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Snap Guide to Object

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It’s easy to snap an object to a guide, right? But what about snapping a guide to an object in InDesign? I think it was Tim Cole who first pointed me to the trick: Select the object with the Selection tool, then drag the guide (still with the Selection tool) on top of a corner, side, or center point of the object. Guides snap right to them. (As long as Snap to Guides is turned on, of course.)

David Blatner is the co-founder of the Creative Publishing Network, InDesign Magazine, CreativePro Magazine, and the author or co-author of 15 books, including Real World InDesign. His InDesign videos at LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) are among the most watched InDesign training in the world.
You can find more about David at 63p.com

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  • Jean-Claude Tremblay says:

    Another cool trick is if you hold the Command key(Control on PC) and drag from the top-left corner of both rulers (X,Y Origin), and drag to one of the corner or the middle of the object Indesign will create two guides (one vertical, one horizontal) instead of moving you x, y rulers coordinate.
    By the way, this is also the way to create guides in both direction in one step.

  • Holding down the Shift key helps to place guides with a rounded value in the X;Y fields. The more you zoom on the page, the more the increment is precise and becomes, for instance with mm, half a mm.

    With the Alt key down, you place only a guide visible at the zoom level and + you were when you placed the guide.

  • lik? says:

    OMG! o_O

    I’ll keep on reading here! Thank you!

    *handclaps*

  • lik? says:

    (and I wanted to add:)

    If you have two-pages design (sorry I am translating from german) and want to get a guide that is not just on one page but reaches over both just press the CMD-Key while dragging ? et voilà.

  • T. Buck says:

    If I draw a one point line and drag it to a guide it snaps to either side of the guide. How do I force it to snap to the CENTER of the line without being blown up on it a kajillian percent?

  • T.Buck: Try switching to the Direct Selection tool instead of the Selection tool. That should do it!

  • T. Buck says:

    Blatman, your a freakin’ jeanie-ass!
    That worked like a charm. Thanks

  • LOL. We aim to pleeeze…. ;)

  • IZER says:

    so, the only way to snap to objects in InDesign, it’s first doing a “snap guideline to object?” then snapping the 2nd object to the guideline? is there any way you can snap one object to another?

    dynamic guides on illustrator, photoshop, snap to objects on corel draw…etc.

    Thank you for your help

  • @Izer, InDesign CS4 has “Smart Guides” which handle all that snapping for you (object to object).

  • IZER says:

    Wo, thank you blatner, quick response, thanks a lot, so i guess i gotta’ be thinking on upgrading to cs4. Thank you for all your help.

  • Shawn says:

    How do I attach a text box to the guidlines so that if I need to change the page master, the text box will automatically adjust to the new master. In essence, I have guides that are separated more in the gutter, and if I add a page, I need to move all of the text boxes to compensate from a left format to a right format.

  • @Shawn: You might check out MagnetoGuides from rorohiko.com.
    But this script might also be what you need: https://creativepro.com/move-every-object-on-every-page-toward-or-away-from-spine.php

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