How do I delete a document guide?

[rhumbrecht]

I feel like this is a dumb question, but I made some document guides by dragging over from the rulers, and now I can't seem to figure out how to delete them.  :wacko:

 

How do I do this quick and easy?

[MEB]

Hi rhumbrecht,

Just drag them off the canvas. If you are using Artboards (Affinity Designer only) make sure you don't release the guide over another artboard.

Alternatively you can also go to menu View ▸ Guides Manager... and delete them for there.

[rhumbrecht]

Thanks MEB!

 

I figured it was super simple, I just wasn't finding the answer.

[SlavaUX]

I just want to add that I came here after I failed to get rid of the guides by moving them in the empty space between the artboards in v1.7.

I've read here that it should have worked, so I gave it another shot by moving the guides beyond the last artboard, and only then it worked.

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, SlavaUX said:

moving the guides beyond the last artboard,

Good to know, I hope I can remember this for when I need it. Thanks.

[Nelo]

Affinity should make it more simple: select and just hit delete key!

(already made this request)

[Kal]

On 6/12/2019 at 7:07 PM, Nelo said:

Affinity should make it more simple: select and just hit delete key!

Yes, or drag it back to the ruler from whence it came (which is how I've always removed guides in other apps). Given that this doesn't work, dragging it off the canvas always leaves me wondering if it's really gone, or if it's just hiding out of sight.

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, Kal said:

Yes, or drag it back to the ruler from whence it came (which is how I've always removed guides in other apps). Given that this doesn't work, dragging it off the canvas always leaves me wondering if it's really gone, or if it's just hiding out of sight.

For me, that does work, except that I have to drag it back onto the ruler quickly to avoid the document window auto-scrolling as the pointer nears the ruler. Auto-scrolling is a useful feature when doing things like dragging an object from one artboard to another, but it makes dragging a guide back into the ruler to delete it much more difficult & uncertain that it should be. 

Since the only way to select a guide is by dragging it & it won't stay selected when the pointer is released, maybe while dragging it, tapping the delete key would be an acceptable solution. Alternately, maybe adding "Delete guide" to the right-click popup menu when the pointer is over a guide would be?

[Kal]

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

For me, that does work, except that I have to drag it back onto the ruler quickly to avoid the document window auto-scrolling as the pointer nears the ruler.

I can't get this to work. Even if I do it quickly, so as to avoid auto-scrolling, the guide just moves under the ruler. When you do it, are you sure the ruler isn't off the edge of the canvas?
 

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

Since the only way to select a guide is by dragging it & it won't stay selected when the pointer is released, maybe while dragging it, tapping the delete key would be an acceptable solution. Alternately, maybe adding "Delete guide" to the right-click popup menu when the pointer is over a guide would be?

I think both of those are good ideas. 

[thomaso]

16 hours ago, Kal said:

drag it back to the ruler

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

I have to drag it back onto the ruler quickly to avoid the document window auto-scrolling

There is no need to drag a guide back home to its ruler (as it works in ID for instance).
In Affinity the guide becomes deleted as soon its placed outside the page, even within bleed there are no guides.
 

7 hours ago, R C-R said:

dragging it off the canvas always leaves me wondering if it's really gone, or if it's just hiding out of sight.

You easily can check, edit, create and delete all guides in the Guide Manager panel.
If you place a guide outside the page with Guide Manager panel opened you can see it disappear form the list.

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, Kal said:

I can't get this to work. Even if I do it quickly, so as to avoid auto-scrolling, the guide just moves under the ruler. When you do it, are you sure the ruler isn't off the edge of the canvas?

Yes, I am sure. I sometimes check this in the Guides Manager or check in the History panel just to be extra sure.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

There is no need to drag a guide back home to its ruler (as it works in ID for instance).
In Affinity the guide becomes deleted as soon its placed outside the page, even within bleed there are no guides.

That works fine unless there are multiple artboards in the document. Then it can get complicated. For one thing, if you drag a guide over another artboard, it can end up being invisible because it is outside the selected artboard, & the only way to delete it is from the Guides Manager. For example:

Here, Artboard2 (on the right) has a vertical guide that was dropped over Artboard1 (on the left). I did that on purpose to demonstrate what I mean, but it is easy enough to do accidentally, particularly if there are several closely spaced artboards in the document.

[Kal]

49 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Yes, I am sure. I sometimes check this in the Guides Manager or check in the History panel just to be extra sure.

How very strange that this works for you and not me. I just tested in all three apps, and the behaviour is the same for each—if I'm zoomed in on the page and quickly drag and drop a guide to (or beyond) the ruler, the guide just ends up off screen at the point where I released the mouse button.
 

54 minutes ago, thomaso said:

There is no need to drag a guide back home to its ruler (as it works in ID for instance).
 In Affinity the guide becomes deleted as soon its placed outside the page, even within bleed there are no guides.

This was mentioned earlier, in response to the original question. At this stage we're discussing how the task of deleting guides could be improved. If you happen to be zoomed up on a page, I think you ought to be able to drag a guide back to the ruler to remove it. That just makes intuitive sense to me.

You know, I just assumed this is how it worked in Illustrator, but I just checked and no—it only works that way in InDesign! I guess in Illustrator, I was just in the habit of selecting a guide and hitting delete.

