Guide
Aligning and spacing anchored blocks
Line up two or more anchored blocks on a page by their edges or centers, or space three or more out evenly — from the selection bar or with Alt shortcuts.
What it works on
These commands move anchored blocks: blocks pinned to an exact position on the page (the Anchor action; the side panel then says Fixed position). A logo, a stamp, an address window or a signature box are the usual ones. Ordinary blocks in the page flow have no position of their own — the flow stacks them — so there is nothing to line up.
Select the blocks first: hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and click each one, or drag a box around them. (Shift-click selects everything between two blocks, flow blocks included — they are simply skipped, see below.) When at least one selected block is anchored, the bar above the selection shows eight more buttons after its text-alignment buttons.
The commands
| Button | Shortcut | What moves |
|---|---|---|
| Align left edges | Alt + A | every left edge to the leftmost one |
| Align horizontal centers | Alt + H | every center to the middle of the selection, left to right |
| Align right edges | Alt + D | every right edge to the rightmost one |
| Align top edges | Alt + W | every top edge to the highest one |
| Align vertical centers | Alt + V | every center to the middle of the selection, top to bottom |
| Align bottom edges | Alt + S | every bottom edge to the lowest one |
| Distribute horizontally | Alt + Shift + H | equal gaps from left to right |
| Distribute vertically | Alt + Shift + V | equal gaps from top to bottom |
On a Mac, Alt is the Option key. The shortcuts only work while blocks are selected and the caret is not in a text field; with nothing selected, Alt + D and the other keys keep doing what your browser does with them.
- Aligning lines the blocks up against the edges of the selection itself — not against the page or its margins. Aligning needs two anchored blocks.
- Distributing keeps the two outermost blocks where they are and moves the ones between them so every gap is the same. The blocks are taken in the order they sit on the page, not the order you clicked them. Distributing needs three anchored blocks.
What never changes
- Sizes. Only positions move; no block is made wider, narrower, taller or shorter.
- Millimetres. Positions are stored in millimetres, on the same 0.05 mm grid as dragging. The zoom level you are working at makes no difference to where a block ends up.
- Blocks you did not select, and every flow block — even one inside your selection.
Each command is one undo step: a single Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z) puts every block back exactly where it was.
Blocks that are skipped, and why
A selection can mix anchored blocks with others. The commands act on the anchored blocks that sit at the top level of a page, and skip the rest. Before you click, the button's tooltip says which blocks it will move and which it skips; after a command, a message says the same.
- Flow blocks — the page flow places them, so they have no position to line up.
- Blocks in a header or footer — moving blocks there isn't available yet.
- Blocks inside a container (a Stack, a Row, a table cell, a Repeater) — inside a container every block flows with the blocks around it, so it has no position to line up. Only a block at the top of the page can be anchored.
- Blocks a condition hides in the sample data on screen — they are not on any page.
When nothing moves
The buttons are greyed out, with the reason in their tooltip, and the shortcuts say why, when:
- fewer than two anchored blocks (three for distributing) are selected;
- the anchored blocks are on different pages — the commands work on one page at a time;
- a block that is on the page would be pushed past the page's edge — nothing moves at all. A block that already sticks out past an edge may still be moved back onto the page.
If the blocks are already lined up (or already evenly spaced), nothing moves and a message says so.
Aligning text is a different thing
The three Align text left / center / right buttons on the same bar move the words inside Text blocks, not the blocks themselves. See Formatting several blocks at once.
In flow or fixed position — which should I use?
Every block is placed one of two ways, and the side panel says which under the block's name.
| In flow | Fixed position | |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | The block takes its place in reading order, one after another | The block is pinned to an exact place on the page |
| What moves it | Drag to reorder; margins nudge it | Drag on the page, or the align commands above |
| Grows with your data | Yes, and the rest follows | No: it stays where it is |
| Use it for | Almost everything: paragraphs, tables, addresses, totals | A logo, a stamp, an address window on a pre-printed form, a signature box |
Prefer In flow. A fixed block cannot move out of the way of content that grows. If your data makes a
table long enough to reach it, the two print on top of each other, and the editor and the generated
document warn you (the warning is called anchored-over-content). Only a block placed directly in
the page body, header or footer can be fixed; blocks inside a Row, Stack or table cell always flow.
To fix a block use Anchor in its menu; Unanchor returns it to the flow.
If something looks wrong
- The align buttons are greyed out. They only work on two or more fixed blocks (three to distribute) on one page. The tooltip names the reason.
- Nothing moved when I pressed an align button. The blocks were already lined up.
- A fixed block prints over my table. The table grew. Make the block In flow, move it, or put it in a header or footer if it belongs on every page.
- I cannot anchor a block inside a Row. Only top-level blocks can be fixed; blocks in a container always flow.