Align On

This tip is, we'll admit, a little out there, but there are some interesting uses for this concept. When you add a decimal-aligned tab stop to the Tab Ruler in the Tabs palette (Window>Type>Tabs), by default Illustrator assumes that you want the text to align using the decimal point (a fair assumption). You don't have to be satisfied with aligning to the decimal point, but instead you can align your text to a character by entering any character in the Align On field at the top of the palette. In our first example, all the tabbed text is aligning to the semi-colons, so the workout times all line up. The second example is a little more unusual, with all the words aligning on the letter "a" in each word.