118 Align Objects

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Draw's snap lines help you ensure that your Draw shapes align properly with one another. Whether you want to display items across or down a page, when you use snap lines, you can make your objects follow those snap lines (also called snap to lines) without getting well, out of line.

Before You Begin

111 Place Shapes on the Drawing Area

113 About Perfecting Shapes


Snap lines act as an imaginary grid on your drawing's background. You can control every aspect of your snap lines, from their width, to their direction, to their distance from one another. Be sure to set your Grid options category so the Snap to option is checked to make use of snap lines. See 105 Set Draw Options for more information on setting options.

See Also

119 Add Text to a Drawing


In addition to snap to lines, you can set snap to points. These points define locations in your drawing that you want all objects close to those points to move to. Perhaps you place objects in a semicircle by temporarily drawing a curve that will form the curved base for your figures. You can add snap to points along the curve. When you delete the curve, the snap to points will remain , and you can add objects to those points later.

NOTE

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Snap lines are useful for aligning objects, but they do not print when you print your drawing and they don't show during the presentation.


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  1. Request a Snap To Line

    Select Snap Point/Line from the Insert menu.

    NOTE

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    Snap lines appear as dashed lines vertically or horizontally across your drawing. A snap point appears as a dashed crosshair showing the point of the snap.

  2. Define the Line

    Define the snap line using the New Snap Object dialog box that appears. If you're defining a vertical snap to line, you must set the X position (use the ruler as a guide). If you're defining a horizontal snap to line, you must set the Y position. Therefore, if you want to align a set of images across the top of your drawing, 3 inches down from the top, you'll create a horizontal snap line with a Y setting of 3.00 ".

    TIP

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    If you don't like the position of any snap line or point, just click and drag the line or point with your mouse to a new position.

    When creating a snap to point, you must enter both an x-axis and a y-axis value.

    Click to select either Point, Vertical , or Horizontal to specify the kind of snap you want. Click OK to draw the snap line or snap point.

  3. Adjust the Objects to the Line

    The purpose of the snap line is to act as a magnet for whatever you drag close to it. If you add a snap line to an existing drawing, you can drag the objects you want to snap to that line close to it. When an object's edge gets close to the snap line, Draw immediately pulls that object to the line.

  4. Drag the Snap Line from the Ruler

    Instead of using the New Snap Object dialog box to add your snap line, you can more quickly drag from inside either ruler out to your drawing to apply a snap line.

    To draw a vertical snap line, click anywhere on the vertical ruler and drag your mouse to the left into your drawing. As you drag your mouse, the snap line appears, and when you release your mouse, the snap line will be anchored into place. To draw a horizontal snap line, click anywhere on the horizontal ruler and drag down into your drawing.

  5. Remove the Snap Line

    Right-click the snap line to produce a menu. From the menu you can edit or delete the line. When you select Edit Snap Line , the Edit Snap Line dialog box appears, where you can type a new x-axis or y-axis value. If you select Delete , you'll erase the snap line.

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Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org All In One
Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org All In One
ISBN: 0672326183
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 205
Authors: Greg Perry

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