Setting Specific Measurements

The Height and Width properties show the current size of an object. You can use these properties to set specific measurements for your objects.

Changing the height and width of an object

You can specify an exact height and width for any object except lines. If you have a number of objects that should be the same size, you can select and resize them all at the same time. The objects do not have to be the same type because all objects have height and width properties.

To set a specific height measurement for an object

1. Select your object or group of objects.

2. Click on the Height value field on the Object tab:

3. Enter the height you want for your object(s).

4. Click anywhere on the screen or press . The height of the object(s) will increase or de­crease to the height you specified.

To set a specific width measurement for an object

1. Select your object or group of objects.

2. Click on the Width value field on the Object tab:

3. Enter the width you want for your object(s).

4. Click anywhere on the screen or press . The width of the object(s) will increase or de­crease to the width you specified.

Note:

You can enter the height or width in a measurement other than your selected unit of measure. Enter the number, followed by the measure unit abbre­via­tion: in, cm, mm, or pt.

Using the Height and Width properties with lines

Horizontal line with a height of 0

Diagonal line with a height of .5"

Lines also have height and width properties, but they define the space the line takes up rather than the dimensions of the line. The Height is the verti­cal distance between the top point and the bottom point of the line:

The Width is the horizontal distance between the two line points:

Horizontal line with a width of 1"

Diagonal line with a width of 1.5"

Because these dimensions do not necessarily correspond to the length of the line, resizing a line with the height and width properties is not useful except for hori­zontal and vertical lines. With horizontal and vertical lines, the distance between the two points is always the true length of the line.

To specify the length of a horizontal line

1. Select the line you want to size.

2. Click on the Height value field and enter 0.

3. Press or click on the Width value field and enter the length of the line.

4. Click anywhere on the screen or press and the line will change to the length you specified.

To specify the length of a vertical line

1. Select the line you want to size.

2. Click on the Height value field and enter the length of the line.

3. Press or click on the Width value field and enter 0.

4. Click anywhere on the screen or press and the line will change to the length you specified.