Using Guides


Like grids, guides are another tool commonly found in other design applications. Guides can do almost everything grids can, and a whole lot more. For instance, guides can be locked into place, guides can be set to percentages of the page, and not only can elements snap to guides, but guides can be set to snap to elements.

To turn guides on or off:

  • To toggle the display of guides, choose View > Guides > Show Guides ( Figure 6.44 ), or click the View Options menu button on the Document toolbar ( Figure 6.45 ) and choose Guides, or press Ctrl-; (Cmd-;).

    Figure 6.44. As you could with the grid, you can get to many guide options in the menu.

    Figure 6.45. You can turn guides on and off from the View Options menu.

To add a guide to your page:

1.
Click the cursor in either the horizontal or vertical ruler, and drag into the document. The guide appears along with a tip that displays the number of pixels that the guide is currently away from the edge of the document ( Figure 6.46 ).

Figure 6.46. By default, guides are measured in pixels.


2.
When the guide is where you want it, release the mouse. The line remains, but the tip goes away.

To edit guide settings:

1.
Choose View > Guides > Edit Guides (Figure 6.44), and the Guides dialog appears ( Figure 6.47 ).

Figure 6.47. Use the Guides dialog to change any of its settings.


2.
From here, you can set:

  • The guide and distance colors.

  • Whether guides should show.

  • Whether elements should snap to guides, guides snap to elements, both, or neither .

  • Whether guides are locked.

You can also use it to clear all the current guides by clicking the Clear All button.

3.
When your changes are complete, click OK.

Tips

  • To move a guide, move the mouse over the guide. When the cursor changes, click the guide and drag it to its new location.

  • To remove a guide from your page, move the guide off the document. Mac users will see a little "puff of smoke" animationsorry, Windows users! You can also remove all the guides at once (without the animated effect) by choosing View > Guides > Clear Guides (Figure 6.44) or by clicking Clear All in the Guides dialog (Figure 6.47).

  • To inspect the current position of a guide, hover the cursor over the guide, and a tip showing the position appears.

  • To position a guide based on the percentage distance of the document rather than pixels, hold down the Shift key while moving the guide ( Figure 6.48 ). The tip displays the current location in both pixels and percentages when you're moving it and also when you check the guide's position later.

    Figure 6.48. If you want a percentage instead of pixels, hold down the Shift key.

  • To see how far a guide is from the sides of your document, hold down the Ctrl (Cmd) key. Lines appear showing the distance in pixels (and percentage, if set in the previous tip) to the edges of the document ( Figure 6.49 ). If you have multiple guides on your page, the distance shown will be from guide to guide or from guide to edge.

    Figure 6.49. Holding down the Ctrl (Cmd) key gives you the distance between the document edge and the guide.

  • Guides can be locked on your page so that they can't be moved. To do this, choose View > Guides > Lock Guides (Figure 6.44) or use the Guides dialog (Figure 6.47). It's a toggle, so just do it again to unlock your guides.

  • Rulers have to be visible for you to add guides, but you can view, move, and delete guides even when the rulers are hidden.

  • Guides can be used to simulate dimensions of standard browsers. Choose View > Guides and pick one of the standard sizes from the bottom of the menu (Figure 6.44). This creates both vertical and horizontal guides on your page. Be careful, though, as you can still move them accidentally , and then they aren't much use at giving you your dimension hints. This is the one exception to the previous tip: you can create guides with this method even when the ruler is hidden.

  • As with the grid, you can choose to snap elements to your guidesbut you can also choose to snap guides to your elements. Choose either View > Guides > Snap To Guides, View > Guides > Guides Snap To Elements, or even both (Figure 6.44). Or, you can set them in the Guides dialog (Figure 6.47).

  • If you double-click a guide, the Move Guide dialog appears ( Figure 6.50 ). Use this dialog to set the guide to a precise position in pixels, inches, centimeters, or percentages.

    Figure 6.50. Double-click a guide to get to the Move Guide dialog.





Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 for Windows & Macintosh Visual QuickStart Guide
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 for Windows & Macintosh
ISBN: 0321350278
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 239

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