Ordering, Rotating and Cropping Objects

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About this lesson

How to order and rotate objects with the right click menu, and how to crop images.

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Ordering, Rotating and Cropping Objects
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Quick reference

Ordering, Rotating and Cropping Objects

These are options found by right-clicking an object, and in the “Image options” sidebar.

When to use

When you need to rotate or flip objects, when you need to move them in front of one another, and when you need to crop or change the visual quality of an image.

Instructions

Change the order of objects

When objects overlap, you can change which objects appear on top of others

  • Right click an object
  • Click “Order”
    • Move to front: Bring the object in front of all the other objects
    • Bring forward: Move the object in front of one other object
    • Send backward: Move the object behind one other object
    • Send to back: Move the object behind all the other objects

Rotate and flip objects

  • Right click an object
  • Click “Rotate”
    • Rotate clockwise 90˚: Rotate the object clockwise
    • Rotate counter-clockwise 90˚: Rotate the object counter-clockwise
    • Flip horizontally: Flip the object left to right
    • Flip vertically: Flip the object upside down

Center objects on the slide

  • Right click an object
  • Click “Center on page”
    • Horizontally: To center the object on the slide from left to right
    • Vertically: Center the object on the slide from top to bottom

Grouping objects

  • Select multiple objects
  • Right click the objects
  • Click “Group”
  • Now they behave as one object
  • Click “Ungroup” to separate them
  • After ungrouping, the same objects can be recombined by click “Regroup”

Arrange menu

  • Select multiple objects
  • Align horizontally
    • Left: Move all objects to the left side of the group
    • Center: Move all objects to the center of the group
    • Right: Move all objects to the right side of the group
  • Align vertically
    • Top: Move all objects to the top of the group
    • Middle: Move all objects to the middle of the group
    • Bottom: Move all objects to the bottom of the group
  • Distribute
    • Horizontally: Make objects evenly spaced from left to right within the group
    • Vertically: Make objects evenly spaced from top to bottom within the group

Cropping an image

  • Double click an image
  • Drag the black sliders to crop the edges of the image
  • Drag the center of the image to move it inside the cropped section
  • Click outside to save the selection
  • Double click again to readjust cropping

Cropping an image in the form of a shape

  • Select an image
  • Click the “Crop” arrow button in the toolbar
  • Choose the shape of your cropped image
  • Drag the black sliders to crop the edges of the image
  • Drag the center of the image to move it inside the cropped section
  • Click outside to save the selection
  • Double click again to readjust cropping

Image options

  • Right click an image
  • Click “Image options”
    • Recolor: Change the colors in the image
    • Transparency: Drag the slider to make the image more or less see-through
    • Brightness: Drag the slider to make the image lighter or darker
    • Contrast: Drag the slider to make the different parts of the image more or less distinct
    • Reset Adjustments: Return the image to its original form
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  • 00:04 Let's continue to look at some of the different formatting and
  • 00:08 editing options that we hear within Google Drawings.
  • 00:11 In this example, I'd like to do some further editing
  • 00:14 on this image that I would like to add to my website.
  • 00:17 But I have a few more things I'd like to do
  • 00:20 before I share it with the rest of the world.
  • 00:22 To start, I would like this arrow to be pointing towards the image on the left.
  • 00:28 So what I could do is select the object and
  • 00:31 then drag this little circle around to its desired location or position.
  • 00:37 There, now my arrow is pointing in the right direction but
  • 00:41 my text is now upside down.
  • 00:44 So I'm not exactly where I want to be with his procedure, let's go back and
  • 00:48 put it as we found it with the arrow pointing to the right.
  • 00:52 What I really want to do in order to get the outcome that I desire
  • 00:57 is I want to flip this object so that the arrow is pointing to the left but
  • 01:02 that the text remains the same.
  • 01:04 So in this case, I'm going to right-click on the object and
  • 01:08 I'm going to select Rotate.
  • 01:10 Now we have a few different options available to us.
  • 01:13 But in this case, I want to flip it horizontally.
  • 01:16 Perfect, now my arrow is pointing correctly to the left and
  • 01:21 my text remains the same.
  • 01:23 Next, I would like the front tip of this arrow to overlay or
  • 01:28 be on top of this image.
  • 01:30 But as you can see, it's currently behind.
  • 01:33 You may recall, when you add a new object within Google Drawings,
  • 01:38 it will always remain on top.
  • 01:41 So in this case,
  • 01:42 to get this desired effect, I'm going to place it where I want it.
  • 01:46 But again, I'm going to right click on this object.
  • 01:49 This time, we want to go to the Order menu and I wanna select Bring to front.
  • 01:56 Perfect.
  • 01:57 Now this object, this arrow image, is overlaying the image here to the left.
  • 02:04 Lastly, I would like to do some cropping of my microphone image here,
  • 02:09 I think that the end of the microphone cable is just a little too long.
  • 02:14 So let's take a look at how we can remove that part of the image.
  • 02:18 To crop an image you want to select your object first.
  • 02:22 And then you can come up to the toolbar and select the Crop image icon.
  • 02:28 Now I can start to drag either the corners or
  • 02:32 the size of this image and remove certain components.
  • 02:36 Now it should be noted, when you are cropping an image,
  • 02:39 you're actually not deleting the image.
  • 02:42 But you are simply hiding a portion of that image.
  • 02:45 So I could always come back and reveal more if I want to.
  • 02:50 Let's bring it up to right about there.
  • 02:52 And I'm gonna click off of the image, perfect.
  • 02:56 Now my microphone cable is shortened just the way that I'd like it.
  • 03:00 Lastly, I want to group this image together and
  • 03:03 actually center it here on my canvas.
  • 03:07 So to do so, I want to first select all of my images here.
  • 03:12 I'm going to right-click and I'm going to select Group.
  • 03:18 So I've grouped my images together.
  • 03:20 And once again, I'm going to right-click and
  • 03:23 this time, I'm gonna select Center on page.
  • 03:26 Now I can either center horizontally or vertically.
  • 03:29 Let's do both in this example.
  • 03:31 First, I'm gonna select Horizontally.
  • 03:33 I'm gonna go back, right-click again, say Center on page, and
  • 03:38 now I'm gonna say center Vertically.
  • 03:41 Perfect.
  • 03:42 Now my image is centered both horizontally and
  • 03:46 vertically right here within my Google Drawing canvas.

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