Hello Adobe Illustrator team and community,
I’d like to suggest two related features to help prevent accidental artboard edits and deletions:
- Artboard Locking
- What: A “Lock Artboard” toggle (similar to locking layers) that prevents moving, resizing, or deleting an artboard until you unlock it.
- Why: When working with dozens of artboards, it’s easy to unintentionally shift or delete one while editing nearby artwork.
- Delete Confirmation Prompt
- What: An optional checkbox in Preferences → General called “Ask before deleting artboard.” When enabled, Illustrator displays a simple “Are you sure you want to delete this artboard?” dialog each time you hit the trash icon or press the delete key on an artboard.
- Why: A quick confirmation would save many hours of rebuilding artboards (and their associated assets) after an unintended deletion.
Why This Is Critical for My Workflow
I maintain a master AI file whose artboards are linked into dozens of individual AI files. Every time the master is updated, all linked files update automatically. However, if an artboard is accidentally deleted, all subsequent artboard numbers shift. Since links are based on artboard numbers, a single deletion can scramble every individual file’s links—resulting in broken or misassigned artwork across my entire project. Locking artboards or requiring confirmation before deletion would eliminate this risk entirely.
Benefits:
- Prevents costly mistakes and downtime rebuilding artboards and relinking assets.
- Gives users control over safety measures without interrupting power workflows (can be toggled off).
I’d be grateful if the team could consider adding these options in a future release. Thank you for making Illustrator more robust and user-friendly!
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