Illustrator Object Distribution Question

[Tiffany]

I am going through an icon tutorial and it says to space objects certain distances from each other within the composition. How can I properly space items like this? I have tried messing with the alignment tab [distribute spacing] but I can't seem to figure out how to do this correctly. I uploaded an image from the tutorial.

 

[bigdave]

Firstly have your rulers visible (Command R on a mac). Then from the top left corner where the X and Y axes meet, click and drag to the point on the art board that you would like to measure from. This resets the 0 point on your rulers and allows you to use the X & Y positioning in your top toolbar to align objects (you need to have an object selected for these to appear).