Does anyone know how to evenly space objects.....

[pmsquillace]

Hello All:

I have to evenly space numbers on a page in like a grid format and I want to take all the numbers I have on the page and seperate them by 1/4" or so. How can I do this with out spending all my time counting on the ruler?

Is there a way to format my numbers to a grid automatically or something?

Thanks  for any help or advice on this,

Paul

[Jacob Bugge]

Paul,

A simple and maybe crude way would be to:

1) Place the first one, set Paragraph Alignment as appropriate (Left/Center/Right);

2) Effect>Distort & Transform>Transform with the right number of copies (horizontally and vertically if needed);

3) Object>Expand Appearance and Ungroup if desired;

4) (Direct)Select each copy and change number.

[JETalmage]

You haven't described the objects on the page or how they are presently arranged. Assuming the individual "numbers" are separate textFrame objects roughly arranged in a horizontal row:

Open the Align palette.

From its flyout menu, select Show Options.

Select all the objects, then just click one of them.

Align Palette: Enter .25 in in the Distribute Spacing field.

Click the Horizontal Distribute Space button.

JET

[pmsquillace]

Thanks Jet,

I am getting stuck on your number 3 or the third step in your answer of "Select all the objects, then just click one of them".

I have attached a screenshot of all of my objects selected, but when I use the selection tool to select one, it will not let me. They all stay selected. Or, in another case only ONE will select with a box around it.

any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong here?

Paul

[Jacob Bugge]

Paul,

You are not supposed to see any change in the selection; just continue with the next step and enjoy the magic.

But with several rows and columns, you may do it this way (James expressly presumed one row only):

1) Align the leftmost numbers in all rows horizontally (Horizontal Align Center (or other), and distribute them vertically, in both cases using the first one as the key object;

2) Distribute each row separately, using the leftmost one as the key object.

This means using both the Align and Distribute palettes/panels.

[pmsquillace]

The thing that bothers me is that it does not work still.

I select all of them, right, then in the align pallet I set the value to .25" and select the vertical or horizonal spacing and I get this message from Illy:

Please choose a key object by selecting on one of the selected object(s) with the selection tool or set the spacing value to auto.

If I highlight one row at a time, either vertically or horizontally, I can then see how it spaces it but not with the entire selection.

Is this what you mean in order to achieve what I would like to do.

Just to re-cap, all I want to do is make sure my grid of numbers is spaced evenly vertically and horizontally.

thanks for all your help with this,

Paul

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Paul,

The difficulty lies in the fact that you can only select one single object as the key object, and therefore you will have to distribute each row (or column) by itself. If you select all the objects and then select one of them and perform the distributions, you will see that Undo is your friend.

Therefore the alignment followed by several distributions as suggested in post #5:

1) Align the leftmost numbers in all rows horizontally (Horizontal Align Center (or other), and distribute them vertically, in both cases using the first one as the key object;

2) Distribute each row separately, using the leftmost one as the key object.

[pmsquillace]

Thanks Jacob for all the help with this.

I discoverd that when I re-read the post and went back and found that is what you guys were saying all along... *sigh..

I don't know where I got it that Illy would do all this for me with out going one row/column at a time.

Thanks again, all is good in the universe of my brain. LOL

Paul

[Jacob Bugge]

For my part you are welcome, Paul.

Illy is always eager to help, but even she has her limits.

[Jacob Bugge]

Ah, I overlooked the have on the page part.