Control Key Stops Snap To Behavior
You’re dragging something near a guide… SNAP! It snaps right to the edge. If that’s what you wanted, then it’s terrific! But if you were trying to get it close, but not on that point, then it’s a hassle. Undo, turn off View > Grid & Guides > Snap to Guides, then try again. What a pain.
Instead, if you’re using a Mac, try holding down the Control key. Yes, the Control key on the Mac. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to work in Windows. But on the Mac, if you hold that down while dragging something (that is, start dragging, then hold it down), InDesign temporarily disables the Snap to behavior.
And it doesn’t just disable the snap behavior of objects; it also stops panels from snapping to (docking to) the side of the screen or (in CS4) document windows from snapping into others (so they don’t become tabbed windows) and it temporarily turns off Smart Guides.
Why doesn’t this work on Windows? Well, the Control-drag does appear to stop panels from docking to the sides of the screen in Windows. But it doesn’t appear to have any effect on object-dragging, smart guides, etc. I’m not entirely sure why.
(Adobe responded privately that it’s because the Control key is “already used” in Windows, but that doesn’t make sense to me… holding down the Ctrl key on Windows after you start dragging doesn’t do anything special, does it? Seems to me that they could make a way for this to work. Anyone have suggestions?)
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Good tip!
Adobe’s response that the Ctrl key is “already used” in Windows makes zero sense. In fact, it is used in Photoshop for the very purpose of temporarily turning snap off. Perhaps the ID team could ask the PS engineers for a little advice…
The control key is already used in Windows. When you “Place” an image in an InDesign document, it puts the image inside a frame. So when you manually scale the image, you have to hold down the control key to scale the image along with the frame. If you didn’t hold down the control key, it would only scale the frame (cropping the image, in a sense.)
Of course, that’s only for resizing images and text boxes. I can’t see why Adobe wouldn’t be able to make turning off the snap work when you’re moving images or text boxes around.
It is even better: With ?Snap to Guides? deactivated, you can temporarily turn the snapping on, while dragging with the Ctrl key down. I don?t think you can do that in Photoshop.
Excellent point, Florian! Thank you.
Great tip! I really wish it applied to Windows as well as I work back and forth between both machines using the Adobe CS software.
Is there no way to make it work in Windows? I found that unchoosing “snap to guides” doesn’t always work either. Sometimes it continues to snap anyway. This happens when I am trying to change the size of a figure by dragging.
Actually, it does work in Windows if you do it slightly different. Instead of dragging *then* holding down Control, like described above for a Mac, in Windows just hold down Control and drag. Snap is turned off!
This works for me on a PC using InDesign CS4. Love it, especially sense there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn off the snap in the preferences.
I find Ctrl+Shift+; and Ctrl+Shift+’ help very much. Its the hotkey to toggle the snap. First one for guides, second for grid.
No matter what I do in my set ups, the Snap to Guide just doesn’t work in InDesign CS 5.5. I’ve tried everything, every tip I’ve read doesn’t work, not even turning off Smart Guides, not even adjusting the Snap to Zone, not even using the shift key (or any other key). All I want is when I drag a new frame (text or photo) is for it to snap to my GUIDE on the page ? and no I DON’T have other objects on the page that’s in the way to snap to. Can anyone help? My work colleague also has the same problem and we just can’t figure it out. Help.
@Care: If it’s just one document (or a series of documents based on a template), then perhaps rebuild it using IDML. Also I suggest rebuilding your preferences file for InDesign. You have, I assume, turned on View > Grids & Guides > Snap to Guides.
I’m having a major problem with my indesign where the snap to function ONLY works when the ctrl key is held down. The opposite of what it should be.
I have the same install of my home mac and it works how described above but at work its the complete opposite.
What have I done to make this happen and how can I change it?!
@Chris: Try selecting View > Grid & Guides > Snap to Guides. (The control key is a toggle… it works one way when snap to guides is on, and the opposite when snap to guides is off.)
I’ve one somthing wrong, so it CTRL key does vica versa. Instead of stopping the snap to guides function, I only have it once Ctrl key is pressed. So do you know how to undo it?
@Eve: See the comment just above yours: Sounds like you turned off snap to guides.
FYI: doesn’t work anymore. Brings up a drop-menu. Bummer.
Hi Lena-
It does still work. I just did it on macOS Mojave/InDesign CC 2019. Be sure you’re following the sequence: start dragging something, then hold the Control key.