Microsoft Visio 2010 : Aligning and Arranging Shapes (part 4) - Aligning and Distributing Shapes Using Position Functions - Practice Aligning Shapes

4. Aligning and Distributing Shapes Using Position Functions

Just to the right of the Auto Align & Space button is the Position drop-down button, which contains elemental functions for aligning, distributing, rotating, and flipping shapes. Figure 8 shows all of Position’s items and subitems.

Though Dynamic Grid, Auto Align & Space, and AutoConnect decrease the need for many of these functions, some diagrams are too complex for the Dynamic Grid. Also, some non-connected diagram types, such as office plans, aren’t suited for Dynamic Grid, AutoConnect, or Auto Align & Space. In these cases, the functions under Position are especially useful.

Aligning Shapes

You can align shapes by their left, right, top, or bottom edges as well as their horizontal and vertical centers.

Practice Aligning Shapes

1.	Start a blank drawing and draw several differently sized rectangles on the page.
2.	When you align the shapes, they can get bunched together so that some obscure others. If you give them a transparent fill, you can still see all the shapes, even if they become stacked. Select all the rectangles, click the Fill drop-down, and choose Fill Options at the end of the list. The Fill dialog appears, and lets you select a color and set a transparency level among other things. Try setting a 50% transparency for your rectangles.
3.	Shapes are aligned to the primary selection, or first shape in the selection. When you select multiple shapes, the primary selection is the shape with the thicker magenta outline. You can explicitly control which shape is the primary selection by doing this: a. Click the shape that you want to be the primary shape—the one that the other shapes will align to. b. Hold down the Shift key. c. Drag a selection rectangle around the rest of the shapes, or click each one individually while continuing to hold the Shift key.
4.	Drop-down the Position button in the Arrange group on the Home tab. Slowly mouse over the first seven menu items that deal with alignment (they are the ones below the Align Shapes header in bold). Live Preview shows how each alignment option will affect your shapes. Figure 9 demonstrates how two of these alignment operations work. Figure 9. Using the alignment functions of the Position drop-down. Note the box with the thicker selection highlight in the bottom-left corner. This is the primary selection, to which the other shapes get aligned.