1

00:00:00.00 --> 00:00:02.01

- [Voiceover] In this

movie, I'll show you how to



2

00:00:02.01 --> 00:00:04.08

align and distribute

selected objects according to



3

00:00:04.08 --> 00:00:06.08

the relative position of those objects,



4

00:00:06.08 --> 00:00:10.09

as well as to the absolute

position of a key object.



5

00:00:10.09 --> 00:00:12.09

And this is the kind of thing

you're going to find yourself



6

00:00:12.09 --> 00:00:15.00

doing all the time inside Illustrator.



7

00:00:15.00 --> 00:00:17.00

The thing is it works

a lot differently here



8

00:00:17.00 --> 00:00:19.02

then it does inside other programs.



9

00:00:19.02 --> 00:00:22.02

So, obviously I need

to align these squares



10

00:00:22.02 --> 00:00:24.05

that are at the top, and the bottom,



11

00:00:24.05 --> 00:00:27.06

as well as the sides of the art board.



12

00:00:27.06 --> 00:00:29.08

But, because the art

board is now a larger size



13

00:00:29.08 --> 00:00:32.00

I can't align to the art board,



14

00:00:32.00 --> 00:00:35.02

I need to align with respect

to squares themselves.



15

00:00:35.02 --> 00:00:38.02

And so I'm just going to partially

marque these four squares



16

00:00:38.02 --> 00:00:41.08

over here on the right hand

side in order to select them.



17

00:00:41.08 --> 00:00:45.01

And then because I want to

adjust their vertical locations,



18

00:00:45.01 --> 00:00:48.07

I'll go ahead and click on

vertical distribute center.



19

00:00:48.07 --> 00:00:52.01

Problem is that goes ahead and

upsets the balance of things,



20

00:00:52.01 --> 00:00:53.06

and that's because I still have



21

00:00:53.06 --> 00:00:55.06

align to art board turned on.



22

00:00:55.06 --> 00:00:57.01

To get the results I'm looking for



23

00:00:57.01 --> 00:00:59.06

I need to switch to align to selection.



24

00:00:59.06 --> 00:01:01.09

After which point I'll go

ahead and press control Z,



25

00:01:01.09 --> 00:01:05.05

or command Z on the Mac in

order to undo that mistake,



26

00:01:05.05 --> 00:01:07.00

and then I'll go ahead and click on



27

00:01:07.00 --> 00:01:09.03

vertical distribute center once again.



28

00:01:09.03 --> 00:01:11.08

Or really I can click on any

of the vertical distribute



29

00:01:11.08 --> 00:01:15.05

options because after all my

squares are all the same size,



30

00:01:15.05 --> 00:01:19.03

in order to distribute

them as we're seeing here.



31

00:01:19.03 --> 00:01:20.08

Now what I want to do is align these



32

00:01:20.08 --> 00:01:22.09

objects into a perfect column,



33

00:01:22.09 --> 00:01:24.07

and you can do that using one of the



34

00:01:24.07 --> 00:01:26.08

horizontal alignment options.



35

00:01:26.08 --> 00:01:29.02

But, notice if I click

horizontal align right,



36

00:01:29.02 --> 00:01:32.01

I'm going to mess things up

because that's going to move



37

00:01:32.01 --> 00:01:35.01

all the squares so that

they're aligned with



38

00:01:35.01 --> 00:01:38.02

the right most square,

which is this guy here.



39

00:01:38.02 --> 00:01:40.05

That's not what I want

so I'll press control Z,



40

00:01:40.05 --> 00:01:42.08

or command Z on the Mac

to undo that change.



41

00:01:42.08 --> 00:01:45.03

If I were to click

horizontal align center,



42

00:01:45.03 --> 00:01:47.05

that's going to average

the horizontal position



43

00:01:47.05 --> 00:01:50.01

of all those squares,

also a mistake of course.



44

00:01:50.01 --> 00:01:51.08

So, I'll undo that one.



