The other gripes

[masque]

I may as well get these off my chest while I'm moaning about cmyk export.

Why are the fill and transparency handles invisible (or virtually invisible), when against anything other than a plain light coloured background.
Ajusting fill/tranparency in a drawing like the flower (attached) is very dificult if you can't see the handles... to the point where where it never gets finished.
Similarly but not quite so frustrating; the group / ungroup icons don't grey out to show which I can/cannot do to a selected collection of objects, important when you have a lot of objects to move around etc. The change to the icon(s) is so subtle as to be pointless.

Is it just me being to critical about the one piece of software that in the past didn't have me reaching for a pencil. I was hoping for Xaras strengths to be built on. While this has happened in some areas, irritating little usability problems have spoilt it a great deal.
Intuitive use is useless if you can't complete actions without having to fiddle around to get it done.
Anyone else find aspects of xara spoilt? I hope it just me and that someone will advise me how to make it all ok. Perhaps my installation is corrupt and reinstalling will make CMYK export do as it should etc.

derek

[masque]

I may as well get these off my chest while I'm moaning about cmyk export.

Why are the fill and transparency handles invisible (or virtually invisible), when against anything other than a plain light coloured background.
Ajusting fill/tranparency in a drawing like the flower (attached) is very dificult if you can't see the handles... to the point where where it never gets finished.
Similarly but not quite so frustrating; the group / ungroup icons don't grey out to show which I can/cannot do to a selected collection of objects, important when you have a lot of objects to move around etc. The change to the icon(s) is so subtle as to be pointless.

Is it just me being to critical about the one piece of software that in the past didn't have me reaching for a pencil. I was hoping for Xaras strengths to be built on. While this has happened in some areas, irritating little usability problems have spoilt it a great deal.
Intuitive use is useless if you can't complete actions without having to fiddle around to get it done.
Anyone else find aspects of xara spoilt? I hope it just me and that someone will advise me how to make it all ok. Perhaps my installation is corrupt and reinstalling will make CMYK export do as it should etc.

derek

[Judi A]

Derek I don't notice any difference in the adjustment handles for fill and transparency. I have noticed sometimes in even XaraX the handles in a fill just disappear when I spend a long time fiddling with it and I have to diselect the object then go back to the fill tool again.
I do have this to say. That is one fantastic flower drawing!!!!!

[masque]

Thanks for the compliment Judi, though the drawing is not finished and the colour has started to go wrong and needs taking apart and re-doing. I've a lot of drawings like that that are done as doodles and tests that never get to the point of being finished.
As for the fill handles I do think they are smaller and harder to see and they seem to disappear by virtue of simply being hard to see against the background.

derek

[gwpriester]

One thing that I have a hard time with (we all get used to one way of doing something) is the fill path arrow now being interactive.

I'm so used to dragging one end and then the other and now its "intuitive" and harder to use (for me at any rate).

Gary

[jriemerm]

I've brought up the lack of underlined text in Xara before on this forum, and the reponse has been a universal yawn. Forgive me for bringing it up again.

I know that underlining is considered by many to be nothing but a poor substitute for italics. There is some historical truth to that, but it is nothing more than historical. Underlining is a different sort of emphasis. Also, on the web it has become a clearly understood message that "this text is clickable," a message that cannot be expressed any other way. I often need to use underlining in graphical banner ads, and with Xara it's an unnecessary pain. I also know of no graphics program other than Xara that does not integrate underlined text. Even MS Paint has it!

So, in another batch of great improvements in this delightful program, is there any good reason this tiny but very basic text formatting feature was not included? Is there perhaps some bit of ancient code going all the way back to Acorn that prevents it? Is there any way this can be integrated into a maintenance release? It sure doesn't seem like it would be terribly complex, though only a programmer knows for sure.

I have found a shortcut for those who have Draw installed. If you type underlined text in Draw, then paste it into Xara as Corel 32-bit Exchange data, the underline is included as a separate line underneath the text. You can't edit the text without resizing the line, but it is still easier than drawing, sizing and positioning a new line within Xara.

[RAMWolff44]

Yea, I'm with you James. The simple code to create an "underline text" would be a nice little extra in Xara X1. Not the end of the world. You can create your own underlines by using the Freehand tool and while holding down the Alt key draw your straight line and then choose you point line width. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Simple but yes, it could be made even simpler (is that a word http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif ).

[Albacore]

I am with Gary on this one I find the interactive fill a right pain for the obvious reasons that when you get to a certain age change comes slowly to you. I have also sympathy with masque as I have been using X1 in an other sea drawing and I keep have to switch view to see the handles. Big test to come is when I send it to printers but if the output is as good as the quality I received when I used my own printer I will be very pleased.

[jens g.r. benthien]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I'm so used to dragging one end and then the other and now its "intuitive" and harder to use <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Gary,

hit the TAB key when in interactive mode while you drag - this will switch back to the standard behavior.

[Michael]

Jens g.r. benthein<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Gary,

hit the TAB key when in interactive mode while you drag - this will switch back to the standard behavior. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hit TAB when starting Xara X&sup1 and it will default to Xara Studio/Camelot settings http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif(including the famous "haunted" messages)