Hello, my name is Erin.
This tutorial shows how to use the rulers in Adobe Acrobat.
The rulers can help you align text boxes, images, buttons, form fields, and other visuals in your PDF.
First, we will turn on the horizontal and vertical rulers.
Next, we will change the rulers’ unit of measurement.
And then we will use the ruler guides.
Finally, we will look at how to change Acrobat’s preferences so that the rulers appear every time you open your software.
In that section, we will also change the preferences for the default unit of measurement and guide color.
Today I’ll be using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
This process also applies to Adobe Acrobat 2020 and Adobe Acrobat 2017.
In addition, the steps are similar for PC and Mac.
These steps don’t apply to Adobe’s free PDF display software, Acrobat Reader.
We will cover Adobe Acrobat’s grid system and measurement tools in separate tutorials.
To turn on the rules, begin by selecting the View menu.
Then select Show/Hide from the drop-down menu.
From there, select Rulers & Guides.
Followed by Rulers.
The rulers should appear on the top and left side of the page.
To turn off the rulers, return to the View menu,
reselect Show/Hide,
and Rulers & Guides,
and then deselect Rulers.
If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, note that you can turn on or turn off the rulers by using the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl + R on a PC or Command + R on a Mac.
To change the unit or measurement, PC users can right-click
and Mac users can Control-click on the horizontal or vertical ruler
and then select points, picas, millimeters, centimeters, or inches from the shortcut menu.
The unit of measurement will change for both the horizontal and vertical rulers.
The ruler guides are lines that help you align objects on the page.
Your rulers must be turned on to create the guides.
To begin, click the horizontal ruler and then drag your cursor down to create a guide.
Alternatively, you can click the vertical ruler and then drag your cursor to the right to create a guide.
To move the guide, select it and then use the double-headed arrow cursor to drag the guide to a new location.
To remove the ruler guides, PC users can right-click and Mac users can Control-click
the horizontal or vertical ruler and then select Clear Guides on Page or Clear All Guides.
Alternatively, you can deselect Show Guides to hide the guides but not remove them from the page.
Therefore, you can choose to reselect Show Guides later, and they will appear in the same locations.
To delete an individual ruler guide, select and hold it while you press the Delete key on your keyboard.
However, note that this method doesn't work if the Edit PDF toolbar is open.
You can change Acrobat’s preferences so that the rulers appear every time you open your software.
In addition, you can change the default unit of measurement and the color of the ruler guides.
To begin, select the Edit menu on a PC
or the Adobe Acrobat menu on a Mac.
Next, select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
When the Preferences dialog box appears, select the Units & Guides category.
From there, you can use the Page & Ruler Units menu to select a new default unit of measurement.
In addition, you can select a new default guide color from the Guide color menu.
And, to have the rulers appear every time you open Acrobat, select Show rulers when opening document.
Finally, select the OK button.
And as always, remember to save your PDF to save your changes.
For more Adobe Acrobat tutorials, please see my playlist “How to Use Adobe Acrobat”
where you will find many related videos such as “How to Change the Font & Font Size of Comments
in Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader”
And, “How to Duplicate Links Across Pages in Adobe Acrobat.”
All the resources mentioned today are linked in the description box below
along with my website erinwrightwriting.com, which shows all the steps we just preformed with images.
Feel free to leave me a comment if there’s a specific topic that you would like me to talk about in the future.
And please subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss upcoming tutorials.
And give this video a thumbs-up if you found it helpful.
Thank you so much for watching!
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