Working with Rulers & Guides

PageMaker provides the ruler and ruler guides to help you position or align text, objects or graphics with a great deal of precision. You can choose to display or hide the rulers and guides as your needs change. You can also choose to have objects which are placed close to a guide “snap to” the guide for easy and consistent alignment. This document gives instructions for the following:

• Displaying Rulers
• Changing Ruler Measurements
• Displaying Ruler Guides
• Placing Ruler Guides
• Locking Ruler Guides
• Removing Ruler Guides
• Using Snap To

Displaying Rulers

The horizontal and vertical rulers assist you in positioning elements on your page.

1. From the View menu, select Show Rulers
   NOTES:
   The item that is available on the View menu will be determined by the choice currently in effect. If the rulers are showing, the menu choice will be Hide Rulers; if the rulers are hidden, the menu choice will be Show Rulers.
   The ruler must be displayed in order to place and use guides.

Changing Ruler Measurements

PageMaker allows you to choose the system of measurement that will be used in the vertical and horizontal rulers. If you are using the Windows version, you can specify different systems of measurement for each ruler; however, the Macintosh version applies a measurement unit change to both the vertical and horizontal rulers.

Windows:

1. From the File menu, select Preferences » General…
   The Preferences dialog box appears.
   

2. From the Measurements in pull-down list, select a measurement system
   This measurement affects the horizontal ruler only.

   

3. From the Vertical ruler pull-down list, select a measurement system

4. Click OK

Macintosh:

1. From the File menu, select Preferences » Units & Rulers…
   The Preferences dialog box appears.

2. In the Rulers section, from the Units pull-down list, select a measurement system
   This measurement affects both the horizontal and vertical rulers.

3. Click OK

Displaying Ruler Guides

Displaying the ruler guides will help you position elements on your page. However, if you want to view the page with only the items that will print, you can “hide” the ruler guides.

To change the ruler guides display:

1. Press [Ctrl] + [;]
   This toggles between the Show Guides and Hide Guides option 
   OR
   From the View menu, select Show/Hide Guides
   NOTE: The item that is available on the View menu will be determined by the choice currently in effect. If the guides are showing, the menu choice will be Hide Guides; if the guides are hidden, the menu choice will be Show Guides.

Placing Ruler Guides

New ruler guides can be placed as you need them for alignment. You can place a guide regardless of what tool you currently have selected from the toolbox.

NOTE: The ruler from which you will be placing the guide must be displayed (see Displaying Rulers)

1. To place a vertical guide, click and hold anywhere in the vertical ruler area
   To place a horizontal guide, click and hold anywhere in the horizontal ruler area

2. Drag the guide onto your page
   A colored line appears.

3. Release the mouse button

Moving Existing Guides

NOTE: You cannot move guides if the Lock Guides command is in effect (see Locking Ruler Guides).

1. Select the Pointer tool

2. Click and hold the guide
   HINT: So that you do not select a text or graphic, click the guide in a margin or column gutter.
   The Pointer turns into a double-headed arrow.

3. To reposition a guide, drag the guide to its new location
   To remove the guide, drag the guide into the ruler area

Locking Ruler Guides

To avoid inadvertently moving guides (e.g., column or margin), you can lock guides in place.

1. From the View menu, select Lock Guides
   This option is active if it is checked.

Unlocking Ruler Guides

1. From the View menu, deselect Lock Guides
   This option is inactive if it is not checked.

Removing All Ruler Guides

As your publication progresses, you may find that you have placed a large number of guides. In addition to dragging ruler guides off of your page (see Moving Existing Guides), you have the option to clear all guides at one time. This option will clear all placed guides; margin and column guides will remain.

NOTE: This option is not available if the Lock Guides command is in effect (see Unlocking Ruler Guides).

1. Windows: From the View menu, select Clear Ruler Guides
   Macintosh: From the View menu, select Clear Guides

Using Snap To

PageMaker offers two options for forcing alignment. You can make objects snap to ruler increments or to guides. This feature makes consistent alignment of multiple objects easy.

Snap to Rulers:  Windows Only

Snap to Rulers pulls objects to the nearest ruler increment as you move them.

1. From the View menu, select Snap to Rulers
   The option is active if it is checked.

Snap to Guides

Snap to Guides will align objects to a guide when they are placed within three pixels of the guide. The guide does not have to rest on a ruler increment.

1. From the View menu, select Snap to Guides
   The option is active if it is checked.

Turning Off Snap To

1. From the View menu, deselect the Snap to option you want to turn off
   The option is inactive if it is not checked.