How to build straight

[Dr. Hoppity]

I can't seem to build things straight, my houses never line up with the road?

[Toblm]

You can use the lock to gridlines option to improve your lines.
F1 twice on base keyboard controls.

[Dr. Hoppity]

Thanks, this is so much better!

[Dan]

Also in that lock-to-grid mode, your rotations will "snap" slightly to 45-degree increments as you turn the mouse-wheel, so you can get the rotations nicely lined up too.

[Velagor]

I use alignment relative to other buildings - I put a TV center or radio station or a long house next to it. I run parallel to the road and remove unnecessary buildings from construction.

[Setzer]

Lock gridlines (f1).
Also not only the mouse wheel,
Control + Mouse Wheel allow for a more precise control of the rotation.
T -> Mirror building. It helps to place roads/connections on angles that might help you.

And i know 95% know this.
R to rotate 90º degrees.

Those are pretty much the basic key commands to place buildings :).

[Delle(DK)]

i usually build/preplan a long railroad track and allign my buidlings to that.

The good thing is its quick to delete, and when you place something buildings will not auto connect since they cannot connect to the track.
Els i use F1 grid as a help or holding in left CTRL and roll the mouse for fine adjustments of buildings.
A little tip, buildings that does not require a delivery of goods dont need to be connected to a road but as a minimum is okay with a walkway. If you avoid connecting example your residential building road access then your city will look more "slim" and simple and it make it possible to build houses closer ot each other and more compact.

[Warlords Welt]

hit 2x F1 (first one is gid second hit is Gridsnap