Use smart formatting

Save yourself valuable editing time with swapping and tidying.

Verena Kuhn avatar
Written by Verena Kuhn
Updated over a week ago

Pitch's smart formatting features make it easy to manage content on your slide. You can swap the positioning of content and keep blocks nice and orderly without worrying about layout and design.

Swap the position of two blocks

Smart swapping allows you to quickly switch the position of two blocks of the same type (e.g., two images). When you click on a block that's eligible to be swapped, you'll see a small Swap icon (a circular button containing two squares) right below it. If you want to swap an object, here's what you need to do:

  1. Click the Swap icon underneath a block.

  2. Hold the icon and drag the block over the block you want to swap.

  3. Release the icon, and the blocks will swap positions.

When working with text, a few conditions apply in order for blocks to be eligible for swapping. Your text blocks can be different in length, but they need to share the same text style, font family, font style, and font color. These conditions are intended as helpful guardrails against unintended swapping. For instance, you probably don't want to swap a section header with the explanatory copy below, even if they both use the same text style. These rules ensure that even if the only difference is that the header is in bold, you won't be able to swap it.


Auto-align multiple blocks

Smart tidying allows you to quickly align multiple blocks of the same type, such as multiple text or image blocks. When selecting two or more blocks that are eligible for tidying, you’ll see a small Tidy icon (a magic wand) in the inline controls. In order to be eligible, blocks need to be positioned so they overlap either on a horizontal or vertical axis. Here are the steps you need to take to tidy your blocks:

  1. Select two or more blocks by pressing Shift or Command, or drag-selecting.

  2. Click the Tidy icon or press Space.

The blocks will automatically get into formation. More specifically, Pitch evenly distributes the space between the items on one axis, and aligns them along the other axis. Blocks will align in a way that requires the least amount of movement. Therefore, Pitch may align your objects differently than you intended.

Alternatively, you can right-click on multiple selected blocks and choose between different align and distribute options. Read more about aligning content here.


Smart grouping

When you group blocks, Pitch automatically detects similar ones on the slide. Confirm you’d like to group them with just one click. With less need to manually group blocks, you can move, style, animate, and reuse slide content even faster.

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