Legacy Smart Guides in CS5?

Wondering if there is any talk of being able to opt for "legacy" Smart Guides in Illustrator CS5? I would upgrade for that feature alone. The Smart Guides in CS4 are infuriating. I know this is an old gripe. And, yes, I'm aware of tweaking preferences and holding down command key. It's still not the same...and not even satisfactory. I would love a simple one-click option in prefs that would allow for the user to abandon the new smart guides in favor of the good ol' pre-CS4 smart guides.
Anyone know?

I hesitated to try to explain the old behavior of the guides, but I wasn't confident that I could convey the idea without making it more confusing to those who don't know what we are talking about. But, you pretty much nailed it. It is infuriating when I am dragging an object and hovering over a point on another object, expecting to be able to constrain my angles of movement from that point (as in CS3), and it just doesn't work. And to make things even worse, sometimes the point that I want to align with seems to be the only point on the entire artboard that I CAN'T align with. It feels like a deliberate prank. "Smart" guide lines are lighting up all over the place like "Do you want to line up with this point? How 'bout now? No? This one? That one? Here? Here? Here? Here? Here? Here? Here?" NO GODDAMMIT! I want to line up with the point that I am hovering over....not every single other shape on the board.
That is the behavior that I was alluding to when I described this Adobe "improvement" to be Microsoft-Office-like. I don't know if any of you have had the misfortune of having to use Microsoft Word over the years, but if you have, then you know what I am talking about. You type in the word "Dear" and the program assumes that you are trying to type a letter and starts making all sorts of suggestions and formatting changes and pulling up names from your contacts. Or you type a bullet point and all of the sudden your margins and font point size and indentations and everything else changes because the "smart" program makes assumptions about what you are trying to do. 99.9% of the time the software is wrong and you spend 10 minutes undoing everything the program just did to "help" you. It used to not be that way.
I have grown to expect that sort of behavior from Microsoft and their bloatware. Now I fear that we will be seeing more and more of this from Adobe in the future. I think at some point certain software titles reach a point of maturity where the product works so well that the engineers and programmers resort to needless tinkering in order to justify their existence and put out a new and "improved" version when corporate says so. Bummer.
It would be one thing if it were a give-and-take scenario. If I found some of the new smart guide behaviors to be an improvement I would possibly accept the absense of the old behaoviors. But that is not the case. There is not one single new aspect to the smart guides that I find to be an improvement. That feature is now completely blown for me in Illustrator....and probably will be forever. It may seem like a tiny gripe to some people...but when you consider that I probably logged in over 2,000 hours on CS3 and grew to rely heavily on the behavior of its smart guides, these later versions of Illustrator have been like learning a whole new program in some ways.
If only I could convince all of my clients to upgrade from CS4/5 to CS3...

Similar Messages

Problem with smart guides in CS5 with converting type object to outlines.

Hi There,
I recently upgraded to Illustrator CS5, and am having some issues with the smart guides. I create some type with the text tool, then convert that type object to outlines. Now, when I want another graphical object to "snap" to any of the anchors of the outlined text graphic, the smart guides don't kick in! The problem does not seem to occurr if I make a standard graphic with other tools, only when I create a graphic from a type object. I need to be able to snap to graphical objects that are created via the convert type to outlines command. Has anybody experienced this issue before? It's kinda frustrating.
The issue didn't seem to happen in CS3, and I've noticed the design of the smart guides is a bit different in the CS5 version as well. Am I missing something?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

When you switched to CS5 did you turn on view >> snap to Point
If your snapping tolernace is set to a small value, you may need to zoom in more to get snapping to work, or just increase the value. Also make sure you have the appropriate items checked (eg:Anchor Path Labels)
Edit Preferences >> Smart Guides >> Snapping Tolerance

CS5 Smart Guides: Can't Turn Off?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't seem to turn off the smart guides in CS5. The menu item is unchecked; turning them on and then back off again does nothing.
Is this a known issue? Operator error? Something else?

