The alignment operations in the Alignment toolbar (see Figure 52) reposition two or more symbols to line up specified edges or centers. The Alignment toolbar becomes active when more than one symbol is selected in the activity diagram.
The order for all alignment operations is:
Aligning the edges of multiple symbols aligns the specified edge of each symbol to an imaginary line that runs along the specified edge of the model symbol. Edge-alignment operations include: Align Top, Align Bottom, Align Left, and Align Right.
For example, Figure 53 illustrates the result of aligning the bottoms of an End Success symbol and an Action symbol.
For the End Success symbol, the label and the symbol together form one object whose bottom is aligned to the bottom of the Action symbol.
To align the top, bottom, left, or right edge of a set of symbols:
All symbols line up to the target.
You can center symbols along an imaginary horizontal or vertical line drawn at the center of the first symbol that you select. Each symbol is then centered horizontally or vertically along that line. Center-alignment operations include Align Middle and Align Center.
The dashed line in Figure 54 illustrates the Align Middle operation: the alignment of the vertical centers of two symbols.
Figure 54. Align Middle operation
The dashed line in Figure 55 illustrates the Align Center operation: the alignment of the horizontal centers of two symbols.
Figure 55. Align Center operation
To align centers:
For example, these are two symbols before alignment of their horizontal centers:
These are the same symbols with their horizontal centers aligned: