"Align" buttons - which is the anchor

When I use the "Align middle" (tops bottoms centers etc) I can't seem to
figure out which is the anchor

I've tried assuming it was the first item I shift-clicked and the second
item I shift-clicked in both cases a text box took priority (aka the anchor)
over an autoshape... so how do I "give priority" to the autoshape?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,
Mark


--
__________________________________________________ _______
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
__________________________________________________ ______

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

You really can't unless you put that object as the topmost, leftmost,
bottommost, or rightmost, etc. When you select several objects and align
them to the a position (like "top"), they are aligned to the top of the
topmost object, etc.

Hope that helps.

--
Bill Foley, Microsoft MVP (PowerPoint)
Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor - XP
www.pttinc.com
Check out PPT FAQs at: http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/
Check out Word FAQs at: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/index.htm

"Mark Durrenberger" wrote in message
...
When I use the "Align middle" (tops bottoms centers etc) I can't seem to
figure out which is the anchor

I've tried assuming it was the first item I shift-clicked and the second
item I shift-clicked in both cases a text box took priority (aka the
anchor)
over an autoshape... so how do I "give priority" to the autoshape?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,
Mark


--
__________________________________________________ _______
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
__________________________________________________ ______

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

There is no 'anchor' in using these functions, except for the edges of the
selection area.

If you have 3 objects selected and hit the align middle (vertical
alignment), PowerPoint will place the middle of each object's frame exactly
halfway between the top of the top-most item's frame (within the selection
range) and the bottom of the bottom-most object's frame (within the
selection range). Note that the frame of the object is the key, not the
visible parts within it. The order of selection and object types do not
matter.

Similarly, align top moves the top of all the objects to the top of the
top-most object's frame.

The wording gets a bit confusing, but the concept is pretty straight
forward. Does this make sense the way I explained it?
--

Bill Dilworth
Microsoft PPT MVP Team
===============
Please spend a few minutes checking vestprog2@
out www.pptfaq.com This link will yahoo.
answer most of our questions, before com
you think to ask them.

Change org to com to defuse anti-spam,
ant-virus, anti-nuisance misdirection.
..
..


"Mark Durrenberger" wrote in message
...
When I use the "Align middle" (tops bottoms centers etc) I can't seem to
figure out which is the anchor

I've tried assuming it was the first item I shift-clicked and the second
item I shift-clicked in both cases a text box took priority (aka the
anchor)
over an autoshape... so how do I "give priority" to the autoshape?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,
Mark


--
__________________________________________________ _______
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
__________________________________________________ ______

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

The left-most item is the anchor for left aligning.
The right-most item is the anchor for right aligning.
The top-most item is the anchor for top aligning.
The bottom-most item is the anchor for bottom aligning.

Place one of the items on the extreme that you want to anchor (left, right,
top, bottom) and then choose the other elements and choose the Align option
you need - this will align it to the first item.

With center aligning, the center of all items selected is the anchor.

You can also align items to a slide:

How do I center content on a PowerPoint slide?
http://www.indezine.com/notes/2004/0...owerpoint.html


--
Geetesh Bajaj, Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
PowerPoint Notes: http://www.indezine.com/notes
Free Templates:
http://www.indezine.com/powerpoint/t...templates.html





"Mark Durrenberger" wrote in message
...
When I use the "Align middle" (tops bottoms centers etc) I can't seem to
figure out which is the anchor

I've tried assuming it was the first item I shift-clicked and the second
item I shift-clicked in both cases a text box took priority (aka the
anchor)
over an autoshape... so how do I "give priority" to the autoshape?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,
Mark


--
__________________________________________________ _______
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
__________________________________________________ ______

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

Ah... and what about middles? :-)

Thanks for your help. I guess what I really want is an "Align to an object"
btw the align when building a Visual basic form works differently - it
aligns to a seleted object

Regards,
Mark

--
__________________________________________________ _______
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
__________________________________________________ ______

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones
"Geetesh Bajaj" wrote in message
...
The left-most item is the anchor for left aligning.
The right-most item is the anchor for right aligning.
The top-most item is the anchor for top aligning.
The bottom-most item is the anchor for bottom aligning.

Place one of the items on the extreme that you want to anchor (left,
right,
top, bottom) and then choose the other elements and choose the Align
option
you need - this will align it to the first item.

With center aligning, the center of all items selected is the anchor.

You can also align items to a slide:

How do I center content on a PowerPoint slide?

http://www.indezine.com/notes/2004/0...owerpoint.html


--
Geetesh Bajaj, Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
PowerPoint Notes: http://www.indezine.com/notes
Free Templates:
http://www.indezine.com/powerpoint/t...templates.html





"Mark Durrenberger" wrote in message
...
When I use the "Align middle" (tops bottoms centers etc) I can't seem to
figure out which is the anchor

I've tried assuming it was the first item I shift-clicked and the second
item I shift-clicked in both cases a text box took priority (aka the
anchor)
over an autoshape... so how do I "give priority" to the autoshape?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks,
Mark


--
__________________________________________________ _______
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
__________________________________________________ ______

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the Critical
Update or Service Pack 1 for Office 2003 as soon as possible. From
PowerPoint, choose "Help - Check for Updates".]

[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PowerPoint
that you just created (you can save, but not open)? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that it's important that
PowerPoint (actually Office Drawing tools) should provide this kind of
functionality natively (not requiring add-ins or ActiveX controls), don't
forget to send your feedback (in YOUR OWN WORDS, please) to Microsoft by
either:

PREFERRED METHOD:

A) If you are using Microsoft's web-based, online newsreader for Office
communities
(http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...dg=microsoft.p
ublic.powerpoint), check to see whether or not the suggestion has been
submitted before (Show - Suggestions for Microsoft) and, if so, add your
vote to the suggestion submission. If the suggestion has not been submitted
before, click on the "New" drop-down menu and choose "Suggestion for
Microsoft" from directly within the newsreader web page.

OR, NEXT BEST METHOD:

B) If you are using another newsreader (such as Microsoft Outlook Express),
submit your suggestion using your web browser at the following address:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end-result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that Microsoft receives THOUSANDS of product suggestions every day and we
read each one but, in any given product development cycle, there are ONLY
sufficient resources to address the ones that are MOST IMPORTANT to our
customers so take the extra time to state your case as CLEARLY and
COMPLETELY as possible so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.