July 24, 1998

Graphic Find & Replace Tips

Below are a series of tips that will show you how powerful the Graphic Find & Replace feature can be.

Version: 7 and above

  
 


Scaling Multiple Objects from their Centerpoints

This tip describes how to scale a bunch of objects from their base centerpoints rather than from the center point of the selection.

For this example, I want to scale the three basic shapes from their base center points so they stay centered within the Orange shaded background image.

 

Using the conventional Scale option in the Transform palette scales the objects, but scales them from the center point of the selection area (seen in the x and y coordinates) causing them to move. You could scale each object one at a time, but if you have more than three objects this could take a while.

 

Now if you use the Graphic Find and Replace option found in Edit -> Find & Replace -> Graphics, you can set the objects to scale based on their actual center points as seen in the above example.

Just set the Attribute to Scale, put in your % values, then set the Change in to be whatever you want. Here I chose Selection, because I didn't want the Orange background to scale down.

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Rotating Multiple Objects from their Centerpoints

This tip describes how to rotate a bunch of objects from their base centerpoints rather than from the center point of the selection.

For this example, I want to rotate the three text blocks 180° from their base center points so they stay with their matching lines.

 

Using the conventional Rotate option in the Transform palette rotates the text blocks, but rotates them from the center point of the selection area (seen in the x and y coordinates) causing them to move away from their matching lines. You could rotate each object one at a time, but if you have more than three objects this could take a while.

 

Now if you use the Graphic Find and Replace option found in Edit -> Find & Replace -> Graphics, you can set the text blocks to rotate based on their actual center points so they stay with their lines like in the above example.

Just set the Attribute to Rotate, put in your rotate value, then set the Change in to be whatever you want. Here I chose Selection, because I didn't want the lines to rotate.

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Changing Multiple Objects' Line Widths

This tip describes how to change the line weight (width) of multiple objects without affecting any other line styles you may have.

For this example, I want to change the line width of all of these selected objects to be 1 point without changing the colors or styles.

 

What happens, is that since there are multiple line styles in the selection, the Inspector won't allow you to change the Width without removing all the colors and styles. This can be a problem if the art is going to be used as a template for example.

 

Again by using the Graphic Find and Replace option found in Edit -> Find & Replace -> Graphics, you can set the line width of the selected objects without changing the color or styles applied.

Just set the Attribute to Stroke width, set your new line width in the To: box, then set the Change in to be whatever you want. Here I chose Selection, because if there were other objects on the page, I wouldn't want to change them as well.

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There are many uses for the Graphic Find and Replace tool and if you've got some great tricks for this tool, let me know.