Smart Selection

Smart selection is a collection of features where Grunt overrides the native PowerPoint objects selection to give enhanced functionality.

Tidy Up

Grunt's "Tidy up"-function lets you quickly align and distribute your objects so that they are an equal distance apart - either along a vertical or horizontal axis or in a grid. The "Tidy up"-function is intelligent and will try to figure out your intent automatically.

    1. Select the objects you want to quickly distribute. 
    2. Click the "Tidy up" button. 

One of the following will then happen:

  • Objects will be distributed along a single axis - either horizontal or vertical. This will be determined by on what axis the objects overlap. Objects that are aligned on a horizontal axis will have their horizontal spacing adjusted, while objects aligned on a vertical axis will have their vertical spacing adjusted.
  • If you select objects that are placed out in a grid-like structure, they will have both their vertical and horizontal spacing adjusted. The vertical and horizontal spacing may be the same or unique depending on their starting position.

To get a preview of what Tidy Up will do, select the objects you want to adjust, and hover the mouse on the Tidy Up button.

Smart Spacing

When objects are "tidied up" (e.g. with equal spacing), you can easily adjust the spacing between them with Grunt's Smart Spacing feature.

  1. Make sure the spacing between your selected objects is the same.
  2. Drag the pink handle that appears in-between your objects until the wanted spacing is achieved. Release the cursor to apply. 

The tooltip above your cursor will indicate the distance between objects, in pixels.

Tip:
Hold CTRL to space the objects out symmetrically from the center

Smart Resizing

Grunt tools' way of resizing allows you to drag multiple objects to a wanted size simultaneously while keeping spacing between them as you resize. The spacing will remain as a fraction of the objects’ size. 

  1. Select all the objects you want to resize.
  2. Drag – either left, right, or in the corner of one of the objects – to adjust the size of all the selected objects simultaneously. Release the cursor to apply. 

Tip:
Hold CTRL to resize one or more objects symmetrically from the center.
Hold SHIFT to keep the aspect ratio fixed as you resize.

Deactivating Smart selection

Sometimes Smart selection might not fit your workflow. To quickly turn Smart selection off, simply click the Smart selection icon in the Grunt ribbon. To reactivate, press the icon again.