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Objects do not snap to objects within a group

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
August 26, 2026
12 replies
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When scaling or repositioning objects contained within a group, the object should snap to other objects within that group (when smart guides are enabled).

This includes images within frames. EG, if you want to resize an image within a frame to the edge of the frame, this won’t work if the frame is part of a group.

This was originally posted on UserVoice in July 2019 and commented on by Ravi Kiran from the Adobe InDesign team in July 2019.

This issue remains in 2026.

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi Robert and everyone following this thread,

Thank you for your patience, and especially for taking the time to share the additional testing, screenshots, and recording. We’ve reviewed the behavior you described regarding Smart Guides and snapping between objects contained within the same group.

To clarify, the current behavior is that Smart Guides do not support snapping an individual object to other objects within the same group in the way described here. This is existing InDesign behavior rather than something caused by your Smart Guides or document grid settings.

We understand how supporting this workflow could make positioning and resizing objects, particularly image content within grouped frames, more efficient. The request for this capability has been noted as a feature enhancement.

For now, a workaround is to temporarily ungroup the objects when you need Smart Guide snapping between them, make the required adjustments, and then group them again. Depending on the layout, Align/Distribute controls or guides may also help with precise positioning.

At this time, we don’t have a timeline to share for a change to this behavior. We appreciate everyone who has shared their use cases and feedback on why this functionality would be useful.

Thanks again for your patience and feedback.

Abhishek

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Sam3004790469ua

Participant

I have the exact same issue - its driving me crazy….

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Robert32194799hqfjAuthor

Known Participant

@Anubhav M @Abhishek Rao Is there a timeline on when the team will be looking at this? This was first reported 7 years ago.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Robert32194799hqfj,

Thanks for following up. I understand you've been waiting for an update on this issue.

I’m checking this further with the product team for the latest status and will keep you posted as soon as I have an update to share.

Thanks for your continued patience!

Abhishek

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Robert32194799hqfjAuthor

Known Participant

@Abhishek Rao @Mike Witherell
I’ve done some further testing and have captured a video as well as some screenshots.

I noticed that snapping works for frame edges that are on the outer edge of the group, but that might be because the image is then snapping to the group edge not the frame edge.

I’m not using object fitting, but as far as I’m aware this works fine. However, snapping is necessary when you want to align only one edge of an image with the frame.

I’ve attached images of my preferences as requested.
Snapping to Document Grid is turned Off.

Adobe InDesign snapping.mp4

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Robert32194799hqfj

Thanks for sharing the details. Kindly allow me some time to check this with the team. We will update this thread as we have more information.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.
Anubhav

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Robert32194799hqfjAuthor

Known Participant

No worries. Please let me know how you go. This has been a long standing issue.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Robert32194799hqfj, thanks for reaching out, and I’m sorry you’re experiencing this issue.

I tested the workflow on InDesign 21.5.1, but I wasn’t able to reproduce the snapping behavior on my end. Could you please try the suggestions shared by Mike, particularly checking the Smart Guides options, ensuring Snap to Document Grid is turned off, and testing the relevant Object > Fitting options?

If the issue still occurs after checking those settings, please share a short screen recording showing the complete workflow, including your Smart Guides settings, how the objects are grouped, and the snapping behavior you’re seeing. That will give us a better reference and help us test the exact scenario on our end.

Thanks,
Abhishek

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hi Robert,

Under Preferences > Guides & Pasteboard > Smart Guides Options… what is checkmarked ON?

Is Snap to Document Grid turned OFF (since it fights with Smart Guides ON)?

Are you using Object > Fitting > Fit Content Proportionally (or the Fitting buttons on the Control panel) when adjusting images to fit to the edge of a frame?

Mike Witherell

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