Comments on: Illustrator Trick #7: Aligning to objects http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/aligning-to-objects/ Illustrator Tutorial & Effects Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:50:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Craig Bond http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/aligning-to-objects/#comment-12639 Craig Bond Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:29:15 +0000 http://www.vectordiary.com/?p=107#comment-12639 Thanks, anonymouscat...I've looked through the options countless times and somehow missed the keyboard increment option. I like your suggestion of keeping smart guides on and setting minor adjustments on for the keyboard increments. @Jamie in Las Vegas... You can align to one object without having it move. After selecting all the objects you want to align, click one more time on the object you don't want to move. You will notice increased highlighting on that object. Aligning will not cause all the objects to move toward each other in this case, but will align with the one you've selected. Thanks, anonymouscat…I’ve looked through the options countless times and somehow missed the keyboard increment option. I like your suggestion of keeping smart guides on and setting minor adjustments on for the keyboard increments.

@Jamie in Las Vegas… You can align to one object without having it move. After selecting all the objects you want to align, click one more time on the object you don’t want to move. You will notice increased highlighting on that object. Aligning will not cause all the objects to move toward each other in this case, but will align with the one you’ve selected.

]]> By: anonymouscat http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/aligning-to-objects/#comment-12638 anonymouscat Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:14:26 +0000 http://www.vectordiary.com/?p=107#comment-12638 p.s. Craig bond, turn off smart guides and all "snap to.." stuff in view menu if you dont want marginal adjustments to snap though personally i set prefferences, keyboard increment to really really small and do my marginal adjustments with arrow keys and keep the smart guides on most of the time. p.s. Craig bond, turn off smart guides and all “snap to..” stuff in view menu if you dont want marginal adjustments to snap though personally i set prefferences, keyboard increment to really really small and do my marginal adjustments with arrow keys and keep the smart guides on most of the time.

]]> By: anonymouscat http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/aligning-to-objects/#comment-12637 anonymouscat Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:09:49 +0000 http://www.vectordiary.com/?p=107#comment-12637 p.s. 1. align to anchors will not work if one or more of the objects have all their anchors selected. 2. Align to selection is the initial default, if you switch to align to artboard then you will still align to art board after making a selection, untill you change this back. You will however always align to object if you click the object in your current selection. 3. The default key object is the one on the highest sublayer of the highest layer. p.p.s. james in las vegas: selecting the key object to align to with an extra click and then being free to shift click to select further objects to align to the key makes perfect sense to me. More sense than using the add to selection short-cut for determining the key object anyway. p.s.

1. align to anchors will not work if one or more of the objects have all their anchors selected.

2. Align to selection is the initial default, if you switch to align to artboard then you will still align to art board after making a selection, untill you change this back.
You will however always align to object if you click the object in your current selection.

3. The default key object is the one on the highest sublayer of the highest layer.

p.p.s. james in las vegas: selecting the key object to align to with an extra click and then being free to shift click to select further objects to align to the key makes perfect sense to me.

More sense than using the add to selection short-cut for determining the key object anyway.

]]> By: anonymouscat http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/aligning-to-objects/#comment-12636 anonymouscat Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:52:46 +0000 http://www.vectordiary.com/?p=107#comment-12636 Re: Original article. It says what it sets out to do and it tells you how to do it with minimum fuss or needless bother. 10/10 It doesn't promise a full insight into aligning. By default if you just select some objects you will have align to selection as the method for aligning. If you then click an object belonging to the selection it will use align to object (that last object clicked, denoted by a thicker bounding box outline will be the "key" object). Grouping of objects for post alignment for further alignment with other elements offers yet more versatility with some ingenuity. (Don't forget that align to artboard can be chosen as the align method from the bottom right of the align tool panel and that pre aligned then grouped objects will not realign inside the group, the whole group will align) When using direct select tool you can align anchors in a similar way to a key anchor etc. When aligning to anchors you should always manually shift click the anchor to align to last. If the anchor you want to align to is already selected you will need to deselect then select it, both times with shift click. This must also be done if you just did an undo after a key anchor align, although the selected anchors are the same after the undo, it seems which was key previously is forgotten. I have yet to find a way of aligning an object to a key anchor however, even when selecting an object then direct selecting an anchor on another object. Illustrator may be different to some other programs but it is a necessity born of it's massive array of powerful features, even with the alt shift ctrl button Re: Original article. It says what it sets out to do and it tells you how to do it with minimum fuss or needless bother. 10/10 It doesn’t promise a full insight into aligning.

