The designer has three kinds of tools for lining elements up and spacing them evenly: snapping guides that appear while you drag, an align and distribute toolbar for when several elements are selected, and matching-margin guides for symmetrical layouts. This article covers each, plus the keyboard shortcuts for fine positioning.

Selecting Multiple Elements

There are two ways to select more than one element:

• Shift-click: Click an element to select it, then hold Shift and click others to add them. Shift-click a selected element to remove it from the selection.
• Drag a box: Press on an empty part of the canvas and drag. Every element the box touches is selected when you release.

Once several elements are selected, they move as one: dragging moves them all, the arrow keys nudge them all, and Delete removes them all. The selection is temporary rather than a permanent group. Click an empty part of the canvas to clear it.

The Align Toolbar

With two or more elements selected, the align toolbar appears with six actions:

• Align left, Align center, and Align right line the selected elements up horizontally.
• Align top, Align middle, and Align bottom line them up vertically.

Alignment works against the selection as a whole, not the page. Align left moves every selected element to the leftmost edge among them, and Align middle centers them on the vertical midpoint of the group. To center an element on the page itself, drag it until the page center guide appears (see Snapping Guides below).

Each action is a single undo step, so a wrong click is one Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on Mac) away.

Distributing Elements Evenly

With three or more elements selected, the toolbar also offers Distribute horizontally and Distribute vertically. The outermost two elements stay where they are, and the elements between them move so that the gaps are equal. This is the quick way to space a row of signature lines or a column of detail lines.

Snapping Guides

While you drag an element, guides appear whenever it lines up with the page edges, the page center, or the edges and centers of other elements, and the element snaps into place. Dragging a title until the vertical center guide appears is the easiest way to center it on the page.

To move an element freely without snapping, hold Alt (Option on Mac) while you drag.

Matching-Margin Guides

Matching-margin guides solve a specific layout problem: a QR code in the bottom left corner and a logo in the bottom right, at different sizes, with the same amount of space between each and its page edge. Ordinary edge alignment cannot do this, because the two elements are different widths and do not share an edge.

While you drag, when the moving element sits the same distance from one page edge as another element sits from the opposite edge, a teal guide appears with a point-value badge at each margin (for example, 36 pt on both sides). Release, and the two outer margins match. The different color and the badges are deliberate: they tell you this snap is about symmetry, not about lining up with an edge. The guides work on both axes, so they match top and bottom margins the same way.

Only elements that sit near a page edge take part in matching. An element in the middle of the page does not produce a matching-margin guide, which keeps the canvas from snapping to things you did not intend.

Fine Positioning

• Nudging: The arrow keys move the selected elements by 1 point. Hold Shift with an arrow key to move by 10 points.
• Exact values: The Position & Size (pt) section of the properties panel shows the selected element’s X, Y, Width, and Height in points. Type a value to place or size an element precisely.
• Rulers: Use Toggle rulers in the toolbar to show rulers along the edges of the canvas.
• Undo and redo: Ctrl+Z undoes and Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y) redoes, with Cmd in place of Ctrl on Mac. Every move, alignment, and distribution is undoable, so it is safe to experiment.

For an overview of the designer’s layout and the other controls in the toolbar, see The Certificate Designer.