Guidelines

Guidelines are an excellent tool used to align objects in your project. In AutoPlay Media Studio there are two types of guidelines: page/dialog and project guidelines.  Page/dialog guidelines can be used to align objects on a single page or dialog in your project. You can have different page or dialog guidelines on different pages/dialogs in your project.

Project guidelines persist across every page or dialog in your project. These guidelines are useful if, for example, you wanted to define margins throughout your project, or if you wanted to align objects in the exact same place on different pages or dialogs in your project.

When you drag an object near a guideline, the object's closest bounding box edge will 'snap' to the guideline. Objects will only snap to guidelines when the guidelines are visible. Hiding the guidelines disables the snapping feature.

Note: You can disable snapping temporarily by holding the Shift key while you drag an object.

To add a page/dialog guideline in your project, simply click on the ruler at the approximate location you want the guideline to appear.  Click on the top ruler to create a vertical guideline, click on the left ruler to create a horizontal guideline. Alternatively, you can 'drag' a guideline onto your project by 'dragging' from either the top or left ruler onto your project. Give it a try!

Note: Creating a project guideline is done in the same way, with one exception: hold down the Shift key on your keyboard when creating a guideline.

Tip: You can right click on any ruler in the project and choose Add Guideline to bring up the Add Guideline dialog.

To adjust the positioning of any guideline on your page or dialog, drag the guideline's placeholder on the ruler to a different spot on the same ruler. To remove a guideline from your project, drag the placeholder off of the ruler, away from the page or dialog. If you are removing a horizontal guideline, drag the placeholder to the left of the left ruler. If you are removing a vertical guideline, drag the placeholder above the top ruler.

Note: If a guideline is locked, you cannot drag it's placeholder along the ruler, or off of the ruler; however, you can still adjust it through the Edit Guideline dialog.

Tip: You can right click on any guideline's placeholder and choose Edit Guideline to bring up the Edit Guideline dialog, or choose Delete to remove the guideline. You can also right-click on any placeholder and choose Delete All to remove all guidelines from the current page or dialog (and all displayed project guidelines).

To adjust how guidelines function, choose Edit > Preferences, expand the Environment category, and click on Guidelines.