Section 69. Aligning Objects

#69. Aligning Objects

You're probably already familiar with the concept of text alignment. InDesign provides several paragraph alignment options, including left-aligned, center-aligned, right-aligned, and justified. In much the same way as you control the alignment of lines in a paragraph, you can control the alignment of objects.

If you like icon-based user interfaces, you'll love the Align palette (Window > Object & Layout > Align). When two or more objects are selected, the 12 buttons in the Align palette let you control the placement of the objects relative to each other (Figure 69). Each button icon indicates graphically what will happen to the selected objects when you click the button.

Figure 69. The original, unaligned objects are on the left. Clicking Align Horizontal Centers in the Align palette produced the middle set. Clicking Distribute Vertical Centers produced the aligned and evenly spaced result on the right.

The six Align Objects buttons let you align objects along a vertical or horizontal axis. The six Distribute Objects buttons let you place a specified amount of space between objects along a horizontal or vertical axis. Each time you click a button, it's applied to the selected objects.

Adding Space Between Objects

If you choose Show Options in the Align palette menu, the palette displays additional controls for specifying the vertical or horizontal space between selected objects. Check Use Spacing, and in the accompanying field, enter the amount of space you want to place between the selected objects. Then click the Distribute Vertical Space or Distribute Horizontal Space button.

If you check Use Spacing in the Align palette, you can enter a value in the accompanying field that will be used to place space between the selected objects the next time you click one of the Distribute Objects buttons.

The six Align Objects buttons in the Align palette are also available in the Control palette when multiple objects are selected.

Getting the results you want using the Align palette takes a little practice. If you click one of the align/distribute buttons and don't like the results, you can always undo the action (Edit > Undo).