Aligning Objects (XForms (Forms Library) - Version 1.2 (Rev. 4) A Graphical User Interface Toolkit for X)

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### 10.5 Aligning Objects

Sometimes you have a number of objects and you want to align them in some way, e.g., centered or all starting at the same left position, etc. To this end press the button labeled "Align". A special form will appear in the top right corner. You can leave this form visible as long as you want. You can hide it using the button labeled "Dismiss" on the form or by clicking the "Align" button again.

First select the objects you want to align. Next, press one of the alignment buttons in the form. The buttons in the top row have the following meaning: flush left, center horizontally, flush right, and make the objects have equal distances in horizontal direction (see below). The buttons in the bottom row mean: align to bottom, center vertically, align to top, and make all objects have the same vertical distance. Note that alignments are relative to the selection box, not to the form. Equal distance alignment means that between all the objects an equal sized gap is placed. The objects are kept in the same left to right or bottom to top order.

The "Undo" button undoes the last alignment change. It is an undo with a depth of 1, i.e., you can only undo the last change and an undo after an undo will undo itself. Note however, that any modification to the selected objects invalidates the undo buffer.

In the alignment form you can also indicate the "snapping size" when moving or resizing objects, using the counter at the bottom. Default snapping is 10 pixels. Snapping helps in making objects of the same size and aligning them nicely.

Next: Raising and Lowering, Previous: Moving and Scaling, Up: Part II Creating Forms [Contents][Index]