1 00:00:00.06 --> 00:00:02.04 - [Voiceover] In this movie, I'll show you how to align 2 00:00:02.04 --> 00:00:05.01 a group of objects to the artboard. 3 00:00:05.01 --> 00:00:06.09 Now, let's say, for example, I want to take 4 00:00:06.09 --> 00:00:08.09 these four squares right here, and I want 5 00:00:08.09 --> 00:00:11.08 to exactly center them on the artboard. 6 00:00:11.08 --> 00:00:14.09 I could take advantage of that center guides trick. 7 00:00:14.09 --> 00:00:17.00 To refresh your memory on that one, 8 00:00:17.00 --> 00:00:19.00 I'll go ahead and press the V key to switch back 9 00:00:19.00 --> 00:00:21.01 to the black arrow tool, and now I'll press 10 00:00:21.01 --> 00:00:23.05 Control + R, or Command + R on the Mac, in order 11 00:00:23.05 --> 00:00:26.05 to bring up the rulers, and I'll press the control key, 12 00:00:26.05 --> 00:00:28.04 or the command key on the Mac, and I'll drag 13 00:00:28.04 --> 00:00:30.03 from the intersection of the two rulers 14 00:00:30.03 --> 00:00:32.02 in the upper left corner of the window, 15 00:00:32.02 --> 00:00:35.02 in order to drag out two guides at the same time. 16 00:00:35.02 --> 00:00:37.07 Now, I'll press Control + R, or Command + R on the Mac, 17 00:00:37.07 --> 00:00:39.02 in order to hide the rulers, 18 00:00:39.02 --> 00:00:42.00 then I'll go up to the View Menu, choose Guides, 19 00:00:42.00 --> 00:00:44.08 and choose the Lock Guides command to turn it off, 20 00:00:44.08 --> 00:00:48.03 and then, just go ahead and marquee these two guides 21 00:00:48.03 --> 00:00:50.03 like so, and go up to the Align icon, 22 00:00:50.03 --> 00:00:51.06 up here in the Control Panel. 23 00:00:51.06 --> 00:00:54.06 Click on it, and choose Align To Artboard. 24 00:00:54.06 --> 00:00:57.03 Then go ahead and click on each of these center icons, 25 00:00:57.03 --> 00:00:59.04 which includes Horizontal Align Center, 26 00:00:59.04 --> 00:01:02.03 and then click on Vertical Align Center, 27 00:01:02.03 --> 00:01:04.00 and you will now center your guides, 28 00:01:04.00 --> 00:01:06.08 after which point, you probably want to go to the View menu, 29 00:01:06.08 --> 00:01:08.08 choose Guides once again, and this time 30 00:01:08.08 --> 00:01:11.05 choose Lock Guides to turn it back on. 31 00:01:11.05 --> 00:01:13.07 All right, now we can go ahead and partially marquee 32 00:01:13.07 --> 00:01:16.03 these four squares right here, and I can just drag them 33 00:01:16.03 --> 00:01:18.09 by their sheared center point until I snap 34 00:01:18.09 --> 00:01:20.09 those anchor points into alignment 35 00:01:20.09 --> 00:01:23.01 with the intersection of the two guide lines. 36 00:01:23.01 --> 00:01:24.09 So that's one way to work, 37 00:01:24.09 --> 00:01:26.06 and I am a big fan of center guides. 38 00:01:26.06 --> 00:01:29.08 I find them useful, especially when setting up documents, 39 00:01:29.08 --> 00:01:32.07 but in this particular case, there's an easier way to work. 40 00:01:32.07 --> 00:01:34.05 So I'm gonna go up to the File menu 41 00:01:34.05 --> 00:01:37.02 and choose the Revert command in order to revert 42 00:01:37.02 --> 00:01:39.05 to the saved version of the document. 43 00:01:39.05 --> 00:01:42.02 I'll go ahead and click the Revert button as well. 44 00:01:42.02 --> 00:01:45.00 Now what I'm gonna do is partially marquee these squares 45 00:01:45.00 --> 00:01:47.03 once again, in order to select all four of them. 46 00:01:47.03 --> 00:01:50.02 You'll notice, by the way, the Align icon now reads 47 00:01:50.02 --> 00:01:53.05 Align To Artboard, so it remembers your last setting. 48 00:01:53.05 --> 00:01:56.03 What I should be able to do is just center these squares 49 00:01:56.03 --> 00:02:00.00 to the artboard by first clicking on Horizontal Align Center 50 00:02:00.00 --> 00:02:02.07 and then clicking on Vertical Align Center, 51 00:02:02.07 --> 00:02:04.08 but you can see that this isn't working, 52 00:02:04.08 --> 00:02:06.06 and that's because each one of the squares 53 00:02:06.06 --> 00:02:08.01 is getting centered independently 54 00:02:08.01 --> 00:02:11.01 because they're all independent path outlines. 55 00:02:11.01 --> 00:02:13.00 If you want to center them as a group, 56 00:02:13.00 --> 00:02:15.01 then you need to put them in some kind of container. 57 00:02:15.01 --> 00:02:17.09 For example, if they all share the same fill color, 58 00:02:17.09 --> 00:02:20.00 then I can combine them into a compound path, 59 00:02:20.00 --> 00:02:22.08 but in my case, we've got two different colors going 60 00:02:22.08 --> 00:02:24.09 so I'm going to group them. 61 00:02:24.09 --> 00:02:27.04 I'll go ahead and press Control + Z, 62 00:02:27.04 --> 00:02:28.03 or Command + Z on the Mac, 63 00:02:28.03 --> 00:02:31.07 a couple of times to re-establish the relative positioning, 64 00:02:31.07 --> 00:02:33.03 then I'll go up to the Object menu 65 00:02:33.03 --> 00:02:35.03 and choose the Group command, or, of course, 66 00:02:35.03 --> 00:02:37.03 you could press Control + G here on a PC, 67 00:02:37.03 --> 00:02:39.01 or Command + G on the Mac, 68 00:02:39.01 --> 00:02:41.07 and then click on Horizontal Align Center, 69 00:02:41.07 --> 00:02:44.02 followed by Vertical Align Center, 70 00:02:44.02 --> 00:02:47.01 and you will have aligned that entire block of squares 71 00:02:47.01 --> 00:02:49.07 to the exact center of the artboard. 72 00:02:49.07 --> 00:02:53.05 And that's how you align a group of objects to the artboard 73 00:02:53.05 --> 00:02:55.06 here inside Illustrator.