Chapter 2 - Character Formatting - IV (PageMaker)

Aligning Text Blocks with a Ruler Guide:

When you are positioning text blocks and graphics, you may want to use PageMaker’s ruler guides to align elements in the same way you would use a T-Square or a ruler. These guides can be horizontal or vertical, you are allowed up to 120 ruler guides in any combination of horizontal and vertical. Like the margin guides, the ruler guides do not print.

To insert a vertical ruler guide, click in the vertical ruler and drag the guide to the right. To insert a horizontal ruler guide, click in the horizontal ruler and drag the guide down onto the page. If your rulers are not displayed on the screen, choose Show Guides from the View menu or press Ctrl + ;.

Positioning text blocks is even easier if the Snap to Guides option is turned on. This option creates a magnetic effect between the object you are moving and the various guides on the page (ruler, margin, column). To see if the Snap to Guides option is turned on, choose View menu and check the tick against the said option.

Aligning Text Blocks Automatically:

PageMaker allows another way to align text blocks; with the Element > Align Objects command. Using the Align Object dialog box, shown in fig. 1, you can align objects vertically at the top, center, or button, and / or horizontally at the left, centre, or right. You can also choose to space or distribute the objects by a fixed amount (such as 1 inch apart) or within the boundary of the selected objects. When one of the text blocks is already in position, you may find Align Object command to be faster than using the ruler guides.

Before you issue the Arrange>Align Object command, you should select the text blocks (two or more) that you want to align. When you are aligning text blocks, PageMaker keeps one of the selected blocks stationary and aligns the other selected block (s) with the stationary one. The block which remains stationary depends on which side you are aligning the text block. If you are aligning the blocks at the top, the top-most block is held stationary: if you are aligning at the left, the left-most block is the stationary object. Similar rules are used for bottom and right alignment. For center alignment (horizontal or vertical), no particular block is held stationary.