Aligning and Distributing objects in InDesign

Hi,
I am using InDesign CS4. But I am having a trouble aligning objects. I know that in illustrator it is possible to align objects to a main object. For example, lets say I have several same square shapes on my page. I can make any one of the squares as the main object for others to get aligned or distributed to.
I wanted to do the same thing in InDesign but was never able to do that. I wonder if it is even possible to do that. InDesign doesn't seem to have that option. But it was such a handy tool.
Can you help me with the trick?

Thanks Peter Spier. I am sorry for the misleading information. You were right about the alignment and distribution tools. On my CS4, the Alignment option works with the locked object, but the Distribue Objects and Distribute with Set Space doesn't work with a locked object. I am trying to use the distribute with a set spacing around "the main object". In other words, it will make my work a lot easier if I first align an object at a certain point on the page and then use two other text frames on both sides of the object with an equal spacing (using the Distribute Spacing tool).
I hope it makes a sence. Thanks.

Similar Messages

Align and Distribute Objects Evenly around a Circular Path

How do I align objects and distribute evenly on a circular path? Especially if the objects are straight lines and I want them to be placed vertically and evenly around a circle. For example, the hash marks on a speedometer are vertical lines, but distributed evenly in a circular shape. I've gone throught the align/distribute video, but doesn't explain circular paths. I have Adobe CS3 for Windows XP.

I've done this many times and there's a simple trick to it as long as you want an even number of tick marks. Make the line, duplicate it, move one of the lines below the other, and align them horizontally. Group the lines and bring up the Transform dialog. Click on Preview so you can see what you're doing. Enter the number of copies you want and then the angle to rotate the copies. You should see a perfectly arranged circle of lines. Expand Appearance to work with the lines further.
Example: to make the tick marks for a clock face, make the first pair of lines, group them, make 5 copies, and rotate 30 degrees.

Moving, aligning, and distributing objects

This question was posted in response to the following article: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-62f2a .html

@kisanbhat,
As I said, there isn't any direct way to make a point on one polygon snap onto a stroke on another polygon unless you move just the one point (which of course changes the shape of the path). But you can get very close visually.
I recommend turning on Outline mode (Ctrl-Y) so you won't be misled by stroke thickness or antialiasing.
If you want one apex to align perfectly with an apex on the second triangle, Smart Guides will snap the points together as you drag one triangle so that onecorner touches the other triangle's corner.
If you want the faces to align without any of their control points being on top of one another (as in my illustration in an earlier post), then you'll have to do without snapping. (With the Direct Select tool, you can snap a single point on the first object onto a second object's path, but the other points won't move.)
What I would do is turn OFF Smart Guides so there won't be any inconvenient snapping to verticals, horizontals, etc. Then zoom in, and drag the first triangle until one apex is visually aligned on the desired side of the second triangle.
Leave the first triangle selected. Click the Rotate tool (R), find the little "center of rotation marker", and drag the marker until it snaps onto the apex you just positioned.
Then click anywhere on the artboard and drag. This will rotate the first triangle around the marked apex, and you can visually align the side on top of the other triangle's side.
It would be nice if Smart Guides provided this kind of snapping, because then you'd get mathematically optimized alignment of the two points of the first triangle along the edge of the second triangle, but they don't work that way. I highly recommend visiting AstuteGraphics.com to try their "SubScribe" tool, which I believe is free. It should be updated for CS6 very soon now. (Their other vector tools are also quite amazing.)
I hope this helps. If you need more info, I made a short video: http://acobb.com/temp/rotateTriangle.wmv

How do you use align and distribute in PSE11?

I need a complete work-up on using align and distribute in Elements 11.

A mini tutorial describing the align and distribute options with the move tool:
http://blogs.itap.purdue.edu/learning/2011/10/06/tips-and-tricks-photoshop-align-distribut e-layers/
Here's an excert from the photoshop help:
(click on the screenshot for a bigger view)
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSAA03F5FB-2F22-49a1-A824-5BEB70A58951.html

How does Illustrator allign and distribute work

Hi
I am trying to understand what is happening behind the align and distribute functions in Illustrator.
I am working on a PC with Illustrator CS5
I have taken a photograph of a stone wall in to Photoshop:
Converted it to grey scale
Reduced it with levels to black and white
Then selected the black and converted the selection to paths.
Exported the path as an illustrator
Imported it to Illustrator ( I know I could trace it in illustrator but I prefer t work this way round).
All objects are un grouped and on one layer in Illustrator.
Select all objects
Open the Align pallet
Set Align To Artboard
Apply distribute Horizontal Center
Apply Distribute Vertical Center
The objects are distributed across the Artboard
Select all objects
Horizontal Align Center
Vertical Align Center
Apply distribute Horizontal Center
Apply Distribute Vertical Center
The arrangement is different
Do the same exercise with 15 circles of the same size and a similar redistribution happens.
What is determining or influencing the re ordering?
it does not seem to be size or the layer order.

