Chapter 2-43
Templates Menu – Design Sub-Menu

Once you have some design elements on a template in Edit Design mode, iData 2 provides a number of menu commands that let you adjust relationships among these elements. They appear in the Design sub-menu, under the Templates menu. (See Chapter 2-40 for information on the kinds of design elements and how to add them to a label or envelope template.)

Show Tools Palette: The Tools Palette opens automatically when the Edit Design sheet opens. If you should happen to close it for any reason, you can use this menu item to open it again.

Bring to Front: Select a design element and choose this menu item to have that element appear on top of any other elements that it overlaps.

Send to Back: Select a design element and choose this menu item to have that element appear behind any other elements that it overlaps. Note that this command cannot be applied to an Address Block element, since the Address Block must never be obscured by any other elements.

Align Left Edges: Select two or more design elements and choose this menu item to have the left edges of all those elements line up. The most recently added (frontmost) element will remain stationary, and the other selected elements will move.

Align Right Edges: Select two or more design elements and choose this menu item to have the right edges of all those elements line up. The most recently added (frontmost) element will remain stationary, and the other selected elements will move.

Align Top Edges: Select two or more design elements and choose this menu item to have the top edges of all those elements line up. The most recently added (frontmost) element will remain stationary, and the other selected elements will move.

Align Bottom Edges: Select two or more design elements and choose this menu item to have the bottom edges of all those elements line up. The most recently added (frontmost) element will remain stationary, and the other selected elements will move.

Align Horizontal Centers: Select two or more design elements and choose this menu item to have the horizontal centers of all those elements line up. The most recently added (frontmost) element will remain stationary, and the other selected elements will move.

Align Vertical Centers: Select two or more design elements and choose this menu item to have the vertical centers of all those elements line up. The most recently added (frontmost) element will remain stationary, and the other selected elements will move.

Align Text Baselines: Select two or more text elements and choose this menu item to have the baselines of all those elements line up. The most recently added (frontmost) element will remain stationary, and the other selected elements will move.

Align Text Baselines: Select two or more text elements and choose this menu item to have the baselines of all those elements line up. The most recently added (frontmost) element will remain stationary, and the other selected elements will move.

Center: Select one or more design elements and choose this menu item to have all of those elements center (both horizontally and vertically) on the label. If a large element completely obscures some smaller element, select the larger one and use the Send to Back menu command to move it behind all the other elements.

Center Horizontally: Select one or more design elements and choose this menu item to have all of those elements center horizontally on the label.

Center Vertically: Select one or more design elements and choose this menu item to have all of those elements center vertically on the label.

Make Same Width: Select one or more design elements and choose this menu item to have all of those elements become the same width. The width that is chosen will be the width of the most recently added (frontmost) element. Note that this command cannot be applied to image elements, as image elements cannot be resized.

Make Same Height: Select one or more design elements and choose this menu item to have all of those elements become the same height. The height that is chosen will be the width of the most recently added (frontmost) element. Note that this command cannot be applied to image elements, as image elements cannot be resized.

Make Natural Size: Select one or more design elements and choose this menu item to have all of those elements become their "natural size". This command can be applied only to four kinds of design elements: rectangle, ellipse, line, and text elements.

A rectangle element's natural size is a square, with each side being the same as the shorter side of the original rectangle.

An ellipse element's natural size is a circle, with the diameter being the same as the narrowest dimension of the original ellipse.

A line element's natural size is a perfectly horizontal or vertical line. If a slanted line is more vertical than horizontal, its natural size is vertical, while if a slanted line is more horizontal than vertical, its natural size is horizontal.

A text element's natural size is the smallest bounding box that will contain its text.

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