Alignment and distribution tools

When you select an object in the Designer, be it an image, fill box, clipart or text, the Position button appears on the right. Clicking this button opens the Position menu for the selected object. See Size and position images and objects for more information. If you select two or more objects, additional tools appear. These tools allow you to align, distribute and resize the selected objects in relation to each other or to the page.

Position

If you are working with a group of objects, you can easily move them around using your mouse. Start by selecting the group of objects, then click and hold the mouse to move them to the desired location. You can also resize the whole group by selecting the blue frame that appears around the selection and dragging to change the size.

In the right menu, when multiple objects are selected, the Width and Height fields in the Position menu are disabled. To enter precise dimensions, select only one object at a time.

If you prefer, you can enter specific X and Y/ coordinates in the appropriate fields to move the selected group of objects to a precise position. Similarly, entering a degree of rotation will rotate the entire group of selected objects.

Align

Similar to aligning a single object, the top row of buttons in the Align section allows you to align multiple objects horizontally or vertically to different edges or the centre. When multiple objects are selected, additional options appear below these buttons.

By default, when no checkboxes are selected, clicking on any alignment button - vertical or horizontal - will align the objects relative to each other. For example, selecting two objects and clicking the Centred Vertically button will vertically align the selected objects in relation to each other, regardless of their position on the page.

Selecting the Align to page check box will align each selected object individually with respect to the entire page, ignoring the other selected objects. For example, with this option enabled, clicking the Horizontal left margin button will align all selected objects to the left edge of the page, regardless of their position relative to each other. If you're working on a multi-photo product, such as a photo book, you can align objects relative to a single page by selecting Single page.

Selecting the As a group check box applies the alignment options to the entire group of selected objects, rather than to individual objects. For example, if this option is checked together with Align to page and you click the Centre horizontally button, the objects will be aligned as a group to the centre of the page, taking into account the spacing between them. Note that enabling this option affects all the tools in this section. So if the As a group checkbox is checked, any alignment button clicked will apply the action to the group.

Enabling the Use spacing option activates the Distance field. If you enter a value in this field, the alignment tools will take this distance into account when positioning the objects.

Layer

The Layer tools control the stacking order of objects. For more information, refer to the Size and position images and objects article.

Distribute

Clicking on the Distribute Horizontally or Distribute Vertically buttons will evenly distribute the selected objects in relation to each other, creating equal spacing between them. The blue frame surrounding the selected objects is used as a reference when using the Distribute tools.

When the Align to page checkbox is selected, the distribution will be based on the page. This means that objects at the edges of the selection will be placed at the edges of the page, while maintaining the same spacing between all objects within the selection.

Similar to the Align tool, enabling the Single page checkbox ensures that positions are calculated in relation to a single page.

Distribute spacing

If you want to specify a specific distance between objects, you can do so in this section. By checking the Use spacing checkbox, you can activate the Distance field where you can enter the desired distance. This will determine the space left between the selected objects when you click on Distribute horizontally or Distribute vertically in this section. If you also check the Align to page checkbox, the distribution will take the page margins into account. When the Single page checkbox is checked, only a single page will be considered.

Resize

You can resize the objects to have the same width and height by using the Match width, Match height, or Match width and height options. Clicking on these buttons will make the selected objects assume the dimensions of the largest object, depending on the chosen option. For instance, if you select three objects of different sizes and click Match width and height, all three objects will be resized to have the same width and height as the largest object.

When the Align to page checkbox is checked, the objects will take the size of the pages instead of the largest object. If the Single page checkbox is checked, the objects will conform to the dimensions of a single page.

Swap images

When you choose multiple images, you'll see the Swap selected images button above the selection. Simply click this button to swap the positions of the selected images, while keeping the size of the target image box unchanged.

This feature is handy when you want to rearrange or switch the order of images in your design without altering their sizes. Just select the images you wish to swap and click the Swap selected images button to instantly exchange their positions.

Remember that this function specifically applies to the selected images and the target image boxes. It won't resize or modify the images themselves, ensuring that your design's layout and composition remain unaffected.