Having trouble moving objects/shapes/symbol using transform panel's y-axis box

[Honey E.]

I'm trying to move the duplicate copy of a star symbol from the lower right quadrant of the artboard to the upper right quadrant of the artboard. The artboard is 1000pt x 1000pt. Since I need to move it precisely, I've used the transform panel. In the transform panel, I've put -500 in the y-axis to move it to the upper right quadrant, but it keeps going beyond my artboard all the time.

I've tried recreating it on a new document, and it's all the same.

Edited March 10, 2022 by Honey E.
Added another media file

[Komatös]

Hello @Honey E.

You have a flaw in your thinking. You do not have to enter the minus value yourself, but subtract it from the basic value, in your case 1000 px. So 1000 px -500.

[Honey E.]

oh, silly me. it did work. thank you so much!

[Komatös]

You are welcome!

[GarryP]

In addition to the advice above, a value such as -500 is an absolute value and, as such, you are setting that field to be the number you have entered, which is why your layer moved above the artboard.
Basically by entering -500 into the Y field you said: “Move the Y position of this layer to -500”.
Similarly, by entering +1000 into the X field you said: “Move the X position of this layer to +1000”, rather than: “Add 1000 to the X position of this layer”.

If you want to move the layer relative to its current position you can enter y-500 which will subtract 500 from the layer's current Y position. (Same thing goes for the X position, or Width, Height and many other fields.)

Look in the Help for “Expressions for Field Input” (near the bottom of the contents list) for more information about this.

[Honey E.]

@GarryP I'll definitely check that out. Thank you for this well-thought of explanation! 

[GarryP]

You're welcome.