How can I turn off 'snap to center' for free-form lines in Keynote for iOS?

I added two lines to a slide and if I attempt to finely position them so that they point at the correct part of the image, they will immediately "snap" to the dead-center of the image. If I bring the line end close to the edge of the image, the it will snap to a corner or the middle of the image's edge. I cannot force the arrow to point at the thing I want it to point to.



I managed to do it in this example only by playing around with the line lengths and curves without the image in the slide, and then adding the image once I think I've got the lines in the right place. Doing it this way us clumsy and time consuming but it's the only way I have found that works. I tried turning off the edge/center/spacing guides and that had no effect.


Does anyone know how I can stop these free-form lines from snapping to connection points of other objects, or to the center of an image? By the way, it isn't a problem with straight lines - only with the free-form lines that have three adjustment points.

Posted on May 24, 2022 11:25 PM

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7 replies

May 27, 2022 7:08 AM in response to ASTRO24

I tried this and it is possible to move the arrow's endpoints, although it's tedious and time-consuming. It's actually faster to finger-position the arrows in the approximate location and then add the image afterward (as I mentioned in the original post). Then, I guess, the 'move endpoint' tool can be used to "fine tune" the endpoints.


It should be noted that this works only for moving the endpoints; not the center point of the line (the point that defines the curve).


So it seems the answer is no, there is no way to turn off the 'snap to' behavior of the three-point line, but there are a few time-consuming workarounds.

Jun 29, 2022 5:07 PM in response to augratin

I think the best thing would be to temporarily just turn off all the Snap guides.


  1. Click the circle with the three dots in the upper right
  2. In the column that appears, tap “# Guides”
  3. Then, deactivate all three options
  4. Once you’re done, you can turn everything back on


I just tried this and I was able to freely move the three-point line without it snapping to anything.

Jun 30, 2022 6:49 AM in response to augratin

Yes, you are correct. In thinking this morning about my answer, I pulled up my test presentation and saw what you’re experiencing. Understanding this, you’re right in that it would be faster to finger position the arrows after. I wish there was a way to turn the segmented line into a curve on the iPad. I think there is on the Mac version.

Jun 30, 2022 6:08 AM in response to Kyn Drake

I think you are talking about moving the entire line, not merely one of the endpoints, which is what I need to do. I have the arrow in the right place, but just need to "fine tune" the single endpoint that is the arrowhead, while leaving the other two points alone.


Try it again, and try to move only one of the arrow's two endpoints while the line is superimposed over an image. The arrow goes all stupid when you do that.


[edit - I've taken a screen recording of me trying to do this. You can see the arrow head always jumps to the exact center of the image]

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How can I turn off 'snap to center' for free-form lines in Keynote for iOS?

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