45

00:01:51.08 --> 00:01:54.09

And finally because these

two guys right here,



46

00:01:54.09 --> 00:01:56.09

the ones that are in the proper location



47

00:01:56.09 --> 00:01:59.06

are to the left of the other two squares,



48

00:01:59.06 --> 00:02:03.01

all I need to do is click

on horizontal align left



49

00:02:03.01 --> 00:02:06.07

in order to move all the squares

into the proper position.



50

00:02:06.07 --> 00:02:08.08

All right, now I'll go

ahead partially marque



51

00:02:08.08 --> 00:02:10.07

the bottom most squares here.



52

00:02:10.07 --> 00:02:13.07

And this time because I want

to distribute them horizontally



53

00:02:13.07 --> 00:02:17.01

I'll move over to this option

horizontal distribute center,



54

00:02:17.01 --> 00:02:20.00

or really any of the

horizontal distribute options



55

00:02:20.00 --> 00:02:21.09

are going to do in my case.



56

00:02:21.09 --> 00:02:25.05

And now because I want to

align these guys that are lower



57

00:02:25.05 --> 00:02:28.00

to the ones that are

in the proper locations



58

00:02:28.00 --> 00:02:30.01

which are in the highest positions,



59

00:02:30.01 --> 00:02:33.06

I can go ahead and click

on vertical align top



60

00:02:33.06 --> 00:02:37.01

in order to move all the squares

into the proper alignment.



61

00:02:37.01 --> 00:02:39.08

Next I'll partially marque

the left hand squares,



62

00:02:39.08 --> 00:02:42.07

and I'll go ahead and click

vertical distribute center,



63

00:02:42.07 --> 00:02:44.00

or what have you.



64

00:02:44.00 --> 00:02:46.07

And, because these two guys

the ones that are in the



65

00:02:46.07 --> 00:02:49.04

right position are to the

right of the ones that are in



66

00:02:49.04 --> 00:02:52.00

the wrong position I'll go ahead and click



67

00:02:52.00 --> 00:02:54.00

horizontal align right to move



68

00:02:54.00 --> 00:02:56.03

everything where it needs to be.



69

00:02:56.03 --> 00:02:58.09

So, we've been lucky so

far but this approach is



70

00:02:58.09 --> 00:03:01.02

not going to work for the top squares,



71

00:03:01.02 --> 00:03:03.08

and that's because we

have one square that's



72

00:03:03.08 --> 00:03:06.06

lower than the ones that

are in the proper position,



73

00:03:06.06 --> 00:03:08.05

as well as one that's higher.



74

00:03:08.05 --> 00:03:10.01

All right so I'll start by clicking



75

00:03:10.01 --> 00:03:12.01

horizontal distribute center to



76

00:03:12.01 --> 00:03:14.03

distribute the width of the squares.



77

00:03:14.03 --> 00:03:16.08

And then notice if I

click vertical align top,



78

00:03:16.08 --> 00:03:19.00

I end up moving the shapes upward



79

00:03:19.00 --> 00:03:21.07

to the wrong location so I'll undo that.



80

00:03:21.07 --> 00:03:25.00

If I click vertical align

bottom that moves everybody down



81

00:03:25.00 --> 00:03:28.04

into the wrong location

and if I undo that,



82

00:03:28.04 --> 00:03:32.00

and then click vertical

align center you can see that



83

00:03:32.00 --> 00:03:35.09

averages the positions of

all four of the squares,



84

00:03:35.09 --> 00:03:38.08

which again is not going to

produce the right effect.



85

00:03:38.08 --> 00:03:40.05

And so instead what you need to do is



86

00:03:40.05 --> 00:03:44.05

establish one of the squares

as a fixed key object.



87

00:03:44.05 --> 00:03:47.06

And so to do that I'll go

ahead and undo once again,



88

00:03:47.06 --> 00:03:50.09

and all you need to do is

click on the key object.



