World-space adjustment

When rotating an object you may notice that the gizmo (the set of colored handles that allows you to move and rotate the object) rotates too. This is called local space adjustment, meaning that the object's space adjustments are based on the object's own "local" space and orientation. World space adjustment adjusts the object in comparison to the world's orientation, which does not change.

An object using its own local space XYZ orientation. Note that World Space Adjustment is turned off.

With World Space Adjustment turned on, the gizmo always translates and rotates objects relative to the scene's XYZ position and axes.

The object stays in its current position, but with World Space Adjustment turned on the gizmo has changed to the world’s XYZ orientation