making a new years calendar

[ashwinjain]

Hi Guys,

I want to know how I can make a full years calendar in Xara without having to fill in all the 365 days and matching the weeks/months. Any automated way?Any tutes?Any templates?

Could the buttons feature help me in anyway?

Q [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

[ashwinjain]

Hi Guys,

I want to know how I can make a full years calendar in Xara without having to fill in all the 365 days and matching the weeks/months. Any automated way?Any tutes?Any templates?

Could the buttons feature help me in anyway?

Q [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

[gwpriester]

No easy way that I know of to automate this process.

When I have done it in the past, I have created the text on a master calendar page, formatted the numbers center justified, and filled an entire page with 00. Then double clicked on the text with the Text Tool and changed the number.

Not pretty, but it works.

Gary

Gary Priester

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[Peter Clifton]

Macro Programming for the man that doesn't have to try too hard ;-)

Attached is a calendar for the year 2002 in .XAR format.

I guess this is one area where CorelDRAW really excels.

If any Xara regulars are interested in my reasons for requesting a macro language to get at the internals of the Xara X engine may I suggest you take a look at this website run by Alex Vakulenko (the man responsible for the script that created the calendar).

http://www.vakcer.com/oberon

The range of functions that can be added to a drawing package with a macro language is truly an eye opener.

Peter

[Peter Clifton]

This version uses a different calendar script from Alex, It is in a larger format and each month is on a different layer.

I noticed there were some alignment problems with the previous .xar file, that happened in translation, this one does not appear so noticable.

HTH

Peter

[smorg]

I use CorelDRAW 8's calendar wizard, which lets me create any format (portrait or landscape), add graphics, etc., and then export/save in any format I want.

Doesn't Xara allow you to modify text in .jpg format? If so, a month/year can be exported in Corel and posted as a jpg.

[mgeduld]

Let's make the scripting language JavaScript. That way, you can learn one language and program webpages, flash movies (actionscript is a dialect of JavaScript), Scalable Vector Graphics and Xara art.

Marcus Geduld
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[ashwinjain]

But I am afraid I am a dumbomaster as far as programming is concerned. Do you think I'' be able to learn something even remotely mathematical?

Q

[Peter Clifton]

Quaker

The thing about most implementations of a macro language is that they come with an Actions recorder.

The way most people appear to start is by recording a series of actions and examining the resulting code.

I started by modifying these scripts.

In general all the programming constructs such as sub routines and loops are not present in recorded macro's and have to be learned.

However as the script language code base grows you have lots of examples to learn from.

A word of caution to everyone:

What I would like to point out is while scripts can be massively useful for extremely complex or repetative tasks they are in no way a substitute for learning drawing and artistic techniques.

Tutorials for techniques always come first in my book. If you do not understand how a script works or the reason for it being written and just use it because it looks 'cool'. then you are denying yourself a learning experience that in my case over the years has proved very rewarding.

Never take for granted the experience and tutorials offered around these parts should a scripting language for Xara appear in the future, the examples from which at first glance might appear to negate former.

Scripting is a double edged sword, once written you have ease of use and repetition, but there is a danger that the underlying techniques that gave birth to the script will be forgotten.

Peter

[mgeduld]

Quaker, I'm terrible at math and I teach programming classes and write programs. The relationship between programming and math is like the relationship between English and math: If you're writing a book about physics, you need to know math; if you're writing a mystery novel, you don't. Similarly, if you're writing a program that plots the trajectory of a missile, you need to know math. If you're writing a tetris game, you don't. (Note: this ia an oversimplification, and there are programmers who would say that math and programming deeply linked, but the point is that you don't have to know math in order to do all sorts of interesting things.)

To be a good programmer, it's more important to be good at logic than math. Computers are very simple-minded and literal. They do exactly what you tell them to do and assume nothing. So you have to be very clear in your instruction.

In the classroom, I've discovered that anyone with average intelligence and the will can learn to program. You also need a good book or teacher. Unfortunately, many got turned off by programming in college, because they had a terrible teacher in a basic programming class.

Even if you don't ever want to program, it would be GREAT if Xara was scriptable. Non-programmers could use scripts written by programmers. This is what happens with other applications. For instance, all the MS Office apps are programmable. Non-programmers can download freeware and shareware programs for Excel, Word, etc. all over the web. Imagine what the XaraXone would be like if this were possible with our favorite app.

For some reason, almost none of the major graphics apps are programmable. PhotoShop isn't (although it does have a non-programmable macro recorder), neither is illustrator or Quark. Adding this feature would really push Xara ahead of the competition.

Marcus Geduld
{ email me } { visit me }