Upgrade the UIR editor to better align controls

[NeluF]

CVI currently provides a way for alligning controls (using the dotted matrix). But, with large UIs, this method is inefficient and users must align controls over large distances by hand from the Property Browser. I propose an upgrade that would help users achieve alignment by drawing lines that unite the control being moved and any other control that happens to be close to alignment with it (Figure 1).

This feature would increase usability and productivity (which seems to be decreasing by increasing the size and complexity of UIRs).

Figure 1: Control alignment in Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010, for the C# interface editor.

[Wolfgang]

A similar suggestion, the option to show a vertical and horizontal guide, can be found here

[RobertoBozzolo]

One possibility already available is to use the Arrange >> Control coordinates menu function (accelerator: Shift+F10): after selecting more controls on a panel you can interactively set top, left, height and width values to a single control or to all selected controls. The picture below shows hot to align all controls on the topmost margins of all of them by pressing the "All" button next to Top field

This only applies to controls on a single panel. To align controls on different panels the only available way is to read coordinates on one of them and then apply the same values on those to the other panels. For example, you can arrange for controls on different tab pages to appear exactly in the same place on all pages, so that it looks "constant" on all of them.

Not exactly easy and user friendly, but it works