Rulers, grid and guides in PDF by Zaweba

Lining things up by eye on a PDF page works until it doesn't. A row of stamps drifts downhill, two text boxes sit almost but not quite level, a signature lands a few millimetres away from the line it belongs on. PDF by Zaweba has rulers, a grid and guides for exactly these moments, the same kind of aids a layout program gives you.

Rulers and grid

Choose View > Rulers and grid. Millimetre rulers appear along the edges of the page and a grid is drawn over it. The rulers tell you where you are on the page; the grid gives you a regular set of lines to line things up against.

The grid's spacing is set in Preferences > Page display. A wide spacing suits rough placement on a large drawing; a tight one suits fine work on a form. Choose something that fits the document you are working on, as there is no single right setting.

Snap to grid makes items you place or move jump to the nearest grid line. With it on, putting four comment boxes in a neat row is a matter of dropping them roughly where they go and letting the snap tidy them. Turn it off when you need to place something freely, such as a tick that has to sit inside a small printed box that isn't on the grid.

Guides

Guides are single lines you place yourself. Drag one out from a ruler, a horizontal guide from the top ruler or a vertical one from the side, and drop it where you want it. Or use View > New guide to make one.

Guides are best when the page already has a structure you need to follow. Put a guide along the signature line of a form, and every signature and date you add can sit on it. Put one down the left edge of a column of text, and comments placed beside it line up with the text rather than with each other at random.

Jobs they help with

Filling in a flat form, one without real form fields, is the job people meet most often. Rulers and guides make it easy to keep your typed entries on the printed lines and the ticks inside their boxes, so the finished form looks tidy and professional rather than scattered.

Marking up drawings is another. When you are adding notes and shapes to a plan, a grid helps keep the notes in an orderly column down the side, which makes the marked up drawing far easier for the next person to read.

They also help when checking a layout you have received. Drag a guide to the edge of a column on one page, then move to the next page and see whether the columns line up. It is a quick way to spot something that has shifted.

A few tips

Turn the grid off when you are only reading. It is useful while placing things and distracting the rest of the time.

Change the units if millimetres aren't what you think in. Preferences has a Units setting for the app, with mm, cm, inches or points, so measurements elsewhere in PDF by Zaweba can match the way you work.

Use guides rather than the grid for one-off alignment. One guide on the line that matters is clearer than a whole page of grid lines.

These aids are quiet features, but they are the difference between a marked up page that looks rushed and one that looks considered.