By default if you just select some objects you will have align to selection as the method for aligning.

If you then click an object belonging to the selection it will use align to object (that last object clicked, denoted by a thicker bounding box outline will be the “key” object).

Grouping of objects for post alignment for further alignment with other elements offers yet more versatility with some ingenuity. (Don’t forget that align to artboard can be chosen as the align method from the bottom right of the align tool panel and that pre aligned then grouped objects will not realign inside the group, the whole group will align)

When using direct select tool you can align anchors in a similar way to a key anchor etc.

When aligning to anchors you should always manually shift click the anchor to align to last. If the anchor you want to align to is already selected you will need to deselect then select it, both times with shift click. This must also be done if you just did an undo after a key anchor align, although the selected anchors are the same after the undo, it seems which was key previously is forgotten.

I have yet to find a way of aligning an object to a key anchor however, even when selecting an object then direct selecting an anchor on another object.

Illustrator may be different to some other programs but it is a necessity born of it’s massive array of powerful features, even with the alt shift ctrl button

]]> By: Jamie in Las Vegas http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/aligning-to-objects/#comment-9728 Jamie in Las Vegas Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:43:22 +0000 http://www.vectordiary.com/?p=107#comment-9728 PC user here, at a sign company. In our sign software (Gerber Composer) and in CorelDRAW, "align and distribute" works by clicking the object you want to move, shift+click the object you want to center to, and voila, it works. In Adobe Illustrator, both objects move toward each other. Most frustrating. And the answers here aren't helping. Do you really need a separate plug-in to do such a basic thing? [I hate Illustrator with a firey white hot passion.] PC user here, at a sign company. In our sign software (Gerber Composer) and in CorelDRAW, “align and distribute” works by clicking the object you want to move, shift+click the object you want to center to, and voila, it works. In Adobe Illustrator, both objects move toward each other. Most frustrating. And the answers here aren’t helping. Do you really need a separate plug-in to do such a basic thing? [I hate Illustrator with a firey white hot passion.]

]]> By: Craig Bond http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/aligning-to-objects/#comment-8915 Craig Bond Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:18:18 +0000 http://www.vectordiary.com/?p=107#comment-8915 My problem is with Illustrator’s tendency to try to auto-align everything when I’m moving it around with the mouse or resizing it. I only want to move my object a fraction of a hair over with my mouse (the arrow keys make it jump too far) but when I try to move it, it tries to auto-align itself with some other object on my canvas so instead of getting that nice alignment I want, it jumps out of my control. I’ve tried moving it with all the different buttons held down (Shift, Option, Command, etc, but nothing seems to work)… My problem is with Illustrator’s tendency to try to auto-align everything when I’m moving it around with the mouse or resizing it. I only want to move my object a fraction of a hair over with my mouse (the arrow keys make it jump too far) but when I try to move it, it tries to auto-align itself with some other object on my canvas so instead of getting that nice alignment I want, it jumps out of my control. I’ve tried moving it with all the different buttons held down (Shift, Option, Command, etc, but nothing seems to work)…

]]> By: Tonni http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/aligning-to-objects/#comment-4756 Tonni Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:32:12 +0000 http://www.vectordiary.com/?p=107#comment-4756 Great nice to know this never knew this. Great nice to know this never knew this.

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