Move, resize, and arrange objects
- Last UpdatedSep 23, 2025
- 4 minute read
When working in Design mode, you can move, resize, and arrange all symbols, shapes, text, and images.
Select multiple objects
To select all the objects on the display, press Ctrl + A.
To select specific objects:
-
Click a blank area of the canvas, hold down the mouse button and drag your cursor over the area containing the objects you want to select.
-
Press Ctrl and click on the objects you want to select.
Once multiple objects are selected, they can be moved, copied and pasted, or deleted as a group. You can resize groups of text and value objects.
Move an object
Move the pointer over the symbol. When the pointer becomes 
, click and drag the object anywhere on the display.
Resize an object
To increase or decrease the size of an object, select it and drag its sizing handle away from or toward its center. To set the precise size of value or text objects, right-click and then click Format Value or Format Text or Format Symbols; in the pane, select the desired size in the Font Size list.
Arrange multiple objects
To arrange multiple objects by aligning them or bringing one of them backward or forward,
click the Arrange button 
on the editing toolbar.
The options for arranging or aligning display objects are:
Object alignment options
|
Alignment option |
Result |
|---|---|
|
Bring to Front |
Brings an object to the front of a stacked group of objects. |
|
Send to Back |
Brings an object to the back of a stacked group of objects. |
|
Bring Forward |
Brings an object up one placement to the front of the stacked group of objects. |
|
Send Backward |
Brings an object down one placement to the back of the stacked group of objects. |
|
Align Left |
Aligns the left side of the selected objects with the left edge of the left-most object. |
|
Align Center |
Aligns the center of the selected objects with the vertical center of the selected objects. |
|
Align Right |
Aligns the right side of the selected objects with the right edge of the right-most object. |
|
Align Top |
Aligns the top side of the selected objects with the top edge of the top-most object. |
|
Align Middle |
Aligns the selected objects in the horizontal middle selected objects. |
|
Align Bottom |
Aligns the bottom side of the selected objects with the bottom edge of the bottom-most object. |
|
Distribute Horizontally |
Moves the selected objects to evenly distribute them horizontally. |
|
Distribute Vertically |
Moves the selected objects to evenly distribute them vertically. |
Snap to grid
To align objects to a grid, click Snap to Grid 
on the editing toolbar. With snap to grid turned on, when you move an object or group
of objects, the top-most and left-most points of the object or the group align to
the nearest points on the grid. If you resize an object with snap to grid on, the
object size snaps to points on the grid. To override snap to grid without turning
it off, hold the Alt key while you move an object.
To set options for snap to grid, click the arrow 
on the editing toolbar. The following options are available:
-
Use Snap to Grid to turn snap to grid on or off.
-
Use the Size slider to set the size of the grid.
-
Use Show Guide to turn the guide dots on the display on or off.
-
Use the Spacing slider to set the appearance of the guide dots.
Cut, copy, or paste an object
To cut, copy, or paste an object, use keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) or click the cut, copy or paste buttons on the editing toolbar.
Note: The copy button and Ctrl+C also allows you to copy the path for each datasource on a symbol. You can then paste the datasource paths into a spreadsheet, text editor, etc. It may be especially helpful to paste the datasources in to Excel if you use the DataLink add-in to perform queries against PI.
Delete an object
Select the shape you want to delete and press either Delete or Backspace or click
on the editing toolbar.