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my question.
Some interesting information and comments.
I am still unsure as to what logic Illustrator is using. I can understand that layer or other orders might effect the order. I started thinking about creation order and if this is different to layer order. So I exported my dots test file as .svg so I could look at this. I then re imported it at the distribution was more predictable. If I align to bottom, left then distribute h and v I got a diagonal line of dots. This is what I would have expected to get. I still need to test this out more.
before svg
after svg conversion
My main problem is that if I am going to use the distribute I need to know and understand what it is doing.

Is there a way to automatically align and make same size of check boxes/ radio-buttons like in the image below?

I create PDF forms on daily basis for multiple people around but still, I create a table in Word and then manually convert it to PDF. I'm using Acrobat X and then I manually create radio buttons or check boxes in each cell of the table so aligning those buttons or check-boxes in the same line is a problem. I know there would be some solution to this but can anyone guide me to that? Also, making the same size of the radio-buttons of check boxes likewise ? ? ?
Please see the image above and advise how to align them in the same line and how to make them same size using Acrobat X?
Your help appreciated.

You should create these fields using the Place Multiple Fields command, so that they are aligned properly and all the same size. Read about it here:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/X/pro/using/WS8C2DDC1C-C174-4ad1-893F-B14A1C0289B4.htm l
Read how to align and distribute fields here:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/X/pro/using/WS6D2D2BFC-6F69-4a8b-BDE6-8043D7EE240D.htm l

Distributed transactions, distributed objects

An observation and a conjecture about distributed transactions
and distributed object references:
Distributed non-service object references are persistent, and
a transaction can, in principle, propagate to the distributed
object through a method call from another partition.
However, in order to make the transaction propagate to the
object's partition the object must also have the
isTransactional attribute set to TRUE. The Forté runtime
system apparently uses the isTransactional property not only
for rollback of a distributed object's state, but also to
indicate whether it is desired that transactions propagate to
the object's partition. Thus, the behavior of a distributed
object reference with respect to distributed transactions can
be controlled by the value of the isTransactional attribute
in the same way that the behavior of an environment-visible
service object with respect to distributed transactions can
be controlled by the dialog duration.
Comments?
John Hodgson |Descartes Systems Group Inc.|Tel TBD
Systems Engineer|120 Randall Drive |Fax TBD
|Waterloo, Ontario |www.descartes.com
|CANADA N2V 1C6 |[email protected]
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http://transxtrail.sourceforge.net/

Hello , im working with hebrew and the dot "." isnt correcting to right with the align , i know that in indesign u use with paragraph direction to correct it but here what should i do. sorry for my english

hello , im working with hebrew and the dot "." isnt correcting to right with the align , i know that in indesign u use with paragraph direction to correct it but here what should i do. sorry for my english

You are right, but how could i send it to Apple? when the phone company first replaced my iphone they had in stock alots of iphones and they just sent mine back to Apple and gave me a new one, so all i did is to give them my phone, but now how could i sent it to Apple? and i cant send it by myself, and the store wont do that, its a lost for them.. so sending it to Apple wasnt an option from the begining.
and for the record, i dont think the store where i bought it is an authorized shop.. its just a store who boughts phone's from Apple in a low price and sells it in much more money..

In Keynote '09 distribute objects horizontally/vertically is distributing objects beyond the slide. How do I make the left-most and right-most objects the limit of the distribution?

I used to have the option of distributing objects so that they would overlap, but the current "distribute" tool is functioning as if overlapping isn't allowed. The result is that the objects move beyond the limits of the slide. Any suggestions?

I know that's what *should* happen, but it just doesn't. I've made screen-grabs of the entire process:
Like I said, this use to work just as you've described it. Is there a box I accidentally selected? I just really don't understand why the tool has changed the way it functions...

Distributing objects around circle

I am working on Mac OS 10.4.11 and Adobe CS3 ME.
I know it's possible to evenly distribute objects in a line. But I would like to evenly distribute objects in a circle shape. Can that be done in Indesign or Illustrator?

