New Feature Request: Preset Guides

[mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap]

I regularly use the guides feature for a variety of purposes. A pain point I have noticed is that the guides do not have presets. I can import or export them, but that is a cumbersome process for the four or five guides I regularly use.

What I would like is presets for the guides that work virtually the same as the presets for headers and footers. For example, the "Add Header and Footer" dialog box has a settings box in the lower left corner that allows quick selection, saving, and management of preset settings for headers and footers (see annotated image below):

image.png

.
I'm not sure the best way to implement this. It could be done by adding a similar settings box to the "Add Page Guides" dialog box like this:

image(1).png

.
I'm not sure this is a great way to implement it because it would need the ability to save the particular configuration of guides on a page, which I'm not sure how that would work with it being only available in the "Add Page Guides" dialog box.
Regardless, I think the addition of preset guides can be achieved without too much trouble even if it is implemented as a new dialog box—e.g., Add Preset Guides

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap

Thank you for the excellent suggestion, I have created a ticket on this for you, though I cannot promise an implementation until I hear confirmation from the Dev team.
RT#6813: FR: Presets for "Add page guides" dialog

Kind regards,

[mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap]

Thanks for adding this Dan.

I want to make one clarification. What I really want is the ability to add a preset of multiple guides to a page (or multiple pages). For example, one preset can include two horizontal guides (one at the top of the page and one at the bottom of the page) and two vertical guides (one at the left of the page and one at the right of the page). Adding these guides currently requires opening the Add Page Guides dialog at least twice—i.e., once for the horizontal guides and once for the vertical guides. This is required because the Add Page Guides dialog cannot add both horizontal and vertical guides in a single action. However, I would like the ability to add the preset guides (both horizontal and vertical) in a single action.

As it currently stands, the Add Page Guides dialog would need to be modified to allow adding both horizontal and vertical guides in a single action, which should be doable. Once this is done, the settings box can be added in the bottom left so that different configurations of horizontal/vertical guides can be saved and recalled for later use.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap

That is an excellent point, I have spoken with some others on the support team and we have a few ideas for how a "insert both guide directions in a single action" could work. I will bring it up with the Dev team and see what we can do.

Kind regards,

[mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap]

Hi Daniel,

The latest build contains some improvements to the guides feature. I am raising this again to see if there is further support for what I described here, especially what I describe in my last post.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap

At the very least, it has not been rejected, but by the same token, without more support, I cannot offer any further priority increases.

Kind regards,

[PHK]

@ mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap: Another way is to set up the guides on a single page and then use the newish feature Duplicate Guides

image.png

to place those guides on all or selected pages.

[Dimitar - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for the input, FringePhil.

[mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap]

@ mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap: Another way is to set up the guides on a single page and then use the newish feature Duplicate Guides


image.png


to place those guides on all or selected pages.

Thanks Phil. This is helpful.

On a side note, I have tried using import guides to add guides, but it is broken most of the time and I haven't submitted a bug report yet (I need to reproduce the problem).

[PHK]

Glad to help.

I haven't tried importing guides yet, so I am no use there.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap

I would be curious to know what specific issues there are with the "import" guides feature. I know I just touched on an issue with the duplicate guides function, which looks to be fixed for the next release
If you have any other issues in that area, I would be keen to test them out. (Perhaps in a new topic though, since this is a FR thread)

Kind regards,

[mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap]

Hello, mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap

I would be curious to know what specific issues there are with the "import" guides feature.

The main issue is that I export guides but when I import them again, they are not the same. It's an intermittent problem so it might take me a while to reproduce the issues. One factor that might contribute to the problem is that I import/export the guides on different computers. I'll make more of an effort to figure this out while we wait for the feature request to be implemented because that will eliminate any need I have to import/export guides.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, mCHSNUg5Pz8cPap

Thank you, If you do find anything, please do make a new topic for it as well.
I will poke around and see what I can find, at least this gives me some direction. Perhaps page rotation at the time of export is having an impact? Or maybe the "Y-up" ruler mode has been toggled?

Kind regards,