Home > Designing and creating databases > Editing objects on layouts > Selecting and working with objects on a layout > Resizing and reshaping objects

Resizing and reshaping objects

Once you've drawn a line or a shape on a layout, you can reshape or resize it. You can also reshape or resize field objects, portals, graphics, text blocks, and tab controls. For more information on resizing tab controls, see Moving and resizing tab controls. In addition, you can allow objects to resize automatically when the FileMaker Pro window is resized. Resizing settings also apply to Preview mode and printing, when the page size is different from the size of the layout being viewed or printed. For information, see Setting auto-resize options for layout objects.

To resize one or more objects:

1.	In Layout mode, select one or more objects.

For more information, see Selecting objects.

2.	Drag one of the selection handles to change the object’s shape and size.

To resize the objects in a specific or precise way, do one of the following:

 

To	Do this
• Change only the height or width of a two-dimensional object (for example, fields, rectangles, ovals, fields, or imported graphics)   • Constrain a line to horizontal or vertical	Press Shift as you drag a handle.
• Force the height and width of a two-dimensional object to be equal (for example, a rectangle becomes a square, or an oval becomes a circle)   • Constrain the direction you drag to 45-degree increments when you resize a line	Press Ctrl (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you drag a handle.
Resize the selected objects to match all widths (or all heights) to the smallest (or largest) object, in one step.	Click one of the Resize To buttons in the Align palette. If you don’t see the Align palette, click Align in the layout bar.
Precisely resize the selection	Use the graphic rulers, T-squares, object grids, and Info palette. For more information, see Using tools to precisely position objects.
Override the object grids when dragging a handle	Press Alt (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you drag a handle. For more information, see Using the object grids.

Notes

•	Resizing the first repetition of a repeating field resizes all repetitions.

•	Resizing a grouped object resizes all the objects in the group. For more information about grouping objects, see Grouping and ungrouping objects.

•	To easily align and distribute objects, you can use the buttons in the Align palette (click Align in the layout bar) or the menu commands and shortcut menus in the Arrange menu. See Aligning or distributing objects.