Subscriber only lesson.

Sign up to this course to view this lesson.

View pricing

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.

  • Practice using each Alignment option pictured above on the Align tools list:

Align Left           Align Center      Align Right         Align Top           Distribute           Align Middle                                                                                                                                       Vertically

                         

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 Toolbar.
  • 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.
Login to download
  • 00:05 All right, we're going to work on pictures and alignment of pictures.
  • 00:07 I'm going to show you how the computer will do a lot of the work for you.
  • 00:10 So this is a great lesson.
  • 00:12 First of all, we gotta get some pictures on the document.
  • 00:15 Click on the Insert ribbon, and over here we have the Pictures button.
  • 00:18 You can use your own pictures, or
  • 00:20 maybe you've downloaded the pictures for the lesson.
  • 00:22 Go ahead and click Pictures.
  • 00:23 And then I'm going to select just this handful of pictures right here.
  • 00:26 Holding my Ctrl key, click, click, click.
  • 00:30 Clicking on insert now.
  • 00:31 They will not drop on the page, but rather on the scratch area beside the page,
  • 00:35 right over here, and that's fine.
  • 00:37 That's just how Publisher works, and I'm okay with that.
  • 00:39 I'm going to click and drag the entire group right into the center of my page,
  • 00:43 and right over here in the bottom right corner, I will hit the Show Whole Page
  • 00:46 to make it a little larger, just so you can see what we are working on.
  • 00:50 All right, please notice I always have my Page Navigation pane,
  • 00:53 which will also reflect the layout.
  • 00:55 All right, let's go ahead and work on the Picture tools format.
  • 00:58 Notice, I'm not on a text box, not on a drawing tool,
  • 01:00 because it would tell me this.
  • 01:02 I'm on a picture.
  • 01:03 I do have the alignment button right here.
  • 01:05 This is great.
  • 01:07 The alignment tool does so much work for you.
  • 01:09 But when I first hit align left, notice nothing's happening.
  • 01:13 Align center, align right, nothing's happening,
  • 01:15 because I forgot to tell you you've got to activate the Relative to Margin Guides.
  • 01:21 Now when I activate this, notice it's all just white.
  • 01:25 When I activate it and
  • 01:26 come back, notice now it has a grey box around it that wasn't there before.
  • 01:31 In my opinion, that should be by default always selected, but it's not.
  • 01:35 Just one of those things, when it doesn't work, you've gotta remember,
  • 01:38 didn't she tell me to hit something?
  • 01:40 Yes, on the very bottom, Relative to Margin Guides.
  • 01:43 Now I can use the Align Left and Align Center and Align Right.
  • 01:48 Okay, so I have a vertical stack and I want these to be a horizontal stack.
  • 01:52 Well, I'm not going to click and drag each individual one and
  • 01:55 hope I get it lined up right.
  • 01:56 I'm going to make the computer do it for me.
  • 01:59 So I'm going to click on the Align Middle.
  • 02:02 They're all going to stack like a deck of cards.
  • 02:04 Click, there we go.
  • 02:05 Now Align, Distribute Horizontal.
  • 02:09 Click, there we go.
  • 02:10 Perfectly horizontally lined up.
  • 02:12 Absolute perfectly, and the only thing I did was hit the Align, Middle and
  • 02:17 Align, Distribute Horizontally.
  • 02:19 Let's do it again.
  • 02:20 Align Center, stack them in the middle, like a deck of cards.
  • 02:24 And now Align, Distribute Vertical.
  • 02:27 There we go, went from horizontal to vertical.
  • 02:30 This is great when you see how much work the computer will do for
  • 02:34 you, it's wonderful.
  • 02:35 Now, I'm going to align these center.
  • 02:40 Yeah, middle again.
  • 02:41 I do want these to go, Distribute Horizontal, that's what I want.
  • 02:46 And now I'm going to hit Distribute Vertical.
  • 02:48 And watch what happens, it spreads them out.
  • 02:50 Kind of cool.
  • 02:52 If you would do any kind of design at all,
  • 02:54 you knew that everything on a flyer should be left from
  • 02:58 top left corner to bottom right corner because our eyes scan on the diagonal.
  • 03:03 So you lay out your pictures on the diagonal, put your text around it and
  • 03:06 you've got a lovely flow.
  • 03:07 Doesn't have to be exactly diagonal, but every flow,
  • 03:11 every newspaper is on the diagonal like that.
  • 03:14 Anyway, so I'm going to go ahead and leave this format, and
  • 03:16 I just want to work with this top one.
  • 03:18 So this top one, I'm going to go ahead and align right.
  • 03:23 And now I'm decided, okay, I like that but I want them all selected.
  • 03:28 If I press Ctrl+A, which is a wonderful button,
  • 03:31 means select all, it'll select everything on all my pages.
  • 03:34 I just want everything selected on this page, so
  • 03:37 the cheat to that is the lasso, so notice my mouse.
  • 03:40 I'm going to click and drag my mouse.
  • 03:42 See that dotted line?
  • 03:43 That's called a lasso.
  • 03:44 Now the lasso is going to select everything on just that page, or
  • 03:49 in that area.
  • 03:50 Now I could go right back up here to my format, Align Middle, and
  • 03:55 I can Distribute Horizontal.
  • 03:57 Again, there we go.
  • 03:59 So that's the difference between a Ctrl+A and a lasso.
  • 04:01 There you go, please practice that, get good at that.
  • 04:04 The computer does a lot of work for you.
  • 04:06 You just have to be familiar with it and practice it.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Gift this course