# Arrange and align

> Move, resize, rotate, snap, align and pack items, and work on a whole selection at once.

Source: https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/boards/arrange

Last verified: 2026-10-13 (checked against FlashBoards app build 042ae39db)

## Move, resize and rotate

[Video: Shift-drag to select a row, snap it with ⌘ + arrows, then group it with ⌘G](https://media.yaroflasher.com/docs/media/arrange-board.h264.137f4663.mp4)

* **Move:** drag a selected item. Several selected items move together. Press `Esc` mid-drag to cancel. Attached arrows follow.
* **Resize:** drag a corner handle. Shapes also have edge handles. Hold `Shift` to keep proportions, or `Alt` (`Option` on Mac) to resize around the center.
* **Rotate:** hover just outside a corner until the cursor becomes a rotate arrow, then drag. Hold `Shift` to snap to 15 degree steps.

None of these work on a read-only shared board.

## Where new items land

* **Dropped, imported and generated items** land together as a grid in free space, not under the pointer. They don't cover other items. This includes several files dropped at once, and drops near the toolbars or the edge of the window: items land in free space clear of the toolbars.
* **Moved** and **copied** items (**Move to Board** and **Copy to Board**) and references that **Reuse** puts back on the board also land in free space, keeping their layout.
* **Duplicated** items (`⌘ + D`) appear slightly down and to the right of the original. Repeated duplicates step further diagonally, so copies can overlap the original and other items. To tidy items up, press `⌘` with an arrow key to [pack them](https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/boards/arrange.md#pack-with-the-keyboard).

## Snap to grid

**Snap to Grid** is on by default and lines items up on a 20 px grid. To place items freely, turn it off in **User settings** → **General** → **Snap to Grid**. The setting is remembered. See [Settings](https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/account/settings.md).

## Align and distribute

Select two or more items. The alignment toolbar appears above them.

### Step 1: Choose a mode

Click the stack toggle (**Enable stack mode** or **Disable stack mode**). Stack mode is on for each new selection.

### Step 2: Click an align button

Use **Align left edges**, **Align horizontal centers**, **Align right edges**, **Align top edges**, **Align vertical centers** or **Align bottom edges**. With three or more items, **Distribute horizontally with equal spacing** and **Distribute vertically with equal spacing** also appear.

* **Stack mode on:** media and text notes line up against the edge without overlapping each other. They can still end up on top of items you didn't select. Arrows, shapes and drawings stay put.
* **Stack mode off:** everything aligns by edges or centers and may overlap.

Good to know:

* If items already overlap, stack mode stacks them one after another. **Align top edges** can then give a column or staircase instead of a row. Spread them out first, or turn stack mode off.

## Pack with the keyboard

Select two or more media items or notes and press `⌘` with an arrow key. They slide toward that edge and fill empty space without overlapping, a bit like Tetris.

## Work on a whole selection

Select two or more items and open **More actions** (the ⋮ button just outside the top-left corner of the selection):

* **Grid:** lays the selected images out in an even grid of equal square cells, cropping them. Videos and audio stay where they are.
* **Compose collage:** builds one collage image automatically from two or more images.
* **Manual collage:** arrange a collage yourself and export it to the board as a PNG. Works for any signed-in account; it runs in your browser.
* **Export selection as PNG:** saves the **Selection** or **Whole board** as an image, with **Scale**, **Padding** and **Background** options. Only still images, notes, drawings, shapes and arrows are included; see [Media Browser](https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/media/media-browser.md).
* **Download selected:** saves the selected media as a ZIP.
* **Copy links:** copies shareable links for the selected items.
* **Merge videos:** appears when every selected item is a video.

The red X next to **More actions** (**Delete selected items**) deletes the whole selection.

See [Media tools](https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/media/media-tools.md) for collage and merge details.

[Video: Shift-click three images, align their top edges, then turn off stack mode and align left](https://media.yaroflasher.com/docs/media/align-toolbar.h264.04a32b5a.mp4)

## For agents

A connected agent can move, resize, rotate, align, pack and group items with `execute_board_action` (for example `updateItemsLayout` with `rotation`, `groupItems` and `ungroupItems`). Each change is one Undo step, and the agent can undo its own edits with `undo_board_edit`. See [Edit a board](https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/integrations/mcp.md#edit-a-board).

## Related

- [Canvas basics](https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/boards/canvas.md)
- [Media tools](https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/media/media-tools.md)
- [Keyboard shortcuts](https://flashboards.yaroflasher.com/docs/reference/keyboard-shortcuts.md)