Text area/box/frame controls

Perhaps I've missed something, I am using the trial software and am new to Designer Pro, but I think these features are not available. If they are not available, so be it, I can work around it, but they are fairly basic controls that I would expect in a competitive layout tool. Can someone tell me if these controls exist?

1. Small Caps - Automatically convert non-capital letters into capitals that are smaller than a real capital letter.

2. Center text top to bottom - I've created a frame that is longer than the text it contains and I would like to center the text within the frame not from side-to-side but rather to leave an equal amount of space before and after the text.

3. In connection with the text box mentioned in question 2, I would like to add lines at the top and bottom of the text box, or at the very least above the first paragraph and beneath the last paragraph of text.

I'm used to these features in InDesign, but these features are also available in Word and even Publisher. So I am probably missing how to accomplish these tasks. If so, please let me know and I'll continue to search. If they are not available, please let me know so I stop wasting time during my trial period looking for them.

Thank you in advance for your kind response.

1. Depends on the font you works with. There are fonts which are only capitals. Ctrl+W toggles between Capitals and small letters.
2. Why use a "frame"? Just click with the text tool where you'd want the text to appear and start typing. Xara has three text modes:
a.simple click: free cursor on a single line. the text will go on and on untill an Enter is given wich accounts for an EOL/LF
b. click and horizontal drag: a text line that will start a new line once the end of line is reached
c: click and horizontal and vertical drag: text frame.
3. You can simply resize the textframe and click with the text tool in a frame to start editing the text where you wish. If you want to add a line on top? Just choose the text tool and move the cursor where you want to insert the line and start typing ending with an enter.

Remember that Xara is evolving and that is not to be compared with InDesign or Scribus or Xpress.

For your second item:
Ensure the frame is converted to an editable shape.
Create a text line, add your text and with the Select tool and Snap to object on, align your text centrally within the frame.
Give the text line and the frame Names with the Name Tool.
In the Name gallery, select Stretches and in the Extend dialog, ensure the named frame is extended by the named text vertically.

New text added or removed will grow or shrink the frame keeping the same spacing top and bottom, i.e., it stays centrally aligned.

This is how a stretchy button is created.

Acorn

"2. Why use a "frame"?"

Frames help ensure that publications that run several editions have the elements aligned the same for each issue. In my case I have a one page white paper that will run 52 issues. The page is designed as a three column layout. On the right is a two column text frame where the content is placed, and to the left of it is another one-column frame where a pull quote is placed. I want the pull quote to be centered top-to-bottom with the text frame next to it. Since the pull quotes are of different lengths each time, its handy to have a frame formatted to automatically align the elements with each issue. If the stretchy frame idea works (thanks Acorn) this will solve the problem nicely.

Hi CasualAdventure and welcome to the Forum. :)

Acorn's "stretchy button" approach may be exactly what you need. Let us know how it works for you.

Allison

The next version of Designer Pro X, which will be released soon, has the same linked Text Areas that were just introduced in Page & Layout Designer 9. (See my review here http://xaraxone.magix.net/PLD/index.htm) Page & Layout Designer 9 does not create web pages but it does have a feature that you might like, Web Documents. If your white paper is more than one page, it publishes to the web as one long document, but with page breaks and page numbers. You can create anchors and link to anchors. So if your paper is broken into sections, you can have a set of links at the top that link to the anchored text.

And Page & Layout Designer 9 has 600+ Google fonts, about a dozen or so are dedicated Small Caps fonts.

You might be just as happy with Page & Layer Designer 9 unless you want the entire package of design, illustration, website design and photo editing that comes with the Designer Pro series.