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Answered

Align disabled, why???

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
October 22, 2024
4 replies
4291 views

Last week Adobe asked me if I would recommend their products to friends. My answer was highly unlikely because of the constant change of how features work and where to find them. I've been using Photoshop for over 30 years.

Today, it's making me furious again. On a deadline and suddenly ALL alignment is grayed out. Whatever layer I select, I cannot center it or align it with other layers. It happened after I did align something, did a few other things and whoops, feature is gone. I even started a new project, put a text on screen and yep, all alignment grayed out. Restarted Photoshop (2025 by the way, but also in 2024), to no avail. You can't make this up.

So there you have it. I would be extremely grateful if someone could help me.

macOS

Correct answer Stephen Marsh

@s.mccrory – Is one of the selected layers locked?

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

On a general note, it depends on whether one is aligning to the canvas or a selection. Selecting multiple layers is another option and depends on the task and desired result.

With a single selected layer, and no selection, the align options are inactive when set to align to selection. This makes sense as there is no selection to align to:

With a single selected layer and a selection, the align options are active when set to align to the selection:

With a single selected layer, and no selection, the align options are active when set to align to the canvas. Again, this makes sense as there is always a canvas:

As the "align to" is hidden behind the ellipses ... three dots button icon, it may not be initially obvious which setting is active.

If recording an action, it is worth noting that the action can't record the "align to canvas" or "align to selection" parameter, so for a bullet-proof action it is best to record a select all before aligning and a deselect afterwards, if one wishes to align to the canvas – just in case the last used setting was set to align to selection.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

People expect Photoshop to be simplistic, and while a more and more functions are offering a one click solution, being the most powerful image editor in the world means there will still be complexities, and choices. The Canvas/Selection option is a good example as I suspect most of Photoshop's 37 million users do not know it exists. I still discover fundermental Photoshop settings after using it nearly every day since version 4 (soon after it became available in a Windows flavour). Just a week ago Christoph out the Auto Select Parameter setting that makes the first field active in adjustments Properties so you can immediately use the cursor keys to adjust them. Long term users constantly look for half second savings in our workflow, because it adds up to hours over time.

s.mccrory

Known Participant

I am having the same issue, very very extremely annoying. I have selected 2 layers and still cannot find freaking "align"!!!!

Stephen Marsh

Correct answer

Community Expert

@s.mccrory – Is one of the selected layers locked?

Olaf Giermann

Community Expert

In order to align elements to each other by clicking on the buttons or using the menu-commands, you have to select at least two layers.

If you want to align to the full canvas, you have to select all (Cmd-A) to make the align-options active.

This has never been different in Photoshop – at least in the last 20 years. 😉

---------Adobe Community Expert: "Gewusst wie, spart Energie." 😉

DottsAuthor

Participant

Thanks. I'm still pulling my hair out. As a video editor, I work with Premiere and After Effects on a daily basis, Photoshop just occasionally. When you select a layer in AE and nothing else, it automatically aligns it with the canvas because you haven't selected another object. In Photoshop, it just disables the feature with no explanation why. It's the same suite of products in the same montly subscription from the same company - how hard is it to make a consistent user interface?

That's why, when asked by Adobe, I don't recommend Adobe to new users because the programs in the suite all have their own behaviour anyway. Sorry for my ranting. It annoys me because it costs me money.

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

Hi, I would suggest to post an idea to gain that feature, to allow centering of a single element to the canvas without a select all. It makes sense as continuity with other software.

D Fosse

Community Expert

put a text on screen and yep, all alignment grayed out.

By @Dotts

I don't think it was ever designed to work with vector data. Rasterize the text, and it works.

Whatever layer I select, I cannot center it or align it with other layers.

And since you don't say, I have to ask the obvious question: You did have both layers selected/active in the panel?

Don't know what else to say. I use auto-align all the time, and I've never seen it disabled. It may not align pixel perfect in all cases, and it may fail altogether if there's not sufficient overlap (in which case you get a message saying exactly that), - but it always runs.

DottsAuthor

Participant

In this case I don't want to use auto align, where it snaps to all kinds of stuff while you move the layer around. I want to select the text layer and press the button that centers it in the screen. These buttons are grayed out. It used to work for almost 30 years, without having to rasterise the text. In the middle of a project (same file where it did work a few minutes before), it just stopped working and never got it to work again - even not in a new file. So I worked around it with auto-align but you never know if it accidentally aligned with something else, a few pixels off. Yes, I know that if you look carefully and pay a lot of attention, you can ensure that it snaps to the thing you want. But I'm not using my software tools to fiddle and eyeball, I want to quickly finish my work. That's why I want to avoid auto-align sometimes.

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