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scottonnob
Participant
February 9, 2013
Answered

Smart Guides not working (grayed out).

  • February 9, 2013
  • 10 replies
  • 141762 views

I too am having problems with the 'Smart Guides' option being grayed out in the 'View' - 'Grids and Guides' column. I've replaced the preferences, checked all the appropriate boxes, yet nothing I do works. Additionally, the 'Smart Guides' did work for some time. However, for reason(s) I'm unaware of, they just stopped showing up. I'm stumped. Any suggestions?

    Correct answer Pixeltender

    ^ the answer in that link is to turn off "snap to document grid"

    10 replies

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 1, 2026

    Hi Greg, Both ID and AI have always functioned this way. The two features are mutually exclusive of each other.

    Mike Witherell
    G
    Gregory Burns
    Inspiring
    June 2, 2026

    Yep, I know that. But my point is that after getting the proper setting, whenever they again update the program they’ll revert to the “snap to document grids” (turning that on and interfering with my smart guides snapping), and it seems to always take me some time to go figure out what they changed. My point is I don’t like them changing my settings when the update the program.

    Mike Witherell
    Community Expert
    Mike WitherellCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 2, 2026

    Hi Gregory,

    I have never noticed that. Perhaps you are inadvertently pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+’.

    Next patch I update, I will see whether that is happening on my machines or not.

    Update: I just now patched up to 21.4  (aware that it has selection bugginess) and I notice that Snap to Document Grid did not turn on.

    But in a similar vein, it annoys me that all the Preview switches in all the dialog boxes are turned off after every patch update. I am forever turning them all back on (and it cannot be a scripted fix, either).

    Mike Witherell
      G
      Gregory Burns
      Inspiring
      June 1, 2026

      Happens almost every time they giddily “update” the program (they trash some of my previous settings). As noted, I have to go in and uncheck the “snap to document grids” setting off, and that restores it. Frustrates me endlessly. Don’t know why they have to trash user settings to update the program.

      L
      Linda24415233u1d0
      Participating Frequently
      February 9, 2023

      My Smart Guides were doing the same thing and I turned my Snap to Document Grids off and it fixed it. 

        D
        default263m712ziyjc
        Participant
        January 10, 2022

        It may not surprise anyone to know, this problem still persists in 2022, I was happily working in InDesign 17.0.1 x64 and realised the Smart Guides weren't so smart anymore.

         

        I'd like to thank Jongware for posting the article with the answer to this puzzling dilema along with other useful content in the same article.

         

        Happy designing in 2022 All

        🙂

        tehw13149666
        tehw13149666
        Participant
        March 21, 2021

        i've had this problem with the most recent version with indesign (not sure about other programmes). as the article stated, smart guides is dependent on another feature. in indesign, it's dependent on 'snap to document grid'. it needs to be unchecked for it to work,

        J
        jitrada.koi
        Participant
        February 12, 2020

        View --> grid& guide -->  Snap to Document Gride 

          B
          BengtC11946239
          Participant
          February 12, 2013

          Thanks Jongware, you saved my day! I had by mistake checked the "Snap to Document Grid" feature under View > Grids & Guides. This made the Smart Guides option inaccessible. I don't really see why it necessarily should, though.

            M
            MarkDarrenMui
            Participant
            April 3, 2013

            The problem of "Snap to Smart Objects" is greyed out has been resolved with the above solution. Thanks.

            Tip: Unselect "snap to document grid" as this featured will grey out and prevent the use of "Snap to Smart Objects"

              Jongware
              Community Expert
              JongwareCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              February 12, 2013

              Perhaps this will help: http://indesignsecrets.com/why-is-some-feature-grayed-out-in-indesign.php

                A
                Anonymous
                October 4, 2017

                Very helpful thank you!

                  B
                  BengtC11946239
                  Participant
                  February 12, 2013

                  I'm having exactly the same problem. I run Win 7 64 Bit and InDesign 8.0.1

                  Peter Spier
                  Community Expert
                  Peter SpierCommunity Expert
                  Community Expert
                  February 12, 2013

                  I've branched your question out of the Replace Your Prefs thread into one of its own and changed the title so more people will see it. I'm not able to make the menu item go gray here, and I'm going to presume that you followed the instructions in the other thread for trashing the prefs, so I'm not going to suggest you do that again, at least not yet.

                  It would help if we know your OS and version of ID (including the update patch applied).

                  B
                  bellasak
                  Participant
                  September 17, 2024

                  Worked, thank you!

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