Using Rulers and Guides

When you are placing text and graphics on slides, you'll often want to make sure that objects on slides are aligned to each other, or to the boundaries of the slide. Similarly, you might want to make sure that objects are a particular size , especially if you have the objects on more than one slide. This helps you create a consistent-looking presentation. Keynote gives you on-screen rulers and "smart" alignment guides to help you get the job done.

Rulers

The horizontal and vertical rulers can be shown or hidden, and are customizable. You can change their measurement units and adjust the zero point (or origin ) of the ruler from the left or top end of the rulers to the center.

You can also set tabs and indents using rulers. See "Setting Text and Bullet Tabs" in Chapter 4 for more information.

To turn on rulers

1.	Choose View > Show Rulers, or press . The rulers appear.
2.	To hide the rulers, choose View > Hide Rulers, or press .

To adjust ruler properties

1.	Choose Keynote > Preferences, then click the Rulers tab. The Rulers Preferences window appears ( Figure 1.18 ). Figure 1.18. The Keynote Rulers Preferences window.
2.	In the Ruler Units section, choose the units that you wish to use from the pop-up menu. You can choose pixels, centimeters, or inches.
3.	If you prefer, click "Place origin at center of ruler."
4.	Close the Preferences window to save your changes.

Tip

• The "Display ruler units as percentage" option overrides the pixel, centimeter, or inch tick marks on the ruler, and replaces them with tick marks that show the percentage of the slide size.

Alignment guides

Keynote's yellow alignment guides appear when you need them; you'll notice them appearing and disappearing as you move objects around the Slide Canvas ( Figure 1.19 ). The guides are part of the master slides for your presentation, and they help you center and align objects on the canvas. The guides appear whenever the center or edge of an object aligns with the center or edge of another object, or with the center of the Slide Canvas.

Figure 1.19. Alignment guides and position tags appear as you move objects around on the Slide Canvas.

You'll also see position tags that appear along with the guides. These tags display the X and Y coordinates of the top-left corner of each object as you move it around the Slide Canvas.

The position tag changes into an angle tag when you free-rotate a graphic object. You can do that by selecting the object, holding down the Command key, and moving one of the object's handles ( Figure 1.20 ).

Figure 1.20. The angle tag appears when you free-rotate a graphic.

Similarly, the position tag changes into a size tag when you resize a graphic ( Figure 1.21 ).

Figure 1.21. When you resize a graphic, the size tag appears.

You can also set up your own alignment guides that remain on a slide. See "Using Rulers and Alignment Guides" in Chapter 5 for more information.

You can change the appearance and behavior of the alignment guides in Keynote's Preferences.

To set alignment guides preferences

1.	Choose Keynote > Preferences, then click the Rulers tab. The Rulers Preferences window appears.
2.	In the Alignment Guides section, click the color swatch to change the color of the alignment guides. The Colors window will appear. Make your choice and close the window. or Click either (or both) "Show guides at object center" or "Show guides at object edges."
3.	Close the Preferences window to save your changes.

Tips

• If you checked "Place origin at center of ruler" in the Ruler Units section of the Preferences, the position tags will also use that center as the origin.

• You can turn position and size tags off if you like. Check out the Documents section in the Keynote Preferences.