[Kate Davis]

I'm really hoping there is an easy way to do this as it annoys me every time I try.

When I'm placing items of the same size I know I can select them all and use distribute to get them evenly spaced, but what if the items are different sizes? Are you able to define the gap you want between items? At the moment my attempts have resulted in me counting squares on my transparent background or drawing a shape of the size gap I want and using the cursor keys to position my items, fairly time consuming and not always accurate.

For example, how does April organise her pictures so evenly?

[teecee]

I'm not real sure about defining the gap size - you may need to rely on the Rulers/Grids which can be adjusted under Edit>Preferences>Units & Rulers or Edit>Preferences>Guides & Grids. Sometimes using Snap To also helps.
Maybe someone else knows if there is a way to actually define the gap size...

In PSE 11 to align the edges evenly first be sure the Move tool (shortcut V) is selected and the tool options bar at the bottom of the workspace is opened. Then select the layers you want to align by holding down the Ctrl key when you click on each layer in the layers palette. Next, in the tool options bar, click on the appropriate icon under the Align column (Top, Center, Bottom, Left, Middle or Right) HTH

[Cheri T]

I'm not sure if there is a more scientific way when the items are of varying sizes, but I have made a temporary "spacer" shape to move between objects and then move them right next to it to make sure spaces were even. If you use it along with guides and make sure View/Snap is checked, that should do the trick for you. Let me know if you need more details on how I did this. And I'll watch this thread to see if anyone comes up with a better way!

[Nica]

In CS5, I have a plugin called GuideGuide. It allows you to place the guides at evenly spaced intervals. I don't know if there is a version for PSE. You might Google it. If I get a chance, I'll try looking later. I'm trying to cook and type one-handed at the moment.

[Kate Davis]

Thank you for your suggestions, I haven't used snap before and haven't used guidelines in this way. However, I'm starting to see it is like designing a website using a grid for some reason I never applied that to my scrap pages.

Cheri T, on 04 January 2013 - 11:44 AM, said:

I'm not sure if there is a more scientific way when the items are of varying sizes, but I have made a temporary "spacer" shape to move between objects and then move them right next to it to make sure spaces were even.

I've also used a "spacer" shaper, but it didn't like a very advanced method, but maybe it is one of the best or simplest.

Nica, on 04 January 2013 - 12:32 PM, said:

In CS5, I have a plugin called GuideGuide. It allows you to place the guides at evenly spaced intervals. I don't know if there is a version for PSE.

This looks like an interesting plugin, but I haven't found anything similar for Elements unfortunately.

[Rose Ann]

Hi Kate,
I don't have PSE11, only 9, but have you tried the align tools? They are at the top of the screen when you are using the move tool.
Here's a screenshot.  align tools.PNG (6.14K)
Number of downloads: 3 click on it to enlarge it for better detail.

[BarbaraC1977]

Yes, one of the features I miss from Corel Photo-Paint is the option to select several items and choose "equal spacing" between objects in addition to the PS/PSE options for equal "centers" of objects.