Distribute to Center w/Key Aligns to Center of Key

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
November 9, 2018
3 replies
475 views

I am trying to distribute several objects evenly in a box. I select all the objects, including the bounding box, then click on the box, to make it the key. Align to Key Object is active, in the Align To: drop down. When I click Vertical Distribute to Center, it aligns all the objects to the center of the Key object, instead of distributing them.

What am I doing wrong?

distribute to keyframes

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Correct answer John Mensinger

theonlytalkinggoat wrote
What am I doing wrong?

Using the surrounding object a the key object. Illustrator simply cannot interpret that as "distribute within."

John Mensinger

Community Expert

^Right^

Or, you could Alt-Drag out temporary, duplicate, "helper" objects (which will easily snap to the outside of your surrounding box if you have Smart Guides on), and use them to represent the extents of the box for distribution purposes. Delete them when done.