Aligning symbols

The alignment operations in the Alignment toolbar (see Figure 64) reposition two or more symbols to line up specified edges or centers. The Alignment toolbar becomes active when more than one symbol is selected in the activity diagram.

The order for all alignment operations is:

  1. Select a symbol to use as the "base" (or anchor) for the alignment.
  2. While holding down the Shift key, select the other symbols that you want to align to the first.
  3. On the Alignment toolbar, click the operation you want to perform. See Figure 64.

    Figure 64. Alignment toolbar

    The figure shows the alignment toolbar with icons representing (from the left) align top, align middle, align bottom, align left, align center and align right.

Aligning edges

Aligning the edges of multiple symbols aligns the specified edge of each symbol to an imaginary line that runs along the specified edge of the model symbol. Edge-alignment operations include: Align Top, Align Bottom, Align Left, and Align Right.

For example, Figure 65 illustrates the result of aligning the bottoms of an End Success symbol and an Action symbol.

Figure 65. Aligning bottoms

The figure shows a success symbol, which is indicated by two concentric circles the inner one filled in, and an action block, which is indicated by a broken rectangle enclosing text. The two symbols are aligned across there bottoms.

For the End Success symbol, the label and the symbol together form one object whose bottom is aligned to the bottom of the Action symbol.

To align the top, bottom, left, or right edge of a set of symbols:

  1. Click the symbol (base or anchor) to which you want to align the others.
  2. While holding down the Shift key, click one or more additional symbols or groups of symbols.
  3. On the Alignment tool bar, click the Align Top, Align Bottom, Align Left Sides, or Align Right Sides button.

    All symbols line up to the target.

Aligning centers

You can center symbols along an imaginary horizontal or vertical line drawn at the center of the first symbol that you select. Each symbol is then centered horizontally or vertically along that line. Center-alignment operations include Align Middle and Align Center.

The dashed line in Figure 66 illustrates the Align Middle operation: the alignment of the vertical centers of two symbols.

Figure 66. Align Middle operation

The figure shows 2 symbols aligned middle: a process symbol and an end failure symbol. The alignment is horizontal.

The dashed line in Figure 67 illustrates the Align Center operation: the alignment of the horizontal centers of two symbols.

Figure 67. Align Center operation

The figure shows the same two symbols from the previous figure aligned center. The alignment is vertical.

To align centers:

  1. Select the symbol or pregrouped set of symbols whose center you want to use as a base or anchor.
  2. While holding down the Shift key, select the other symbols or groups of symbols that you want to align.
  3. On the Alignment toolbar, click Align Middle or Align Center.

For example, these are two symbols before alignment of their horizontal centers:

Figure 68. Unaligned symbols

The figure shows 2 symbols, one above the other with a transition link between them. The bottom symbol is offset to the left significantly

These are the same symbols with their horizontal centers aligned:

Figure 69. Aligned symbols

After the align center, the 2 symbols are vertically aligned along their centers and the transition link has a slight jog to the right as opposed to the severe left jog of the previous figure.

Copyright IBM Corp. 1997, 2004