It seems that the handling of the Alignment
option is not consistent for all functions using it. Panel
for instance seems to support numeric values for this option
Manipulate[
Panel["\[Times]", ImageSize -> {100, 50}, Alignment -> {x, y}],
{x, -1, 1},
{y, -1, 1}
]
while with Grid
this is not supported.
Knowing this, you could check functions you're interested in with something simple like
SetAttributes[AlignmentTest, HoldAll];
AlignmentTest[func_] := Row[{
Manipulate[
Append[func, Alignment -> {x, y}],
{x, -1, 1},
{y, -1, 1}
],
Manipulate[
Append[func, Alignment -> {x, y}],
{x, {Left, Center, Right}},
{y, {Bottom, Center, Top}}
]
}]
You see that in many cases numeric values for the Alignment
option can be used
AlignmentTest[
Button["Click Here", Print[10!], ImageSize -> {100, 100}]]
AlignmentTest[
Manipulate[Plot[Sin[x (1 + a x)], {x, 0, 6}], {a, 0, 2},
ContentSize -> {500, 500}]]
AlignmentTest[
Grid[{{"\[Times]", "\[Times]", "\[Times]"}, {"\[Times]", "\[Times]",
"\[Times]"}}, Frame -> All, ItemSize -> {10, 10}]]
AlignmentTest[Overlay[{Graphics[{Disk[]}], Slider2D[]}, All, 2]]