Some of the build-in panels are grouped with my plugin's panel in InDesign CC

Question

My settings for PanelList look like this:
resource LocaleIndex (kSDKDefPanelResourceID)
{ kViewRsrcType,
  { kWildFS, k_Wild, kSDKDefPanelResourceID + index_enUS }
/*  PanelList definition.
resource PanelList (kSDKDefPanelResourceID)
    // 1st panel in the list
    kSDKDefPanelResourceID, // Resource ID for this panel (use SDK default rsrc ID)
    kMyPluginID, // ID of plug-in that owns this panel
    kIsResizable,
    kMTPanelWidgetActionID, // Action ID to show/hide the panel
    "MyPlugin:Test", // Shows up in the Window list.
    "", // Alternate menu path of the form "Main:Foo" if you want your palette menu item in a second place
    0.0, // Alternate Menu position Alternate Menu position for determining menu order
    kMyImageRsrcID, kMyPluginID, // Rsrc ID, Plugin ID for a PNG icon resource to use for this palette (when not active)
    c_Panel
resource MTPanelWidget(kSDKDefPanelResourceID + index_enUS)
  __FILE__, __LINE__,     // Localization macro
  kMTPanelWidgetID,       // WidgetID
  kPMRsrcID_None,         // RsrcID
  kBindAll,              // Binding (0=none)
  0, 0, 320, 386,         // Frame: left, top, right, bottom.
  kTrue, kTrue,           // Visible, Enabled
  kTrue,                 // Erase background
  kInterfacePaletteFill,  // Erase to color
  kMTPanelTitleKey,       // Panel name
  "MyPlugin" // Popup menu name (internal)
The problem is that when I click Window->MyPlugin->Test the built-in panels Articles, Liquid Layout and CrossReferences are also opened and grouped with my panel. I can't understand what I am doing wrong. The situation is the same with all sdk samples that have panels. Please help. 10x in advance.

Answer 1

Hi, I had the same problem with mine. I've managed to partially fix it by using a workspace extension.
This is the documentation for it:
Remove the InDesign preferences folder. This ensures that changes made to the workspace extensions appear when InDesign is launched.
Launch InDesign with your plug-ins loaded, so your panels are available in the user interface.
Organize the panels as you want your user to see them for the first time.
Exit InDesign normally.
Locate the “Essentials_CurrentWorkspace.xml” file in the InDesign preferences folder. Duplicate the file and rename the duplicate to the name that you want to use for this workspace extension.
Distribute/Copy the workspace-extension XML file in the InDesign Workspace Extension folder (<app folder>/Presets/InDesign Workspaces/en_US/Workspace Extensions). If the “Workspace Extensions” folder does not exist, create it. The easiest way to distribute the workspace-extension XML file might be in the same installer used to install your plug-ins.
I followed that, and my panels appeared in their own group, as I had laid them out.
However, if I didn't delete my user preferences, the ordering and position was different to how I'd laid them out.
Launch InDesign - move standard panels to make a custom user layout - install plugin - relaunch InDesign - launch plugin panels:
The panels seemed to appear in a random position and order, but in their own tab group - no longer bundled with Artices etc
Then delete user prefs - relaunch InDesign - launch plugin panels:
My custom panel layout appears exactly correct over the default workspace layout.
Obviously, you don't want the user to have to delete their preferences and lose their custom layout, so it's not perfect, but at least it got rid of Articles etc. If your plugin is a single panel, it might just do what you need.
I expect there's a way to solve the random position/order too - I just haven't found it!