## Producing accurate layouts

Freeway provides several features to help you produce consistent layouts and align items accurately:

- Rulers along the top and left-hand edges of the page area.
- Ruler guides which you can add to the page to align items accurately.
- Vertical and horizontal grids with a specified interval .
- Margin guides, to create a consistent top and left inset for the page .

The guides and grids help you align objects horizontally or vertically, and you can optionally snap objects to the nearest guide or grid. Guides and grids do not appear on the page when it is published.

### To show or hide the rulers

- Open the View menu and choose Show Rulers or Hide Rulers.

Rulers are displayed by default when you open a new document.

The rulers are calibrated in pixels, and by default the origin is at the top left corner of the page.

### To change the ruler origin

- Drag from the px symbol at the top left corner where the rulers intersect.

Crosswires follow the mouse pointer.

- Drag the crosswires to the new origin:

### To reset the ruler origin to the top left corner of the page

- Double-click the px indicator where the rulers intersect.

### To add guides to the page

- Make sure the rulers are visible; if necessary open the View menu and choose Show Rulers.
- Make sure Guides is checked in the View menu; if necessary open the View menu and choose Guides.
- Position the mouse pointer over the vertical or horizontal ruler until it changes to a drag symbol.
- Drag the guide to the required position on the page:

### To snap to guides or the grid

- Open the View menu and choose Snap to Guides.

When you move the edge of an item near to a guide or grid line it will snap to the precise position.

### To display guides in front of objects on the page

- Open the View menu and choose Guides Above.

By default guides are displayed behind graphics and other objects on the page.

### To lock the guides

- Open the View menu and choose Lock Guides.

This prevents you from accidentally moving the guides once you have set them up in the correct positions.

### To remove a guide

- Drag it and drop it outside the page area.

### To display a grid

- Open the Page menu and choose Grids....

The Grids dialog box allows you to define a vertical and horizontal grid and apply it either to the current page, or to every page in the document:

- Select Vertical and/or Horizontal to draw a vertical and/or horizontal grid.
- In the Width and Height fields specify the spacing between gridlines.
- If you want to add space between pairs of grid lines specify the space in the Gutter fields.
- If you want to inset the grid from the top left corner of the page, specify the inset in the Left and Top fields.

The Right and Bottom fields will automatically be set to the inset of the grid from the bottom right corner of the page.

- Choose Page from the Apply to menu to apply the grid to the current page, or Document to apply it to every page in the site.
- Click the Apply button to preview the grid:

- Click the OK button to use the grid you have defined.

### To align items to the grid

- Select one or more items on a page.
- Open the Item menu and choose Align to Grid.

Each item will be moved so that its top and left borders are on the nearest gridline.

### To define margins

- Open the Page menu and choose Grids....
- In the Margins section set the Top, Left, Bottom, and Right fields to the margins you want to define:

- Choose Page from the Apply to menu to apply the margins to the current page or Document to apply them to all pages in the site.
- Click the Apply button to preview the margins:

- Click the OK button to use the margins you have defined.

### To define the color for the guides

- Open the Freeway menu and choose Preferences....
- Click the Grids & Guides icon at the top of the Preferences dialog box to display the Grids & Guides options:

- Click the Grid color, Horizontal guide color, Vertical guide color, and Margin guide color boxes to define the colors of the corresponding guides.
- Click the Link checkbox to keep the horizontal and vertical guides the same color.

### To define the snap-to distance for the grid and guides

- Open the Freeway menu and choose Preferences....
- Click the Grids & Guides icon at the top of the Preferences dialog box to display the grids and guides options.
- Edit the Grid magnetic range and Guide magnetic range to the values you want to use:

A recommended value is 5 pixels.

Contents