Expanding items

You can simultaneously resize and align items by expanding them. This is a quick way to resize items so that they line up with other items exactly. Expanding can either be done relatively, or absolutely.

For example, you can expand a label to the size of a field by using a Right to Right expansion. This will lengthen the label until it is the same size as the field and align the edge of the label with the edge of the field.

There are two types of expand:

relative expand — Changes the size of items so they align with a reference item and anchor the items to the reference item. If you later move or resize the reference item, any items anchored to it will automatically change size in order to maintain alignment with the reference item.
absolute expand — Changes the size of items so they align with a reference item. The items will not automatically change size if you later move or resize the reference item.

To expand items:

Select the items to expand.
Select the reference item (that is, the item that the other items expand to).
If you expand items using relative expand, the reference item must be before the expanded items in the build order.
Right-click and select an expansion type from Absolute Expand or Relative Expand.

The items expand to the size of the reference item. For detailed information about expansion types, see Expansion types.