Page Issues/Page Background Issues

[Odat]

On the off chance that the problem is caused by the underlying structure of the file and not any of the contents, you could try removing the contents (but leave pages and layers and such alone) and saving as a different document.

If you then load the now empty document and it still exhibits the same strange behavior, you'd have something to show Xara that wouldn't violate anything.

May be worth a shot.

[Mike Truly]

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this... swamped as usual.

Thanks for the ideas! Very good point. I will try removing the contents and see what I get.

Thanks again.

[Mike Truly]

OK, I stripped out the content and the file still shows the problem. The problems are:

1. In Layers, clicking the 'New' button with a page selected does nothing... it does not create a new page.

2. In Layers, clicking the 'Duplicate' button with a page selected does not duplicate the page, but rather makes the currently selected page's name editable.

File attached.

Where should this file be sent for Xara to examine?

Thanks again.

[HayTay]

Mike,

That document you attached is a 'Photo Document' (or in Photo Mode if you prefer). No, you will not be able to add another new page or duplicate the current page.

From the Xara Xtreme Pro 5 Help File:

Photo Documents
Sometimes it's useful to work on one photo alone, rather than as "objects on a page". This is called a photo document or "photo mode" in Xtreme Pro, and it behaves more like a traditional photo editor. You can create a photo document in a number of ways:

• Drag a photo file from your file explorer onto the title bar or toolbar of Xtreme Pro
• Select "File -> Open" and select a photo file
• Create a blank photo document by selecting "File -> New -> Blank photo"

Photo documents are characterized by the following behavior differences compared to traditional Xtreme Pro documents:

• There is no visible white page. In fact the page dimensions are set automatically to match the photo plus any other objects you've added.
• Photo documents have a 1 pixel grid by default and snap to grid is turned on. This makes it easier to get pixel-accurate crop or clip regions.
• The Pasteboard (the area around the photo) is a darker color. This makes it easy to distinguish at a glance between photo documents and drawing documents.
• The document zoom is set so that the photo fills the view and the Photo Tool is automatically selected as the current tool.
• Dropping additional photo files on top of an existing photo just adds a new photo to the document instead of replacing the photo in its frame. And the view will zoom out so you can see the whole image.
• Images are not resized to be 500 pixels on import as they are in normal documents, but are imported at 1:1, so that at 100% zoom you're seeing the image at full size.
• The pixel smoothing options are altered. By default it selects the "Very high quality" display mode, which is best for images scaled down or zoomed out. It also has pixel smoothing turned off when zooming in, so you can see the pixels are very large zoom factors.

As stated above, Photo Documents are characterized by a darker gray pasteboard area around your photo while the normal XX/XXP document pasteboard is a lighter gray color. Did you somehow get your default template set to open a 'Blank Photo' on program launch? This behavior of Xara Xtreme's Photo Mode is by design and not considered a 'bug'. Try opening an 800 x 600 Drawing, US Letter, A4 Landscape, or other document type from the 'File > New' list and work from there. I think you'll find that it'll work much better for what you're trying to do.

IHTH,
Harry

[Mike Truly]

Thanks very much for that info Harry!

I had no idea that the document had been created in that mode. I created it as I would with any vector drawing program... jumping in, adding layers, objects, etc. to build the graphic. Since I saw no visual indication (like some text somewhere that said 'Photo Mode' or a change in the way the Layers pallette looked), I had no indication that I had done something that would restrict how I could operate down the road. Guess I've got a lot to learn about how Xara approaches creating graphics.

Thanks again for taking a look.

[HayTay]

Y'elcome, Mike. Thanks for posting the XAR file. I took one look at it and 'knew' what the problem was from just a glance at the pasteboard area (dark vs. light gray). Without the file we'd all still be trying to figure out why your file wasn't working the way you expected it to! Sometimes it helps to thumb through and look at the pretty pictures in the Xtreme manual (I've actually read through it... twice! ).

Full speed ahead now,
Harry

[HayTay]

Mike, I just checked out your website. You do some nice work! I can't wait to see what you come up with once you get your work flow with Xara Xtreme down pat.

Keep up the good work,
Harry

[Odat]

In a way this could be considered a bug, in as much as if those buttons in the layer gallery are not meant to work with a photo document, they could at least be disabled when they're not going to actually do anything (creating a new page), or renamed when they're going to do something different than what you expect (duplicate a page).

I must also admit that the document being in photo mode was also immediately apparent visually, but not something I would have thought of as a solution to the problem without seeing the file (I don't use that mode, really). An indication in the title bar (say adding the text "[photo mode]" to the end) could forestall that in the future to some degree.

[Mike Truly]

Thanks for the compliments Harry. Been in computer graphics for a very, very long time.


On the Photo Mode issue, it may be very apparent to experienced Xara users but it sure isn't to me. Whether a window background has a light gray or dark gray color is not a very definitive delineator when it comes to drastically different program functionality. Likewise, why a 'Duplicate' button would initiate a 'Rename' (without duplicating anything) is not clear to me.

Anyway, as usual I've got a lot to learn.

Thanks again to all!

[steve.ledger]

The 'Blank Photo' document template is manually available from the File>>New menu.
Otherwise to have this automatically selected you would File>>Open and choose a Photo (bitmap), or drag'n'drop a photo into the document window when no other document is currently open. The photo is then automatically opened in a 'Blank Photo' Template.