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About this lesson
Align pictures precisely on the page.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
2016, 2019/365.
Quick reference
Pictures - Align
Align pictures precisely on the page with the Align tool.
When to use
Use the Align tool to place a picture exactly center, top, bottom, or many other options.
Instructions:
- Begin by opening a Blank publication.
- Click the Insert Ribbon,
and click Pictures, 
- Choose any 3 pictures in your files, or use the accompanying pictures with this video lesson.
- Notice the pictures drop alongside the publication into the “Scratch Area”.
Ultimately, Picture Placement is your control. If no Picture Placeholder is used, Publisher inserts to the Scratch Area.
- Move the pictures (click and drag) individually or as one unit onto the publication page.
- Align the pictures individually or as one unit by using the Align button.
Use CTRL Click to select all the pictures
click the Picture Tools Ribbon, click the Align tool.
- If the list is grayed out (meaning not available to choose), make sure the bottom option is selected: “Relative to Margin Guides”
- Now practice using each of the options pictured above on the Align tools list:
Align Left Align Center Align Right Align Top Distribute Vertically Align Middle
Computer Tips:
- “Ctrl + Scroll” to zoom in is faster than pointing to the bottom right zoom controls. Zoom in or out quickly by holding down CTRL and scroll with your mouse wheel.
- To un-do anything, simply press “Ctrl + Z”, or click the un-do button on the Quick Access bar:
- “Ctrl + A” to select all pictures, text, and other elements on a publication.
- Click and Drag a lasso around the pictures to select them all
- “Ctrl Click” each picture to select certain pics to align simultaneously
- 00:05 This lesson is about pictures and alignment, getting them to align
- 00:08 vertically, or horizontally, or at the top, or the bottom.
- 00:13 It's kind of all automatic if you happen to know the tool that does the work.
- 00:17 I'm starting with a blank document, I'll go to my Insert ribbon and Pictures.
- 00:22 There are a few pictures that come along with the video lesson,
- 00:24 you're welcome to use those or use a few of your own.
- 00:26 When I hit Insert, they show up over on the right hand side into the scratch area,
- 00:31 and because they're all still selected,
- 00:33 I can actually move them as one unit onto the page.
- 00:36 Now I'm gonna scroll in, so Ctrl+scroll with my mouse so
- 00:40 you can see my screen a little better, but I wanna draw your attention to
- 00:43 the left-hand side, I've got my page navigation activated right over here.
- 00:47 So no matter how much of my screen you see in the center,
- 00:50 you'll always see the layout happen over here on the left, and
- 00:53 I love the page navigation for that feature.
- 00:56 Now, the pictures are selected, so my Picture Tools ribbon is open,
- 01:02 and right here this is the Align button, this is the one we're gonna use.
- 01:06 Now when I click Align, they are all dark and activated and ready to use,
- 01:10 yours might be gray.
- 01:11 If they're gray, simply activate the bottom Relative to Margins button, and
- 01:16 then go back and try it again and you'll see they're all available.
- 01:20 So let's go ahead and use some of these.
- 01:22 If I hit Align Left, it shoves them over to the left.
- 01:26 Now, I know you can't see my whole picture right here, my whole page, but
- 01:29 you can on the left-hand panel.
- 01:32 So, now I'm gonna go back to my Align > Align Center.
- 01:36 Now, go to Align > Align Right.
- 01:39 And the only way you get to know these buttons is by actually using them.
- 01:42 Now watch what happens when I hit Align Top.
- 01:45 It puts them all in the top corner because I took all the pictures aligned top
- 01:49 because they were all selected, they all obey the command.
- 01:53 So I'm gonna click on the Align again, and I'm gonna say Distribute Horizontally.
- 01:56 It's gonna spread them all out across the page.
- 02:00 Much easier than me clicking and dragging and
- 02:02 hoping to get them to sit side by side.
- 02:05 So now I'm gonna hit the Align again and it's already at the top,
- 02:09 I'm gonna go to the bottom.
- 02:11 If I scroll down you'll see them at the bottom and
- 02:13 of course the quick view right over here.
- 02:16 Hit the Align > Distribute Vertically, look what happened.
- 02:20 It just spread them out willy-nilly across the screen, each one,
- 02:24 it decided where it was gonna place it vertically.
- 02:27 All right, let's go back here.
- 02:29 Let's go to Align Center, that stacks them in a column.
- 02:34 And how about Align, let's go Distribute Horizontal and now Align Middle.
- 02:41 That's gonna line up across the middle.
- 02:43 So how do you get good at using the alignment tools?
- 02:45 You practice.
- 02:47 And maybe you've got just one, so one picture,
- 02:50 let me click off of them, and now click back on just to select one.
- 02:53 You can always tell by the handles which one is selected or
- 02:57 if they're all selected.
- 02:58 So now at this point I can go back to the Align Bottom and
- 03:04 push that one to the bottom, you'll see it right over here.
- 03:07 It just fell down to the bottom.
- 03:10 Or if I want them all selected or
- 03:11 maybe I just wanna work with these, I can click and drag through them.
- 03:15 And hopefully my lasso that I'm using with my mouse will click and
- 03:20 drag and select them all now.
- 03:21 All these are selected but not the one on the bottom.
- 03:24 So now I'll go ahead and click Align Vertical or Distribute Vertical,
- 03:28 and you can see right here what happens.
- 03:31 Maybe I do want them all to work together.
- 03:33 I can actually press Ctrl+a on my keyboard which will select all of them, and
- 03:37 if I scroll through you can see handles are on all of the pictures.
- 03:40 And now again, go to my Format > Align and
- 03:44 I'm gonna hit Align Top or Middle or Center, it's up to you.
- 03:49 It's an awesome feature to use when you have a purposes to use it.
- 03:53 So with that, that is our picture alignment tool and I love it.
- 03:59 All right, thank you.
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