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Counterinutitive alignment behaviour
Why does left or right align always align to the bottom rather than the top object? I don't about you, but I tend to add objects underneath other or insert new objects between existing ones, so I want everything aligned to the top object because, generally, everything else is positioned relative to the top object. And the some for top and bottom align aligning to the right most object instead of the left most object.
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?Hi Chris, I have to admit I really don't understand your question. Can you maybe paste a screenshot of what you mean?
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Inappropriate?Hi Chris, left-align aligns to the elements which is 'left of everything else', same for right-align. It doesn't look at top or bottom, so what you describe with the Mockup (thanks for that) is working as designed. Not sure why you think it's counter-intuitive, what other software doesn't behave like that?
I’m curious
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Inappropriate?The problem is this is no way say what object is the reference point for the alignment.
Generally you want to add a new object and roughly place it where you want it and then align it relative to an existing object. The steps would be create the object, roughly place it, ctrl/cmd+click the reference object, align. The last selected object would always be the reference object.
I’m anxious
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Inappropriate?I agree with this point. Usually in graphics apps (and indeed in Visio etc) you can control which item is the anchor by the order in which you select them. Although there is not 100% consistency in this, usually the 1st item you select is the anchor (so for instance, it is its left side that other lefts are aligned to).
This means that you are free to choose the anchoring point however you wish - the only rule you need to know is that (for instance) you need to select the object that you want to remain still FIRST.
Chris.
I’m hoping for improvement!
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This answers the question
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Chris! Thank you so much for explaining this mistery to me! I always wondered how the anchor was chosen, I had a feeling it was the last control that got selected, not the first.
Now, I don't live in photoshop, but I have been using graphic software for 20 years...I wonder how many people know this trick.
I'll see if we can implement it in Mockups as well. Thanks again. -
Inappropriate?Peldi,
Thanks for the very rapid response! Seeing as how you're thinking of making the change (this is such a weird experience - a company just making changes!) I thought I'd check my assertion about how the anchoring works was actually right!
I've checked 5 apps that I have to hand:
Corel PaintshopPro - 1st item selected is the anchor
Photoshop - The "most" edge is used - left most edge for left align, top most edge for top align, etc..
Visio - 1st item selected is the anchor
Visual Studio - 1st item selected is the anchor
Expression Blend - Last item selected is the anchor
Nice to see MS being nice and consistent there!
I think either 1st item or last item selected being the anchor is more functional - as this enables you to specify which of the items you want to align is the alignment point, whereas the other method doesn't eanble you to choose the item that everything else is aligned too - the software chooses for you.
If I had to vote, I'd vote for 1st item being the anchor, but hopefully that's better information for you to make a decision on now.
Thanks,
Chris.
I’m happy that a change is being considered
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Inappropriate?Chris,
Thanks so much for sharing your observations on this one. We went over the different behaviors for alignment and it seems like there isn't one standard behavior. Although individuals might have preferences over which to use, it's clear that there isn't a pattern that could be familiar enough with everyone, based on the different experiences we bring from using these varied products.
We've decided that our current decision to align with the outer object (e.g. when left aligning, align to left most) may be a logical choice and hope that it can be learnable. -
Inappropriate?Thanks for the update, Michael. My observation would be that also (as I discovered) there isn't a single standard behaviour, the behaviour you do have is less functional than it might be - so at the moment it is not possible to left align objects to an object that is not the left-most, top align objects to an object that is not the top-most, etc..
So it would be nice if - whichever method you used - that became possible...
Cheers,
Chris.
I’m still hoping to be able to do this....
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