Cool Alignment Trick 3

[Arjay418]

Hey folks,

I lurk around in some other design forums and in Howdesign.com I saw a really cool tip that I had to pass along to everyone here. By the way, I use Illustrator 9.

As we all know, if you select two objects and click your align button, they will both jump from their spots and align somewhere in the middle. Let's say you have already positioned one of the objects where you want it. To keep that object where it is, and align the other objects to it, do this:

Select both objects, then click on the one that you don't want to move, then click your align button. You'll see that the other objects will jump to align with the the one you clicked, and you won't have to realign anything.

Is this news to anyone else or do I just need to get with the program?

--rj

 

[dimoj]

I think that's fairly common knowledge RJ, but if it helps one person...it's worth it.

I'll join in on the aligning tip giving game:

Aligning the right hand side of one object to the left hand side of another object

Select both objects and click one of them to select it as the object to align to.

In the Distribute Spacing section of the align palette, change the spacing to zero and then click the Horizontal Distribute Space button (of course this works for vertical too).

Your objects will now be touching.

(If your objects are stroked, you can click on Use Preview Bounds in the Align Palettes options and the objects will touch at the edge of the stroke rather than on the path)

 

[junglist]

Thanks to both of you!

I found both sets of tips to be useful, as I have used more cumbersome (and less accurate ways) to do the same things before.

I've never even looked inside the menu on the Align palette before! Lo and behold - there is some helpful stuff in there!