On 2013-11-14 11:37, Mark Crutch wrote:

On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Chris Tooley <euxneks@...155...> wrote:

I would group all your items temporarily (to make sure they stay positioned relative to each other), then modify the document settings to be square, then center the grouped items on the square page vertically and horizontally.

The Align and Distribute dialog has a "Treat selection as group" checkbox which will keep the objects' relative positions without having to manually group them.

Hey wow... I actually never noticed this checkbox.
Thanks for pointing out this great nugget, it's a new golden tip for me!

On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 11:29 PM, Chris Tooley <euxneks@...155...> wrote:

Offtopic: is there a reason to work with layers? Is there a memory savings on that? grouping has always been sufficient for me...

I typically use it for 2 purposes:
- multilingual documents: 1 (or more) layers with imagery - 1 layer for all language dependent items (could be text, but also f.e. a flag)
- floor plans: I have evacuation routes, extinguisher locations, technical data, ... in one plan. Depending on the situation, I can choose what information to show or hide (f.e. for escape plans, the exact dimensions of a room aren't very relevant).

The advantage of locking items down, as Mark said, is also a big advantage for me.

Grtz,
Jurgen.