Wow that was quick.
In reply to:
And how do you figure turning off frame edges is going to make it LESS likely that you'd move the wrong object?
Well it wasn't in previous versions and now it is. Therefore I can gauge my performance based on previous versions.
For example at this moment I have a 2 sided A4 brochure that has to be at the printer by the morning. The job is for a surf company. The file contains a place illustrator file of a pretty complex illustration. There are photos and text boxes and on top of that I have several cut and pasted vector files from Illustrator as part of the theme that I need editable so I can change colours, gradients and transparencies. So all up there is a lot going on. I have quite a few more layers than usual, so that I can lock layers to prevent the "smart highlighting" happening. But in the design process I need a lot of elements active to be tweeked to get the file the way I want it to look.
Now I have a new mac with lots of RAM, but still when you have a complex file with lots of stuff going on, and you want to zoom in and change something quickly because the client who is sharing screen with you on skype wants to put a gradient fade behind a some text to give it some pop... which then makes a millisecond of redraw time happen and your mouse is also loaded to place an image at the same time into a frame, I have found that when you are moving your mouse across the page, while the "smart frame edges" function is occurring, the highlighted frame sometimes will dump the loaded image or eye dropped colour into an unintentional frame or element. It doesnt happen all the time but it is enough to make you want to write in a forum like this. I do this kind of work enough to know it is stifling the creative process. If I was designing a catalogue with a photo on one side and a description on the other there wouldn't be as much of a concern.
Sorry if the spelling is bad its almost 2am and I still have about an hour to go.

Smart Guides- Not that Smart?

Problem: Can't snap a curcle's center to a multi-angled (45 and 90 degree) path
Device and Program details: Illustrator CS6 running on a 2009 iMac (3.06 Ghz Processer and 16 GB RAM)
I've worked with Ai for years but can't remember running into this problem but it seems so simple. When I click, hold and drag center of the circle over the angled path it pretends its not even there. But when I make a sigle straight line, the circle will snap to that path. So my question is, can smart guides even do this (and if so, how) or is this a glitch with the new CS6?
I've experimented with the Smart Guide preferences but nothing seems to work. If you have any feedback please let me know.
Here is a pic of the the object and path I'm trying to snap:

They changed the behavior of Smart Guides with CS5, I think. (Maybe it was CS4) In some circumstances, you need to hold cmd to get it to snap.
If that doesn't work, are there any compound shapes that encircle the area shown? Sometimes they can be an invisible block to clicks and snaps, even though there isn't anything visible...

Anyone notice the Smart Guides bug in CS5?

ID CS5 has a Smart Guides bug when resizing frames to match the size of other frames. When releasing the mouse after the Smart Guides pop up showing the sizes are equal the frame size changes. When analyzing this it appears the frame does not resize to where the SmartGuides popped up but where the cursor is located. There is also jumpiness between the position of cursor and where the Smart Guides pop up. This behavior occurs vertically and horizontally. While some jumpiness still exist, it works reliably when frames are aligned. In other words, if a frame is resized to a point where two sides are aligned then the size of the frame does not change when the mouse is released.
I have verified the bug in both Windows and Mac versions of IDCS5.
None of the behavior exist with Smart Guides in ID CS4.
Is anyone else experiencing this behavior?

Thanks for checking Peter.
I am using a laptop, Mac OSX 10.5.8, with ATI Radeon X1600. The issue still existed wtih my Wacom tablet mouse and a Logitech mouse. I also just uninstalled the program and reinstalled it and the issue still existed.
This issue also exists on an iMac with Windows 7 running ID CS5 for Windows.
Are you using a Mac by any chance? The issue does not exist so much when the frames are aligned. So, if you are trying it out and Smart Guides creates a line connecting the two frames you need to move them out of alignment. Also, if your cursor is dead center over the edge of the frame all is ok. What it's really doing is snapping to where the cursor is and not to where the Smart Guides popped up. I'll be really surprised if you're not seeing it with a Mac.

CS5 Photoshop - How do I disable Smart Guides

Hello,
Smart guides are driving me mad. It never selects the region I'm selecting. It causes the selection to always jump a little up or to the left or right and then I have to zoom in to readjust the selection. The innacurate selection thanks to these guides are driving me absolutely crazy! Is there a way to disable them because I can't seem to find it.
CS5's logic is really aggravating and slows down the creativew process as I have to interrupt my flow constantly.
Any help is appreciated
~TheEternalAbyss

I'm not sure if I can get a screenshot that would be helpful. I can try to get some, but in the meantime I can try to describe step by step what I'm trying to do:
1. I select the Marquee toool in order to make a selection around an object I want to modify
2. Then I am simply making my selection
3. The result is the my selection is just slightly off from where I had selected
4. Then in order to fix it I have to zoom in and modify the selection using ctrl/alt+selecting with my mouse
I hope this made it a bit clearer.

Smart Guides in CS4/CS5

I've been using Illustrator since version 8.0 and don't feel comfortable jumping over from version CS3 to CS4 or CS5, mainly because I find that "Smart Guides" (which is an option I relay on most of the time) have became less-Smart than they were in CS3.
I need total accuracy on may job, but somehow shapes do not snap the same way using smart guides as they did before. Can't tell exactly why this is but its an annoying thing! Don't know the reason why Adobe changed them in the first place they worked fine as they were.
First experienced this on CS4 and thought that this might be a bug that would be corrected later on but have noticed they the same way on CS5 afterwards.
Did anyone experience the same issue? Comments? Suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

Be more specific. Preferably, provide illustrated examples.
Basically, smart guides have been improved considerably. They are different from the old smart guides, though.

