There is another way to do it beside punching it, but punching is faster. They use to make a device that you looped onto the nut of one brake pad then going through the spokes and loop the other end to the other nut on the pad and it would tightly close the brake pads against the rim. Then simply loosen the nut and it would self center then retighten, but it didn't always work perfectly so the punch would give the final touch.

The Park tool site is a good place to go for line by line instruction.