Rotate to Zero



 

You might have run into this situation:

You have a complex grouped object that you want to square up from some arbitrary angle, and you don't want to make the task into a major research project, and you don't want to ungroup it, etc. etc.

Is there an easy way? If you have WildTools, you betcha.

 

 

The problem

 

 

Copy, Paste and Flip Horizontal
(Command+C; Command+V; F -- real quick)

 

 

Rotate by Line
(We use F7 for Rotate by Line)

 

 

Four commands and bliss!

Duplicate
Flip Horizontal
Rotate by Line
Delete.

Of course, if you are going to want to rotate it back, keep a copy of the original around so you can restore its position using the inverse procedure...

(Thanks to Ed Groh for reminding me to Duplicate instead of Copy and Paste -- a 20% savings!)

 
 

Michael Wolfe has an alternative suggestion [this is really cool]:

If you want to modify within the rotated group and end up with the same rotation without ungrouping etc, another method would be to use Edit Group (I use the keyboard command "option e") to get at the pieces and the baseline tool to establish the angle and do the modifications. Then Exit Groups (I use the keyboard command "option x").

 

Sheesh Alfred.

clue us in on your hot shortcuts...