Snap to? Smart Guides? Not sure what the issue is but it's annoying.

Just made the big step up from CS2 to CS5. Lots of changes as to be expected but otherwise a smooth transition. Nice work Adobe.
One recurring issue has got me baffled and annoyed. It appears to be a snap-to function yet I'm unable to locate the place where it might be disabled.
In my previous version of InDesign resizing window sizes and shapes was a fluid and easy motion. Now it's staggering and akward. The text and picture boxes want to snap on an unseen grid. I understand how this can be a useful function for some kinds of work but it also gets in the way of composing an image.
Any suggestions on how to disable this?
Presently, I have both Smart Guides and Snap to Document Grid UNCHECKED in the View menu yet I'm remain unable to smoothly and fluidly size my text and picture boxes.
Thanks!

There's another new feature, Live Screen Drawing, that's on by default, but for many users it causes real choppiness in moving around on screen. It's at the bottom of the Interface section of the preferences. Try setting it to Delayed. That will allow you to have a live preview when you really want it by clicking, then holding for a moment before you drag, but moving immediately will give you what you are used to in CS2.
I actually think Smart Guides are worth using. They save me a TON of time.

Smart Guide/Snap to point not working

Hi
I am trying to remove a circular shape from a rectangle in illustrator, the retangles width is 10px and the diameter of the circle is 13px, I centre the circle ontop of the rectangle ( or I appear to) but when I use the Shape mode tool minus front, the circle is no longer centred ( see images)
I have tried switching off smart guides and snap to grid and am still having the same problem.
In the above image you can see once I have divided the 13px circle from the rectangle it has moved off to one side.
Also when I am trying to manually place the circle ( rather than using the centre guides ) I can only move it by a large degree it alway moves further than I move the mouse, could this be because of a pixel grid? I do not think I am using this. ( can see in the above image where I am trying to place the circle and when I let go of the mouse, the grey circle is where it lands
From the 2 images below you can see that there is a 1px difference on either side of the extracted circle I was trying to get centred
I should mention that the 'Align to pixel grid' in the transform menu is inactive when I am trying to do this, as I initially thought that this may be the cause of my problems, but it made no difference

Rebecca,
So why does the minus front tool mess up alignment so much?
No clue. I believe this issue has never been reported.
At a first glance, it really looked like an Align to Pixel Grid issue, and also the fact that it works when both object widths have an odd (or even) number of pixels.
But that is apart from the fact that you stated that it was off. If it were on, Align to Pixel Grid would apply to the circle, to the rectangle, or to both.
Obviously, it is possible to (direct) select each and check. It is also possible to check the Y value of the centre for both in the Transform palette and see that they are actually identical before applying the Pathfinder.
And if on, Align to Pixel Grid should also affect/destroy the Object>Path>Divide Objects Below way. And it should make it impossible to even place both objects centre aligned when one is an odd number of pixels wide and the other is an even number wide.
As the issue is described, it may indicate some Pathfinder>Minus Front malfunctioning.
It may be worth trying some of the following things (you may have tried/done some of them already) and see whether it helps (the following is a general list of things you may try when it is not in a specific file; 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences):
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer;
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, other items may also be relevant);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6, and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Illustrator CC Free Transform not Snapping to Guides, No Smart Guides

The Free Transform tool in Illustrator CC won't snap to Guides, and Smart Guides don't seem to work either.
I have all the options checked in Preferences > Smart Guides > Display Options and the Snapping Tolerance turned way up.
In CS6, Free Transform with Smart Guides allowed you to snap to paths, points, alignments and guides.
Also: Any way to hide/minimize the Free Transform popup?

James,
Depending on the urgency of your plight, you may await some cleverer suggestions, or read on.
When seems to be wrong for no apparent reason, and it is not limited to certain (existing) documents, you may consider the following (you may have tried/done some of them already) and see whether it helps, unless someone comes up with a cleverer suggestion.
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file; 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences:
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder Other options (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool, and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Smart Guides Bug??

