Hi!

I'm an Inkscape beginner, I have played around with it a little for a couple of hours now, so my question could be very stupid, but at least I looked at the FAQ and online help before opening this topic. It's about layers. I could find how to move them up and down, but not how to move an entire layer in the other two dimensions. In fact I want to move all layers about 20 mm to the right. Is there an easy way to do this or do I have to move one selection of objects at a time?

So, to summarize, is there a way to ”move everything exactly 20 mm to the right” in one go, or if that can't be done, is there at least a way to move an entire layer exactly 20 mm in one go? And if at least one answer to those questions is ”yes”, how?

There are a few ways to approach this, but here's one of them:

1) Edit > Select All in All Layers to select everything.
2) Object > Transform.
3) In the Transform dialog set the Horizontal field to -20, the units to 'mm', the 'Relative move' checkbox enabled and the 'Apply to each object separately' checkbox disabled.
4) Click the Apply button, then close the dialog.

Hi.

The cheapest trick would be drawing a rectangle exactly where you'd expect the page borders, then in the document settings (Shift+Ctrl+D) fit the page borders around that rectangle selected.

Keep in mind this will store every coordinate the same just adds a general transformation matrix to the document.
(If your "everything" involved groups and texts/rectangles too, the method above may also generate additional transformation matrices even if you use the default transformation/optimized in the preferences .)

Xav wrote:There are a few ways to approach this, but here's one of them:

1) Edit > Select All in All Layers to select everything.
2) Object > Transform.
3) In the Transform dialog set the Horizontal field to -20, the units to 'mm', the 'Relative move' checkbox enabled and the 'Apply to each object separately' checkbox disabled.
4) Click the Apply button, then close the dialog.

This worked except that my background layer, which is a non-vector image (the ”original”, a jpeg if I remember correctly, could be a png), didn't move. is there a way to move that layer as well?

guraknugen wrote:This worked except that my background layer, which is a non-vector image (the ”original”, a jpeg if I remember correctly, could be a png), didn't move. is there a way to move that layer as well?

It shouldn't make any difference. I've just tried it with a raster image on the bottom layer, and that moved as well. Have you perhaps locked the layer, or the object itself? Either of those situations would prevent it being selected when you do 'Select All in All Layers'.

Xav wrote:

guraknugen wrote:This worked except that my background layer, which is a non-vector image (the ”original”, a jpeg if I remember correctly, could be a png), didn't move. is there a way to move that layer as well?

It shouldn't make any difference. I've just tried it with a raster image on the bottom layer, and that moved as well. Have you perhaps locked the layer, or the object itself? Either of those situations would prevent it being selected when you do 'Select All in All Layers'.

You're absolutely right, of course the layer was locked! As I said, I'm a beginner and I guess these are the kinds of mistakes I'll continue doing until I'm a little more used to this programme.

Anyway, my problem is solved now. For curiosity only, there is no quick way to also move all my guide lines accordingly, is there?

Thanks, Xav and Lazur, for your help and suggestions!

The resize page to selection method should work for guides, locked objects, and hidden objects.

guraknugen wrote:You're absolutely right, of course the layer was locked! As I said, I'm a beginner and I guess these are the kinds of mistakes I'll continue doing until I'm a little more used to this programme.

We all had to start somewhere. But that's what we're here for - to help other users to make the most of this powerful program.

guraknugen wrote:Anyway, my problem is solved now. For curiosity only, there is no quick way to also move all my guide lines accordingly, is there?

There's no single quick way to move all the guides at once. There are a few ways to deal with moving them individually though:

1) Double-click on a guide to bring up a dialog that lets you make a relative change to the x or y position. The checkbox remains ticked when you double-click on the next guide.
2) Even without using the relative change checkbox, you can still do some maths directly in the x and y fields. Just append "-20" to the existing value and Inkscape will calculate the new number for you.
3) If your guides correspond to the positions of objects, just delete all the guides (Edit > Delete All Guides), move your objects, then use Object > Object to Guides on some of them to re-create the guides in the new position.

Thanks! I deleted all guides and started over instead, but this was useful information for the future. Especially that you can let Inkscape do the calculations for you, I didn't know that.

guraknugen wrote:Thanks! I deleted all guides and started over instead, but this was useful information for the future. Especially that you can let Inkscape do the calculations for you, I didn't know that.

Yeah, that's a useful one that isn't obvious. It works in most (but not all) number boxes, and lets you perform a number of basic maths operations.