Yes, it can be done in either InDesign or Illustrator.
I'm going to give you the steps in InDesign, but Illustrator is almost identical.
First draw the shape that you want to distribute. Position it where you would want the top or 12 o'clock item.
Now, switch to the Rotate tool. As you do, a rotation center point appears inside the bounding box of the original object.
This center point needs to be moved to the center of the circle that you want to rotate the object around. (Or where the hands of the clock would originate from.)
Hold the Option or Alt key and click where the roatation center point needs to be.
A dialog box appears.
Enter the angle of roation. This is usually an amount that is created by dividing 360. For instance, if you want 10 objects around the circle, you would enter the rotation amount of 36 degrees.
If you wanted 12 objects, you would enter the rotation amount of 30 degrees. You figure out what you want.
Use the Preview amount to see what it would look like. When you like what you have, click the Copy button (not the OK button).
You will now have one new object in position. At this point you have "primed the pump" so to speak. InDesign now knows to make a copy at a certain rotation.
Go to Object > Transform Again > Transform Again. The keyboard shortcut is Cmd-Opt-3 or Control-Alt-3.
Each time you invoke the command, a new copy appears in position.
This is the classic way to distribute objects in a circle.
There are other ways to do it that would put the object around an actual circular object.
But you might as well learn this one first.

Blend tool problems with distributing objects.

Hi Everyone,
First time here so I hope this is the appropriate forum locale for this specific question - of which I have not found a solution online or in these forums.
I have dealt with this problem for quite some time and am sick of manually correcting blends so I am seeking help.
Here is the situation:
I draw a simple oval, copy it and move it somewhat diagonally across the page. I then resize the oval slightly (thinner) but retain the same amount of anchor points.
I then rotate the oval about 2 degrees.
Next I apply a blend - hoping it will blend the two shapes evenly (like it did in pre CS versions) but the blended ovals get closer to each other on one side than the other - so it seems to be a weighting problem... so I checked out each of the blend options and even tried the various methods of making a blend (via panel, or pull down menu, hot keys, etc.) Nothing works to get the shapes evenly spaced. Distribution and alignment panel offers no help either and in some cases makes the objects distribute more unevenly.
Summary: If I make two IDENTICAL shapes/ovals, the blend works fine... but once I modify one of the ovals, before or after the blend is made, even in the slightest bit, the distribution spacing gets skewed/uneven.
I don't think it is a bug since I've had this problem since early CS days. Is anyone else having this problem?
I hope it is an easy fix. I am using a PC version of Illustrator, if that matters in this case.
Thank you ahead of time for your consideration and help.

I've tried all those options (distribute spacing, distribute objects, specified distance, specified steps, etc) without success... it wound up just being the 'ol visual issue described above and the manner in which I set up my illustration.
So after I create a blend, I try the various options to get the objects to align / distribute correctly (to fix the visual issue), but after, say, applying "distribute spacing", the ovals arc slightly so that they are not aligned in a straight manner from end to end.
I then try other alignment options and nothing seemed to correct the alignment from one oval to the next... thus I had to correct it manually.
Anyways, I found that if I set up my illustration so as to do my oval blends on a horizontal or vertical axis (without transforming one side, but keeping them all the same - in a grid-like pattern) and then Free Transform the group of ovals afterwards to indicate perspective and the like -- that seems to be a reasonable solution.
I also learned a new trick in this process / forum post.
I won't be able to reply for a while... All is well now and I gotta get to work, so it's literally back to the drawing board for me.
Thanks again! =)

Using Acrobat Object in InDesign Javascript Script

Hi there,
for a current job, I would like to replace pages in a PDF document right after I have exported the pages from InDesign. The export works well, but now I need to instantiate an acrobat object in my InDesign Script. At the moment, I only have Photoshop and Bridge objects available in my ExtendScript IDE. Is there any way to instantiate a Acrobat object in InDesign Script?
I use InDesign CS3 and Acrobat 8 on a Macintosh computer.
Any help would be great!
Thanks a lot in advance!
Greetings
Mimi

I do not believe this can be entirely done from within JavaScript. You could use doScript to call a script in a different language that is capable of interacting with Acrobat.
Dave

Placing a Pshop .eps into .ai and then placing in InDesign...?

Our Art Department is starting to use InDesign more and more after being mainly Illustrator for years. I'm doing some experiments to see how InDesign will fit into our existing processes.
Basically I'm trying to figure out a way to get Illustrator artwork that includes linked Pshop images into InDesign, and end up with print-quality output.
So here's what I did: I created an illustration in Illustrator. This illustration includes a link to a TIF and/or an EPS high-resolution Photoshop image that lives on a network. (The EPS image may have a photoshop mask.) The illustration also includes text with live fonts. I save the .ai file WITHOUT linked images (our usual and necessary process).
Now I place the .ai file directly into InDesign. The experiment I've run shows, to my astonishment, that the TIF and EPS photoshop images do NOT need to be available, nor do the fonts have to be activated, in order for this placed .ai file to look OK onscreen in InDesign (although the font looks a bit chewed). But PDFs from InDesign look good.
This is cool.
Yet I'm suspicious because I can't tell (given our lack of high-end printer output in our department) if I'm getting a high-res printout of those Pshop images.
If the process I've come up with works, we've solved a lot of problems...! But since the world of graphics is fraught with unexpected problems, I'm afraid to put total trust in my own experience...
Are there potential problems I'm overlooking with this process? Will we indeed get high-resolution output?