I've been struggling with Tech support since May 22 over the problem with Smart guide not working in Illustrator CS6. Support has recorded my system twice during Connect meetings poked around in my preferences and accomplished nothing. I've added screen shots to Case on the support portal hoping there is a solution but Tech support always emails saying they tried to contact me but were unable. Basicly Smart guides are not showing the dimensions in Illustrator CS6 and leaving a screen artifact. I've deleted the preferences as tech support suggested, reinstalled Illustrator CS6 as tech support suggested and nothing seems to fix the problem. Smart guide work with Illustrator CS5 and Photoshop CS6. Both are on the same system as Illustrator CS6. My question, anyone else have this problem? Is it a bug? Tech support always tries the same old "let me review your case" and then proceeds to do nothing.
Using MacBook Pro 8 Gigs Mac OSX 10.7.4
Illustrator CS6 No dimensions and gray screen artifact.
Smart Guides working in Photoshop CS6
Smart Guides working in Illustrator CS5
Any ideas suggestions similar experiences?
AK

I'm having the same problem on my MacBook Pro 10.7.5. There's another thread on this at http://forums.adobe.com/message/4924146 but no one over there has a solution either. I've also filed a bug report on it, figuring the more people report the bug, the more likely they are to fix it. Here's the bug report page for anyone wishing to do the same: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
I sure wish they would fix this, because it's very annoying to not have these measurements when you're doing precision work. It's been seven months since you reported this and apparently no one has addressed the issue.

Smart Guides, Constrain Proportions and Resizing an Object.

When I have Smart Guides on and I'm trying to resize an object while holding shift (to constrain) Indesign seems to ignore the shift key. Usually when there's other objects in close proximity, or just closely aligned, vertically or horizontally. The image I posted is a good example. Trying to resize the bracket object while near all those other objects results in a lot of skipping around, and constrain not working. You can see in the image the outline is not constrained, even though I'm holding the shift key. It just wants to jump to those Smart Guides regardless of what I'm trying to tell it to do.
This isn't much of an issue, but basically I'm wondering if this is a bug, or if the Smart Guides, just take priority. It's bit annoying turning smart guides on and off constantly to accomodate this odd behavior. Does anyone have any insight on this?

Hi,
I'm on a Mac Snow Leopard/CS5, and there actually is an update I haven't installed yet. I'm on 7.0.3, so I'll try that out.
If it is a bug it's certainly not the end of the world, but I was curious if anyone else had been dealing with it as well. I love the Smart Guides, except for that.

Smart guides labels appears but sometimes NOT.

When I am using smart guides in illustrator cs6 it is problem which makes me nervous.
When I select point, handles appear. When I move next to handle top the label appear. But SOMETIMES NOT appear, SOMETIMES APPEAR. It is terrible.
- It might be nice when labels ALWAYS APPEAR, WHEN I AM NEXT TO HANDLE TOP or NEXT TO THE ANCHOR POINT.
Because then I know, that when label appear, I can work with that concrete handle, or point.
I know, that it depends of the snapping tolerance, which I can set in Preferences. But when the snapping tolerance is too high, it is unpleasant to draw anything. When snapping tollerance is high i can draw objects on A4 leter which is usual, but my lines and handles are attached anytime when I do not want.
When I do not use smart guides it is unpleasant to draw lines too. Sometimes I grab handle when I want, but sometimes I fail.
I think it may be a good solution if you fix it so that the snapping tollerance will be lower, but labels will appear sooner and reliably.
I like Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. But this is the reason, why Illustrator makes me crazy, when I work there. Thanks

David,
I do not have align to pixel grid or snap to grid turned on
It sounds as if Illy thinks the former.
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Smart Guides.

Our school purchased the CS5 Web Design Suite at the educational price. I'm running a MacBook Pro w/ 10.6.8.
I'm doing a tutorial on the Illustrator, and I cannot get the smart guides to work. I've activated them through the "View" drop down menu, and I set up what I wanted in the "Preferences" under "Smart Guides."
Nothing happens with the smart guides.
Perhaps related: when I go to set a guide I hold the shift key so that the guides will snap to each tick mark on the ruler. But nothing happens.
Thank you for your help, and smiles to all.

@Risa: Yes to both.
@Monika: Great questions. When I set a guide I want the edge of the secret blue box surrounding the object I'm moving to attach to that guide so that I can be precise; instead, the object that I am dragging just goes past the guide I set as if it was not there.
Here are my settings.
@Jet: I have those settings, see above.
Thank you all for the responses and questions.
Big smiles to you.

Smart Guides Do Not Work

My smart guides do not work. From the time I loaded CS5 they have not worked. If you go to View > Grids & Guides > the Smart Guides are grayed out.
Then if you go to the Control Panel > View Options, the smart Guides are not grayed out they are checked.
I have looked around and read trying to find out whats up with these guides but have not found anything the works. I have also uninstalled InDesign and reinstalled. This stall did not work.
If anyone has any idea of why or how to get the guides to work that would be great.
Thanks for your help...
HHud

You must have Snap to Document Grid enabled.
Why is [Some Feature] Grayed Out in InDesign?

Legacy Smart Guides in CS5?

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