Aligning and distributing objects

CorelDRAW lets you precisely align and distribute objects in a drawing. You can align objects with each other and with parts of the drawing page, such as the center, edges, and grid. When you align objects with objects, you can line them up by their centers or by their edges.

You can align multiple objects horizontally or vertically with the center of the drawing page. Single or multiple objects can also be arranged along the edge of the page and to the nearest point on a grid. You can also align objects with a reference point by specifying its exact x and y coordinates.

Distributing objects automatically adds spacing between them based on their width, height, and center points. You can distribute objects so that their center points or selected edges (for example, top or right) appear at equal intervals. You can also distribute objects so that there is equal space between them. You can distribute objects over the extent of the bounding box surrounding them or over the entire drawing page.

Scattered objects (left) are vertically aligned and equally distributed (right).

To align objects

2 .	Click Object Align and distribute Align and distribute.

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Align left — to align the left edges of objects

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Align center horizontally — to align object centers along a vertical axis

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Align right — to align the right edges of objects

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Align top — to align the top edges of objects

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Align center vertically — to align object centers along a horizontal axis

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Align bottom — to align the bottom edges of objects

To align objects from their outlines, click the Outline button .

To	Do the following
Align an object with a specific object	Click the Active objects button . If you select the objects one at a time, the last object selected is the reference point for aligning the other objects. If you marquee select the objects, the object that is positioned in the upper-left corner of the selection is used as a reference point.
Align an object with the page edge	Click the Page edge button .
Align an object with the page center	Click the Page center button . To align the center of the object with the page center, make sure that the Align center horizontally button and Align center vertically button in the Align area are enabled.
Align an object with the closest grid line	Click the Grid button .
Align an object with a specified point	Click the Specified point button , and type values in the Specify coordinates boxes. You can also specify a point interactively by clicking the Specify point button, and clicking in the document window.
Set an alignment option for text objects	In the Text area, choose one of the following options: First line baseline — aligns text by the baseline of the first line Last line baseline — aligns text by the baseline of the last line Bounding box — aligns text by its bounding box

You can also align objects with another object quickly, without using the Align and distribute docker, by clicking Object Align and distribute and clicking any of the first six alignment commands. The letter next to a command name indicates the keyboard shortcut that you can use to align objects. For example, the letter L next to the Align left command shows that you can press L to align objects with the leftmost point of the object that is used as a reference point.

You can also align all objects with the page center, vertically and horizontally, by pressing P.

To distribute objects

2 .	Click Object Align and distribute Align and distribute.

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Distribute left — evenly spaces the left edges of the objects

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Distribute center horizontally — evenly spaces the center points of the objects along a horizontal axis

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Distribute right — evenly spaces the right edges of the objects

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Distribute space horizontally — places equal intervals between the objects along a horizontal axis

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Distribute top — evenly spaces the top edges of the objects

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Distribute center vertically — evenly spaces the center points of the objects along a vertical axis

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Distribute bottom — evenly spaces the bottom edges of the objects

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Distribute space vertically — places equal intervals between the objects along a vertical axis

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Extent of selection — distributes the objects over the area of the bounding box surrounding them

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Extent of page — distributes the objects over the drawing page

Top row: Options for distributing objects horizontally. 1) The Left option evenly spaces the left edges. 2) The Center option evenly spaces the center points. Bottom row: Options for distributing objects vertically. 3) The Top option evenly spaces the top edges. 4) The Center option evenly spaces the center points.

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