Thanks for the reply. I wondered about that! I noticed that the dialog window, when I was placing the .ai into InDesign, said "Place PDF (myfile.ai)".
Question: If, as you said, <<Illustrator by default saves a PDF along with the AI.>>, how does Illustrator know at what resolution that PDF should be saved?
Incidentally, someone also suggested that, to be safe, we outline the fonts and then Object/Rasterize the art (a copy of it), prior to placing into InDesign. But it sounds from your reply that this isn't necessary...? I'd sure like to avoid making extra "versions"; we have enough trouble tracking/storing one version!
Oh, and we're aware of the EPS obsolesence issue... unfortunately we have a collection of thousands of Pshop EPS images. We've done some experimentation with switching to .PSD, but ran into some problems, including 1. our image organization/viewing/portfolio software doesn't recognize the paths in .psd images and shows them incorrectly, and 2. when we release a mask in Illustrator, it also releases the .psd path.
These problems aren't insurmountable, we're just haven't yet been able to put the required time towards a coordinated switchover and getting everyone (our department, prepress suppliers, printers, etc.) on the same page.
(My apologies for turning this into an Illustrator discussion in an InDesign forum. Software is so intertwined these days...)

How to use DESNAME and DISTRIBUTE to mail

Hello,
I am using Oracle Reports 10g. I have a report (clients' invoices) which repeats on INVOICE_NO. (setup to burst).
I go to Property Inspector >> Distribution:
DISTRIBUTION ID: EMAIL_ADDRESS
DESNAME: EMAIL_ADDRESS (this is the column in the database table which holds the emails of each clients, to whom the report is going to be sent; each client receives his/hers invoice)
DESFORMAT: PDF
DESTYPE: MAIL
COPIES: 1
I save, and then File >> Distribute, (asks me that is going to be send to multiple destinations) says: Distribution completed succesfully. BUT nothing happens (no emails).
Questions:
1. How should i write in order to distribute to each clients' email?
2. Where could i see the activity logs of the application (are there any), where i could investigate what is going on in the backend?
Thank you,
Michael.

Hi there guys,
I have tracked down my mistaked.
in the object navigator, i clicked on main, then in the body i have spotted down the R_ section, clicked on it, and then in the report design i have deleted. Then it worked like a charm.
I have filled in the distribution box like this: &<subscriber_name>, and then i got each PDF bursted and distributed in each mail. That's great!!!
The question is now:
1. How can i configure all the details that will be displayed in the email? (like sender, subject, body etc.) Using the distribution box it gives me no alternative, in the distribution XML i can do this by editting all the details.
2. How can i log all the responses that i get from each e-mail address to which has an email been sent. For example, one e-mail address is not valid anymore, i want to grep the answer that the mail server receives and in the end, to make a report ( out of 100% - 20% failed, 80% succesfully delivered). How can i accomplish this task?
Thank you,
Michael.

Creating a magazine from Photoshop Images and transferring them to InDesign

Hello,
I'm in the process of creating a magazine. I have already started created the pages including their layout in Photoshop. I have CS4 and I want to transfer those images to InDesign and also incorporate Flash to produce a web-base magazine. How do I transfer those Photoshop images (files) into InDesign and also incorporate Flash.
Attached are some finished pages so that you will have something to show me, in detail, on how this process is done, and/or IF, it can be done.

Hi, smitty212.
Hopefully everyone can agree to ignore some of the dialog above.
Your question is a bit difficult, in large part because it appears that you did a lot of work in a way that could be very difficult to transfer, but you haven't given us full information about what you really have and what you need.
Generally speaking, editable text in Photoshop is not very flexible. It's not easy to manage large amounts of text there, and depending on how you have used it, it may be nearly impossible to get the text out without retyping it.
The normal use of InDesign, as you've probably gathered by now, is to place the text in text frames (either by typing or by File > Place-ing it from another application, or maybe cut-and-paste but probably not), and to place graphics in graphics frames (again, with File > Place. Never with cut-and-paste, which causes all manner of problems).
Ideally, then, you'd have all the images in your layout as seperate files, and the text, too, and you could compose the layout as normal.
The hard part will be rescuing the text. You may be able to cut and paste it out of Photoshop.
It is possible that you might be able to save some work by converting pieces of the Photoshop layout to smart objects and placing those into InDesign.
One thing to consider is how resolution-independent your output is going to be. In Photoshop, everything is a pixel. So if the work was done at a low resolution, it won't support resizing in InDesign. This is especially true of text that has been rasterized (converted to pixels). But if everything was high enough resolution in Photoshop, you may be able to get away with just placing the Photoshop images in InDesign. It won't be easily editable, but maybe that's ok.
I hope this helps.

Aligning and Distributing objects in InDesign

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