Video information:
Learn how to use some of Grunt Tools great features. This video teaches you:
- what a Reference object is
- using Grunt's special alignment and stacking features
- make shapes the same size as another shape using the Same Size feature
Welcome to this Grunt tutorial. In this video, I'll show you how Grunt Tools can help you become more productive. We'll look at a set of tools that uses something called a reference object. Let's get started.
Many of the features in Grunt uses a specific shape as a reference object. When you select multiple shapes, the reference object is the one marked with a black circle in the middle. To change the reference shape, you simply click another shape. Notice that the black circle moves over to the shape that I've clicked. It's now become the new reference object.
Let's say I wan to middle align these shapes to this shape. When you use PowerPoint's middle align button, the shapes middle align to some random point between them. More often than not, one of my shapes is already in the right place, and I just want the other shapes to middle align to it. Grunt improves this workflow. I can select the shapes I want to align, and click the shape I want to use as a reference object. When I use Grunt's Middle Align button, the reference object will stay in place, and all the other shapes will middle align to it. Of course, all the other align buttons work the same way.
Sometimes you want to align a range of shapes relative to the slide. You can do that in Grunt by holding Ctrl when you click the align buttons. If I choose Center Align, all the selected shapes will be aligned to the center of the slide, as if they were grouped.
Another feature that depends on the reference object, is Stacking. Stacking can be done horizontally and vertically. When I stack shapes, the reference object will stay in place, while the spacing between all the shapes will be removed. Here, where I'm stacking vertically, all the selected shapes stack on top of the reference object.
The Same Size feature lets you resize your selected shapes to match the reference object. Here are some shapes of unequal size. I now want to make them the same size as this shape, so I click it to make it the reference object and then press the Same Size button. Notice that could also equalize just the height or the width by using this drop-down menu.