Cannot align objects in a drawing canvas

Anonymous
2010-07-08T15:31:05+00:00

I have several clipart objects in a drawing canvas and I want to align them with each other and within the canvas. The alignment options are all greyed out regardless of whether I have "align to page" or "align to canvas" selected.

This happens in Word 2010 on both Windows 7 and Windows Vista

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Anonymous
2010-09-02T09:38:03+00:00

Summarising:

1 - Inside the canvas you cannot align objects

2 - You have to move object outside the canvas in order to align them, BUT:

3 - Outside the canvas you cannot use connectors...

A bit frustrating for people who work every single day with word...

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2010-08-16T12:15:15+00:00

    I haven't been following the thread closely, but looking back at the original question, it seems the OP says the objects cannot be aligned with one another or with the canvas "regardless of whether I have 'align to page' or 'align to canvas' selected." But I would think that neither of these should be selected if one wants to align objects with each other. After they're aligned with each other, perhaps they could be grouped and aligned with the page or the canvas. Or perhaps each object could be aligned with the canvas individually, though it sounds as if this is something that cannot be done, either.

    In any case, it appears that (a) Word 2010 is even more unsatisfactory than Word 2007 in this regard, and (b) the developers are aware of the issue (the OP says, "I have spoken to the Research team and they added it to my list of 'things that don't work in 2010'"), though it's depressingly likely that it will come back as "won't fix."

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-08-16T12:22:36+00:00

    Suzanne, does this mean that I have to go back to aligning and grouping? The canvas was so nice that way... just plunk all the images into one box and align. This is very disappointing.

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2010-08-16T14:32:49+00:00

    I have no idea what it means because I haven't tried it in either version,

    but it sounds very discouraging all round.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-09-02T04:16:10+00:00

    Hi Laurie (or anyone else), did you get your "align" problem sorted out?

    I had a problem with Word 2007 crashing every 10-20 minutes with a particular document, so I went out and bought Word 2010. Well the crashing problem seems to have gone away, but now I can't align my drawing objects.

    Does anyone from microsoft read these threads? Why can't you test your software properly before you release it on unsuspecting customers? Do you realise just how much grief and anguish, not to mention cost as well, you cause the community?

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