Working with Guides

Working with Guides

Once the rulers are visible, you can use them to create guides on your page. Guides can be used to divide pages into different areas as well as to help you align objects.

To create guides by dragging:

Choose View > Guides > Show. (If Show is checked, the command is selected.)

Move your pointer so that it touche 11411c21l s either the top (horizontal) ruler or the left (vertical) ruler.

For a horizontal guide, press and drag the arrow from the top ruler down into the page

Figure 12. To create a horizontal guide, place your pointer on the top ruler and drag down into the page area.

or

For a vertical guide, press and drag the arrow from the left ruler onto the page

Figure 13. To make a vertical guide, place your pointer on the left ruler and drag to the right.

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Drag your arrow from the ruler onto the page, not the pasteboard.

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As you drag from the rulers a line appears that shows where your guide will be when you release the mouse.

Release the mouse to set the guide.

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To turn a path into a guide, you need to place the path on the Guides layer (see page 156).

To move a guide to a new position:

Use the Pointer or Subselect tool to drag the guide into the new position.

To delete a single guide:

Use the Pointer or Subselect tool to drag the guide off the page onto the pasteboard.

If you want to work with many guides at once, you should use the Guides dialog box.

To add guides at numerical positions:

Double-click any guide or choose View > Guides > Edit. The Guides dialog box appears

Figure 14. The Guides dialog box lists all the guides on each of the pages as well as their positions.

Click Add to open the Add Guides dialog box 15.

Figure 15. The Add Guides dialog box allows you to create multiple guides at regular intervals.

Choose Horizontal or Vertical.

To set a specific number of equally spaced guides, click Count and enter the number.

To set a specific distance between guides, click Increment and enter the spacing.

Use the First and Last fields to specify where the guides should start and end.

Use the Page range to set the pages on which the guides should appear.

Click Add to return to the Guides dialog box.

Click OK in the Guides dialog box. The new guides are listed in the Guides dialog box and inserted on the page.

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If you want the guides in front of the artwork, you need to change the order of the Guides layer (see page 154).

To reposition guides using the Guides dialog box:

Double-click the guide or choose View > Guides > Edit to open the Guides dialog box.

Select the guide from the list.

Click Edit. This opens the Guide Position dialog box

Figure 16. The Guide Position dialog box allows you to relocate guides precisely.

Enter a new location in the field and click OK to return to the Guides dialog box.

Click OK to close the Guides dialog box and institute the changes.

To delete guides using the Guides dialog box:

Double-click the guide or choose View > Guides > Edit to open the Guides dialog box.

Select the guide or guides from the list.

Click Delete/Remove.

When you have finished, click OK.

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Hold Cmd/Ctrl to select multiple noncontiguous guides or hold Shift to select contiguous guides in the Guides dialog box.

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Any path can be turned into a guide by selecting it and then double-clicking the Guides layer in the Layers panel. (See Chapter 12 Layers and Layering

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The Release button in the Guides dialog box turns the selected guide into a regular path.

You can lock guides to prevent them from being moved.

To lock the guides:

Choose View > Guides > Lock. If you choose Lock when it is checked, you unlock the guides.

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You can also lock guides using the Layers panel (see page 158).

As you move objects, you may want them to jump so that they align with guides. This is called snapping to guides. The Snap To Guide cursor indicates that the object has jumped into alignment with a guide

Figure 17. The Snap To Guide cursor (circled) indicates that the object being moved will jump into place along a guide.

To turn on Snap To Guides:

Choose View > Snap To Guides. If Snap To Guides is checked, the feature is already on.

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The Preferences let you control the snap to distance - how close the object has to be before it will jump to the guide (see Appendix C