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- [Voiceover] Over the

course of this chapter,



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we're going to take

this mess of a document



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with all these squares

on the first art board



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and this strange text on the second one



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and we're going to arrange it to create



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this highly structured

piece of artwork right here.



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And, we're going to do

so almost exclusively



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using Illustrator's

highly-developed alignment



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and distribution functions.



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So, I'm going to go ahead and switch over



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to our starter document

and press Shift + Page Up



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in order to go back to

the first art board.



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We're going to start things off



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with Illustrator's simplest

alignment functions



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which are Snapping and Smart Guides.



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And so, for example,

let's say I want to move



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these four central squares

into alignment with each other,



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then I can click on any

one of them to select them



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and assuming that my

Bounding Box is turned off,



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I can drag this square by

one of its corner handles.



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And let me just make this perfectly clear.



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Notice if I went to the View Menu



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and I chose Show Bounding Box



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in order to turn the Bounding Box back on,



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then if I were to attempt

to drag by a corner point



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I would end up scaling the shape.



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And, there's a lot folks

who like to work that way



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and that's perfectly acceptable.



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I don't like to work this way, however,



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because there's so many better ways



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to scale inside of Illustrator.



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We just saw the best one,

which is the Scale tool,



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in the previous chapter.



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And so, I'm going to press Control + Z



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or Command + Z on the Mac



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to undo that change



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and then I'll go to the View Menu



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and choose Hide Bounding Box



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to get rid of it.



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And now, notice if I

drag this corner point



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then I can drag it until

it snaps into alignment



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with the top-left anchor point



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associated with this green square.



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And I know I've got a

snap because my cursor



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goes from solid black to hollow white



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and I'm also seeing that

Smart Guide that tells me



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that I have an intersection between



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the centers of the shapes.



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And these are a function of two commands



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under the View Menu.



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First of all, you can see I

have my Smart Guides turned on



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and then, if I were to

scroll down the menu,



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I also have Snap to Point turned on.



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And I recommend, under

almost all circumstances,



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that you leave that check-box on.



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The only time you would

turn that command off



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is if the snapping is

somehow getting in your way,



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when you don't want two anchor

points to snap together.



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Alright, so I'll just go

ahead and press the Escape key



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in order to hide that menu.



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Another way to work, by the way,



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because we do have Smart Guides turned on,



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is to just click on a shape



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and you can drag it by its center point,



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because this is a rectangle after all,



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or you could even switch to

the rectangle tool nowadays



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which by default turns into a section tool



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when you hover over a selected shape.



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And so, if you want to move the shape



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you drag it by its center point like so,



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and then thanks to the fact



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that I have Smart Guides turned on



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I can go ahead and move

that guy into a position



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where it snaps into alignment

with the other squares.



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And by the way,



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this is a function of this

little icon right there



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which allows you to hide the shape widgets



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if you don't want them



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or, turn those shape widgets back on



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if you like this feature.



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And so, finally, I'll go

ahead and select this guy



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by pressing the Control key,

or the Command key on the Mac,



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which is going to get me

my last-used arrow tool



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which happens to be the black arrow



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at which point, I'll just go

ahead and click on that shape



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to select it and then I'll

release the Control key



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or the Command key on the Mac



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and drag this square by

its center point once again



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in order to snap it into alignment



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with its three neighbors.



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And that's how you work with the simplest



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of the alignment functions,



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Snapping and Smart Guides,



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here inside Illustrator.