll also notice a Comparison Tolerance percentage – this allows you to have slight deviations between frames, yet still have them considered as being similar.

By increasing this percentage, you can have LikeFindsLike select frames that have a slightly different size, angle, tint,…

As long as the differences are below this tolerance level, they will be considered ‘close enough’.

It is strongly recommended that you use the Edit – Keyboard Shortcuts… option in InDesign to assign a shortcut key to the Select All Similar function. This makes the usage very efficient: click to select a single page item, then hit the shortcut key to select all similar. You’ll find Select All Similar under the Active Page Item product area in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.

For more detailed information on LikeFindsLike, go to:

https://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/manuals/likefindslike-manual/

Pro Workflow

  1. Create a test document with various frame types and sizes
  2. Practice the selection to understand how tolerance settings work
  3. Assign your preferred keyboard shortcut
  4. Test in real projects to refine your configuration

Configuration Tips

Start conservative: Begin with strict matching (low tolerance) and increase flexibility as needed.

Test your settings: Create sample layouts to understand how different tolerance levels affect selection.

Frame type flexibility: Unchecking “Same frame type” opens up powerful cross-type selections.

Save configurations: Different projects may need different selection criteria.

Who Should Use LikeFindsLike

  • Catalog designers – Managing products with consistent frame layouts
  • Magazine/newsletter designers – Complex layouts with repeated elements
  • Template developers – Standardizing and maintaining consistent designs
  • Production teams – Bulk modifications across large documents
  • Corporate designers – Brand consistency across multiple similar elements
  • Anyone who regularly needs to select multiple scattered similar objects

 

Ready to end selection tedium? Download the files above and consider a donation to keep this essential tool alive!