Altering default export behaviour on group that contains a placeholder

When exporting a webiste (any Xara product) grouping trumps placeholders.

By this I mean that if a placeholder is grouped with another object (graphic, text or even another placeholder) then the resultant group will be exported as a graphical element on the page - i.e. no placeholder code is exported. To get this group to export as the placeholder you would have to copy the original placeholder code and apply this to the group as a whole.

I'd like to have the option to configure XWD so that if a group contains any placeholder(s) then these take priority over grouping and are exported by default (i.e. you get the placeholder code exported and not a graphic of the group).

I meant for this to go into 'Dear Xara' forum. Could a moderator move it to there please?

Out of curiosity, why would you want to group a placeholder with anything?

In my way of thinking a placeholder is a way to carve out a portion of a page where you can drop in something that cannot be created directly within Web Designer. Something that is external in other words.

Would soft grouping work?

Hi Bill

I had the situation where I'd created an empty rectangle as a placeholder then later decided to add some descriptive text inside it. I grouped this with the rectangle which resulted in the 'lose' of the placeholder's html.

Anyway Xtom seems to have come up with the perfect solution - soft grouping. Just tried it out and it worked a treat, cheers Xtom!