Aligning icons to the grid

Ways to align icons

You can tidy up icons by aligning them to an invisible grid. There are several ways to do this:

To	Do this
align icons to the grid automatically	Choose the direction in which you want icons to flow at the view property "Arrange automatically". Left to Right flows icons horizontally, from row to row. Top to Bottom flows icons vertically, from column to column. As you add or delete icons, the icons flow automatically. They are sorted based on the sort order you see in list view. Tip This is a way to force icons to stay in a particular order, such as alphabetical. Note If you have "Arrange automatically" selected, you can't drag icons.
align icons to the grid on a one-time basis	Choose View > Line Up Icons to Grid.
snap icons to the grid as you drag them	Select the view property "Place on grid".

Tip

To keep FirstClass from moving a particular icon when other icons are being moved automatically, or to ensure that you don't move the icon by mistake, select the icon's object property "Icon position locked". This lets you put a subset of your icons in a specific location that remains unchanged.

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Showing the grid

To see the grid that FirstClass is using, select the view properties "Show vertical gridlines" and "Show horizontal gridlines".

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Creating your own custom grid

By default, FirstClass uses its own grid when snapping icons to the grid. You can create a custom grid, and FirstClass will use that grid whenever it aligns icons to the grid.

To create a custom grid, select the view property "Use custom grid". This reveals fields that let you define your custom grid.

You can clear "Use custom grid" if you want FirstClass to use the default grid.

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