I think InDesign gets it right in every way. You can delete a guide by any of these means:

1. Drag a guide to the ruler
2. Select a guide and press the Delete key
3. Select Layout > Create Guides and check 'Remove Existing Ruler Guides'.

This just makes it all super easy. In addition, you can place guides off the edge of the page should you wish to—although the value of that might be debatable. You can also trigger auto-scroll by dragging a guide off the page and beyond the ruler—although the value of autoscrolling for guide placement is also debatable IMHO.

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, Kal said:

How very strange that this works for you and not me. I just tested in all three apps, and the behaviour is the same for each—if I'm zoomed in on the page and quickly drag and drop a guide to (or beyond) the ruler, the guide just ends up off screen at the point where I released the mouse button.

OK, nothing strange about it -- I should have been clearer that it won't work if you are zoomed in unless you let it auto-scroll so that when you release the mouse button the pointer is not over any part of the document. If it is, it just drops the guide there.

[thomaso]

40 minutes ago, R C-R said:

That works fine unless there are multiple artboards in the document. Then it can get complicated. For one thing, if you drag a guide over another artboard, it can end up being invisible because it is outside the selected artboard

Oh, indeed. Sorry, I had tried in Publisher only before. Yes, in Designer there can be guides outside an artboard IF they are on another artboard. AND they are not visible for either of the artboards. BUT, weird: those invisible guides do work for the artboard from where you placed it.

So, in your example: if you move an object vertically off the artboard you will see it snap at -2181px, and even get the guide visible when snapping. But only at this moment. If you release the mouse (end the object move) then the guide is invisible again.

a.  I can set a guide outside artboard but can't see it.
b.  I can set a guide outside artboard ONLY IF there is another artboard.
c.  I can use an invisible guide for snapping (+ get it visible for the millisecond of snapping).
––>  Isn't that a bug?

[Kal]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

OK, nothing strange about it -- I should have been clearer that it won't work if you are zoomed in unless you let it auto-scroll so that when you release the mouse button the pointer is not over any part of the document. If it is, it just drops the guide there.

Ah okay. That's what I meant when I asked 'are you sure the ruler isn't off the edge of the canvas?' In that case, what you're seeing is just the standard behaviour, where a guide is removed by dragging off the canvas.

[lb Cake]

On 6/12/2019 at 2:07 AM, Nelo said:

Affinity should make it more simple: select and just hit delete key!

(already made this request)

I agree I don't really see the current methods as simple. In other programs I can double click and get the option to delete the guide or I can just drag the guide away from the visible area of the screen, regardless of zoom, and viola it's gone. 

[Faccia]

I kept on dragging the guide to the ruler to remove, which like others have said is very common way to remove them in other programs. When I zoomed out, I then saw a collected mess of guide lines that just didn't want to go away. It's such a pain the way it is designed. I'm surprised Affinity has not changed this given that this thread dates back a few years and it clearly hasn't changed.

[Nelo]

...First thing I used to do when I'm designing a logo for example (and I'm sure I'm not alone) is to create a big artboard and then draw multiple ideas along it. Now imagine, every time I need to delete a guide, I must zoom out, and drag the guide outside the artboard. ...or, find it in guides manager window. How stupid is this?!

Another useful thing, is the option to convert a vector to a guide... But I think this will be asking too much.

[Robbkablabla]

Im on ipad, I'm going to need to create a new doc and paste the work into a new file. Even the simplest action is aggravating, nothing is obvious, and inadequate instruction.  

[Brian_J]

On 9/5/2019 at 4:21 PM, Kal said:

I think InDesign gets it right in every way. You can delete a guide by any of these means:

1. Drag a guide to the ruler
2. Select a guide and press the Delete key
3. Select Layout > Create Guides and check 'Remove Existing Ruler Guides'.

I often have to zoom out in order to drag a ruler guide off the page. It would be great if a ruler guide could be deleted by dragging it to the ruler.

[Lorox]

On 9/5/2019 at 4:32 PM, R C-R said:

Alternately, maybe adding "Delete guide" to the right-click popup menu when the pointer is over a guide would be?

Yeah, that would feel quite natural. Otherwise it would be helpful to be able to really select a guide (like in InDesign) and then delete it (or change its position via the ”Transform“ panel like with any other object).

[Old Bruce]

31 minutes ago, Lorox said:

it would be helpful to be able to really select a guide

Been years since I used the Adobe applications but wasn't there the option to have the guides on a layer which could be selected and things added to it? I would like that.

[Lorox]

6 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Been years since I used the Adobe applications but wasn't there the option to have the guides on a layer which could be selected and things added to it? I would like that.

Yes, guides in InDesign used to be attached to the layer that was active while that guide was created. So you were (or still are) able to create a dedicated "guides layer" (which I actually often did back in the day...)

[Guest]

On 4/27/2016 at 2:26 PM, MEB said:

Just drag them off the canvas. If you are using Artboards (Affinity Designer only) make sure you don't release the guide over another artboard.

I always wish there was some feedback associated with this action; an 'x' is displayed beside the cursor while dragging the guide off the canvas/artboard, or a 'puff of smoke' when you release a guide outside of the canvas/artboard to indicate that it has removed.

As it is when you drag a guide outside an artboard/canvas the guide is still visible until you release the mouse button at which point it disappears. I used to think that I had inadvertently 'dropped' the guide into a nether-space where it would forever continue to exist, but would never be accessible again. It always felt like I had done something wrong.