Align to Margins

The Align to Margins option determines whether objects are aligned and/or distributed relative to the bounding box or relative to the page margins. Click the Layout | Align | Align to Margins command or the button to turn the Align to Margins mode on or off. When Align to Margins is turned on, the Align commands are enabled when one or more objects is selected and the Distribute Horizontally and Distribute Vertically commands are enabled when two or more objects are selected.

When Align to Margins is turned off, two or more objects must be selected to enable the Align Objects commands, and three or more objects must be selected to enable the Distribute Horizontally and Distribute Vertically commands. The Align to Margins command icon is highlighted when Align to Margins is enabled.

The default Align to Margins state is not checked. The Align to Margins option applies to all documents and windows open in Surfer in a single session. The setting is not persistent between Surfer sessions, i.e. if you close and reopen Surfer, Align to Margins will be turned off.

Align to Margins Example

When Align to Margins is enabled, the selected objects are individually aligned relative to the page when one of the Align Objects commands is clicked.

The four rectangles were selected and Layout | Arrange | Align | Top was clicked while Align to Margins was checked. The four rectangles are aligned along the top margin.

 

When Align to Margins is disabled, the selected objects are individually aligned relative to the bounding box when one of the Align Objects commands is clicked.

The four rectangles were selected and Layout |Arrange | Align | Top was clicked while Align to Margins was not checked. The four rectangles are aligned along the top of the original bounding box.

 

You can group the objects with the Group command to maintain the objects' positions relative to one another while aligning the group relative to the margins when Align to Margins is checked.

The four rectangles were grouped with Features | Group | Group. Next the group was selected and Layout | Arrange | Align | Top was clicked while Align to Margins was checked. The top of the group is aligned along the top margin.

See Also

Align Objects

Distribute Horizontally

Distribute Vertically