89

00:03:50.09 --> 00:03:53.03

So any time you click on a selected object



90

00:03:53.03 --> 00:03:55.09

with a black arrow tool

you're going to give it



91

00:03:55.09 --> 00:03:58.07

a heavy outline as we're

seeing right there.



92

00:03:58.07 --> 00:04:01.02

So all that is, by the way, is a click.



93

00:04:01.02 --> 00:04:02.05

You don't have to shift click,



94

00:04:02.05 --> 00:04:04.05

or double click, or anything like that.



95

00:04:04.05 --> 00:04:06.08

Just click on any selected object



96

00:04:06.08 --> 00:04:08.09

and it'll get a heavy frame.



97

00:04:08.09 --> 00:04:11.00

Now what that means is that object is



98

00:04:11.00 --> 00:04:12.07

going to be the fixed key object,



99

00:04:12.07 --> 00:04:16.03

and everybody else is going to

move into alignment with it.



100

00:04:16.03 --> 00:04:18.00

I certainly don't want it to be this guy



101

00:04:18.00 --> 00:04:20.06

so I'll click on this square instead.



102

00:04:20.06 --> 00:04:23.06

And what I want you to

notice if I click again



103

00:04:23.06 --> 00:04:27.07

on this key object right

here, then it turns off.



104

00:04:27.07 --> 00:04:30.08

So clicking on a selected

object makes it a key object,



105

00:04:30.08 --> 00:04:34.03

clicking on it again turns

that key feature off.



106

00:04:34.03 --> 00:04:36.06

I also want you to notice

the appearance of this



107

00:04:36.06 --> 00:04:39.09

icon right here notice when

it's set to align to selection



108

00:04:39.09 --> 00:04:41.06

it appears as a dotted boundary



109

00:04:41.06 --> 00:04:44.03

with four tiny arrowheads inside of it.



110

00:04:44.03 --> 00:04:46.03

Whereas if I click on this square



111

00:04:46.03 --> 00:04:48.03

in order to change it to a key object,



112

00:04:48.03 --> 00:04:52.00

the icon changes to a key

and when I hover over it



113

00:04:52.00 --> 00:04:54.05

it says align to key object.



114

00:04:54.05 --> 00:04:56.07

And now I can click on any one of these



115

00:04:56.07 --> 00:04:59.03

vertical alignment icons

it doesn't matter which,



116

00:04:59.03 --> 00:05:01.05

in order to make all of the squares



117

00:05:01.05 --> 00:05:05.03

move into alignment with that key object.



118

00:05:05.03 --> 00:05:07.01

Now, this is a really powerful feature,



119

00:05:07.01 --> 00:05:09.05

but it can be a little

bit bewildering as well,



120

00:05:09.05 --> 00:05:11.06

because there will be times where you just



121

00:05:11.06 --> 00:05:13.07

have a bunch of things selected and then



122

00:05:13.07 --> 00:05:15.07

you'll just accidentally

click on something



123

00:05:15.07 --> 00:05:17.07

and all of a sudden it lights up.



124

00:05:17.07 --> 00:05:19.05

And, in my case I'm lighting up all four



125

00:05:19.05 --> 00:05:22.06

of the central squares because

they're grouped together.



126

00:05:22.06 --> 00:05:25.02

But, if that ever happens

to you just know you can



127

00:05:25.02 --> 00:05:28.00

get rid of that function as

well as the heavy outline



128

00:05:28.00 --> 00:05:30.08

just by clicking on it once again.



129

00:05:30.08 --> 00:05:33.03

And of course if you

have a key object at work



130

00:05:33.03 --> 00:05:35.06

and then you deselect your artwork,



131

00:05:35.06 --> 00:05:39.02

then that key object

function is going to go away.



132

00:05:39.02 --> 00:05:41.07

And that is how you both

align and distribute



133

00:05:41.07 --> 00:05:44.09

selected objects according

to the relative position of



134

00:05:44.09 --> 00:05:47.08

those objects as well

as the absolute position



135

00:05:47.08 --> 00:05:51.02

of a key object here inside Illustrator.