Space/Align Tricks in QuarkXPress 7
In QuarkXPress 7, the Space/Align feature has been dramatically enhanced.
To quickly get to where you can space or align items, press Ctrl/Command-, (comma). This will display the Space/Align tab on the Measurements palette, where you can space or align to other items, or even to the edge or center of a page.
Notice that the icons show how the items will be aligned.
To repeat a Space/Align command using your most recent settings, just press Command-Option-/ (Mac) or choose Apply Last from the Item> Space/Align menu, or from the contextual menu that appears when you right-click or Control-click with several items selected.
Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress 7 training titles at Lynda.com, as well as the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7 . In addition, Jay writes regularly for Macworld and Photoshop User magazines and speaks at industry events.
Hi guys,
While I agree that the space/align feature has been drastically changed in Quark 7, I don’t necessarily think it was an improvement.
It seems like now whenever I align 2 elements, both shift position, rather than in previous Xpress versions when just the top item would shift to align with the object behind.
Can someone tell me if this is a preference setting? I don’t find this new alignment feature as efficient as the previous Xpress versions.
Comments welcome.
Hi Andres.
I haven’t experienced the behavior you’ve described. When I select two or more items and select Align Top (for example), they align to the topmost item’s topmost edge. Same for bottom: they all align to the bottommost item’s bottom edge. Left and right alignment align to leftmost or rightmost items.
It doesn’t seem to matter what stacking order they’re in (what’s “on top” of what).
Are you perhaps aligning in relation to the page, rather in relation to other items? That would cause the items to move to either an edge of a page or its center.
Hello Jay,
Thank you for your answer. I have tested the behavior, and when it comes down to aligning top or bottom, it works fine, however, when I align horizontally I get the issue I just described. Obviously, when I use “align in relation to the page” it does that; however when I align in relation to another item (0″) in relation to their centers, both elements will shift to get aligned. It’s rather vexing!
Hi Andres.
I gave the centering alignment a try, and this was the result:
When I align their centers vertically, it aligns to the rightmost item. When I align their centers horizontally, it aligns to the topmost item.
In no case did all the items move. One item stayed put and the others aligned to it.
I did notice, however, that if I use the “Space” command instead of the “Align” command and entered “0” into the Space field, I could align in other ways, such as “to the right edge of the leftmost item” or “to the top of the bottommost item”. It seems flexible…
I wonder why all your items are moving??
I admit I am having a hard time getting used to the Align measurements palette although I had no problem with the old method.
You used to be able to get items to align/distibute (can’t remember which) by a negative number. For example if you have a border of 4pts around a series of boxes, you could do a -4pts setting so the borders would overlap precisely. I can’t figure out how to do that anymore, it won’t accept anything less than zero.
Hi Jill.
Interesting idea. I never tried using a negative number in the Distribute field. So… I tried it in QuarkXPress 6.5 and 7, but they wouldn’t accept it.
Are you perhaps thinking of the ability of QuarkXPress to do math in its Position fields (or any field)? For example, if you were to align two items and then type -p4 after the existing value in one of the items’ X or Y position field, it would move that item by 4 points.
Hi Jay,
I am also having inconsistent results aligning. I had a table to the right of a box, selected both, aligned to right and the leftmost object (box) moved right. Then I moved the box to the left and tried to realign to the right. This time the table moved to the left. I have repeated this a number of times.
Hi Martin.
I tried to reproduce what you described, but the feature worked as expected: the items always align to the rightmost edge of the rightmost item when I click the Align Right Edges button. (Same for left/left/left.)
I tried it with a box and a table, and with two boxes. Same result each time.
I wonder why it’s working differently where you are?
Hi Jay,
I am using Quark 7.31 on a Core Duo MacBook Pro. I have witnessed the same alignment anomaly on a MacBook running Quark 7.0. (I’m including this info in case hardware is a factor.) In both cases the table and picture box initially aligned correctly to the right. When the picture box was moved to the left, the table moved to the left to align with the box after the align to right was chosen.
I am unable to get an object to center align to an object I don’t want to move. I set up disc labels and center aligning to the templates center register is now impossible in 7.+
Any tips?
Wow, you’re right! Quark changed this behavior somewhere along the line…
In the book “Real World QuarkXPress”, it says (on page 161) that “the topmost or leftmost items always stay stationary”. However, in my testing in QXP 7.31, the Rightmost, Topmost item remains stationary.
So, to accomplish what you want, place your second item (the one you want to move) below and to the left of the item you want to remain stationary. It will then move to align with the upper, rightmost item.
Wow, what a strange thing to change! If Quark were going to change this behavior, I would have preferred that they align everything to the First or Last item selected.
If anyone from Quark is listening, is there a reason for this change?
As soon as I selected the Item Relative Mode button on the Measurement Tool Bar and then used your suggestion, with the Fixed object to the top right, the Moving object to the bottom left (Opposite World Feature), I was able to Space/Align the objects as I wanted, but only using the Measurement Tool Bar’s centering buttons… Now [CMD] + [,] doesn’t work… LOL
Thanks for the tip!!!!
PS. Why change something like that?!?