Align to Object

[james...@adobeforums.com]

Whenever I align two objects together, it centers both to an averaged point between the two.

Is there a way I can select one object, and have it centered to another (while keeping the other at a stationary point?)

ie: I have a square that is 'not' centered onto the artboard, but I would like it to remain exactly where it is. But I have another object that I would like perfectly centered below it. Any way of doing this?

(using Illustrator CS2)

Thanks,

James Gerber

[Teri Pettit]

Select all the objects that you want to align to each other, then with the regular selection tool (black arrow), click once again on the one that you want to remain in place, then click on the appropriate Align button.

See also here:

<http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2006/03/object-alignment-tips.html>

[james...@adobeforums.com]

Hmm.. I must be doing something wrong.

A) Selected two different boxes using the 'selection tool' (black arrow)

B ) Holding down shift key, clicked on the "defined key object" so that it too was selected.

C) Clicked the center align from the "align pallet" window

They are still all centering to an averaged point, and I have checked to make sure align to artboard is not selected.

Don't know if it means anything, but the option for "Cancel Key Object" is always greyed out on me.

(i have also tried selecting "all" the objects, and then using the black arrow clicked on the one I wanted to remain, but it doesn't work for me, but I have a feeling I'm still doing it wrong (or missing a step)

-- BIG EDIT --

Hmm... now it seems to work fine... don't know what I was doing before.

thanks alot!!!!

[james...@adobeforums.com]

Teri,

Thanks again!

A ) Clicked black arrow in 'tools'

(or I guess you could just select all the objects using the the layers window)

B ) Selected all objects (including the target Key Object)

C ) Clicked once on the black arrow in 'tools' again

D ) Cliked on the target Key Object

E ) Clicked on the desired align option

Worked awesome!

[Harron_K....@adobeforums.com]

Step C) is unnecessary.

[reply backwards:]

Step B in message #2 of 4 contained the error: don't hold the shift key down. Simply select all objects (drag or shift-click until all are selected) then click once more on just the anchor object. Don't worry, the others will remain selected. Then choose the alignment of your choice.

[reply backwards:]

--BEGIN RANT--

BTW in my opinion this SUCKS. Adobe should take note of Corel's elegant and intuitive solution: the last object selected is the anchor object. Duh.

Illustrator. Aargh. Clumsiest toolset in the graphics universe.

--END OF RANT--

[Teri Pettit]

I do not find Corel's solution to the "elegant and intuitive" at all, for many reasons. 1: Lots of times there is no clear "first" or "last" object selected, since you've used some method that selects multiple objects simultaneously, such as marquee selecting or using a Select menu command. 2: Any order-based rule makes you have to think ahead about what order you will select the objects in, which isn't always convenient. A priori, there is nothing to say that the last object is more significant than the first object. It's only because you're accustomed to it that it seems "obvious." 3: It is hard to switch objects when they are already selected. For example, if you want to center horizontally to the second of four selected objects, but align tops to the third of four selected objects, it would be a drag to have to deselect them between the two steps just to change the reference object. 4: It is hard to figure out how one would specify that you want all the objects to be aligned to their mutual center instead of the center of any existing object. Would this happen iff you selected all the objects simultaneously?

That's not to say that Illustrator's method is discoverable either. Whether it's the first object, the last object, or the one you reclick on, or the one you lock (like Freehand), all of the methods are hard to guess without being told.

I think what might be more discoverable would be some little toggle control on the Align palette and near the Align buttons in the Control palette, with an icon like crosshairs or something, that caused alignment guides to be visible when on. They would show along the edges and centers of whatever was the current reference box, either the artboard, the whole selection, or one of the art objects. If you can see what the current reference bounds are, it is a lot easier to know when some operation you are doing is changing it. Then no matter what that gesture is, it will be easier to discover.

As far as what gestures would change them, one would be mousing down on any one of them and dragging it towards another object. The left guide would snap to the left bounds of objects it moves near, the right guide would snap to right edges, etc., but once the one you were dragging snapped to a particular object, the others would follow suit and move to the edges/center of that same object. Double-clicking on the button icon could clear the current reference object and reset to the entire selection bounds or the artboard bounds, depending on whether Align to Artboard was on or not.

Reclicking on one of the objects still seems like a good way to me to quickly switch from one reference object to another in one click. It gives you more freedom, since it doesn't require planning ahead when you are making your selection, or deselecting then reselecting to change which object you are aligning to. With realtime feedback as to what was happening, it would be more easily discovered, and even if someone never happened across it, the somewhat more laborious but more guessable drag-and-drop-the-guides method would always be there to provide the functionality.

[James_...@adobeforums.com]

I do not find Corel's solution to the "elegant and intuitive" at all...

I agree, and for the same reasons.

I think what might be more discoverable would be some little toggle control...

I think it would suffice to simply have the edge highlight of the anchor object appear in a different color. A "show anchor" checkbox in the palette would cause the anchor object's edge to brighten. If there is no anchor object active, a small "No Anchor" or "Click a selected object to anchor" text would appear next to the checkbox.

Regardless, the functionality of this in AI is better than in competing programs. You only need to learn how it works once. But tedious alternatives (locking an object; being careful to select the anchor first or last) have to be done every time. All that's needed is a way to make it a little more discoverable.

JET

[Mosh_...@adobeforums.com]

Corel has indeed a couple of "elegant" solutions to this issue. One is the described by james gerber. The other is turning on the Dynamic Guides function (ALT CTRL D), select the object by its center (quite easy with this function on), drag it on top of the second object and the center of Obj. 1 will snap to that of Obj. 2. The point of allignment will depend on the place where you drag your Obj.1 in the first place: you can allign by edges and centers.

[adil...@adobeforums.com]

excellent solution

[James_...@adobeforums.com]

Mosh,

The other is turning on the Dynamic Guides...

Do the same thing with Illustrator's similar SmartGuides (Ctrl U).

JET

[Norbert D'souza]

Hi Mosh,

While Corels nodes snap to nodes of another object, I cannot seem to get the anchors of one object to snap to the anchors of another in Illustrator.

Any ideas?

Cheers Norbert

[Shunit...@adobeforums.com]

Was looking for help on the same subject and found this thread...

The Illustrator method is extremely unintuitive... half the time clicking to select the Key Object results in all selections being voided. Particularly when working with small / narrow (such as boxes) / etc. objects.

So much easier for them to have an option of "Choose Key Object" rather than "Cancel....". After all if i've gone thru the hassle of selecting a Key Object, why would i want to cancel it?

Cheers...