To display the Transform palette, choose Effects > Transform. To close the palette, click the Close box (Mac) or double-click the Con- trol menu box (Windows). You can change the palette’s layout from horizontal to vertical by dragging the lower-right corner. You can change the size, location, and orientation of selected objects by using options and entering values in the Transform palette. Can- vas applies the current settings when you press Enter or tab to the next box. Once an object has been transformed, it becomes a new object. Therefore, the reference point is reset to reflect its position on the new object. The values in the text boxes display the size and position of the new object. The text boxes that show rotation and skew display 0. And the scaling percentage text boxes display 100 percent. Locating the reference point The reference point is displayed on the transform palette. It is a point on the selected object (or its bounding box) that position data are based on. The reference point is also the fixed point used in an object’s transformation. For example, with a rectangle selected, click the upper-left corner point. The X Y boxes show the coordinates of the rectangle’s upper-left corner, if Absolute coordinates are speci- fied. Transform menu options You can choose different options to transform objects. The option you choose determines the type of data that appears in the boxes on the palette. You can choose from one of the following options: Relative Changes the position of the object relative to the current position, or height and width values. The value in the first boxes, Delta X and Delta Y, is 0 when you select an object. To move the object, type the distance to move. The next two boxes, W and H, dis- play the object’s width and height. Type new values to resize the object. Absolute Specifies X Y coordinates or height and width values. The first two boxes, X and Y, display the coordinates of a selected object’s reference point. To move an object, type new coordinates for the reference point. The next two boxes, W and H, display the object’s width and height. Type new values to resize the object. Reference point
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