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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.

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.
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  • 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.

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