Why must we still contend with this

[covoxer]

guess so.. for better in most cases and for worse in a few.

They are optional. You can delete all and leave only one of them. Then it will work exactly as a global setting.

[covoxer]

i like to be able to click the new document button paste and go on my way, I don't want to have to filter through the dropdowns to pick a template

Please read this thread carefully. Soquili had even posted a screenshot of the default template option. Save it as a default template and every time you click a new document button, it will have your favorite units set. No dropdowns, no picking.

[steve.ledger]

Less clear some mud from the waters of clarity

'By default' and as 'shipped from the factory' there are templates which are set to pixels and some which are set to inches or cm.

This covers all scenarios for design work = output

If you want pixels right away, then choose one of these three supplied 'pixel' templates.
Remember you can drag-resize the page edges if you want a larger drawing area.

Page templates which are 'pixels'

[ss-kalm]

..... I like to be able to click the new document button paste and go on my way, I don't want to have to filter through the dropdowns to pick a template to keep my format .....

That's just the point Alan .......Open a blank document, make all the changes you want to the settings, and save it as your default template. Then click the new document button and go on your way. You need never have to look through dropdowns.

Slight cross posting, I must type faster .......

[highfrontier]

... i like to be able to click the new document button paste and go on my way,

just follow Soquili's screenshot to save a document set up the way you want it as the default. Then clicking on the new document button will work as you want it to.

SSKalm : Likewise, I got beaten to it there not once but twice. lol

[Odat]

Here are some things that could very easily be done to fix this "problem":

The first would be to make an info box that pops up in your face every time you apply options telling you that they're just page options (such a dialog could be turned off after you saw it once like the others of it's kind).

The second would be to make the menu entry in the Utilities menu say "Page Options..." like the menu entry in the File menu says. Surely if you're clicking something that says "Page options" (or maybe rename to Document Options) you're not going to labour under the misunderstanding that it applies to the universe at large.

A third would be having the ability to set some document you've created as the "Magic Document", and then no matter what you load, it uses the options from that file. This more or less destroys your ability to properly share files with other people though since the options would always be severely messed up.

Personally, of all of the things in time and space that could be considered annoying, I really don't see how the awesome ability to have options saved with a document makes the top 10 billion, so we'll have to agree to disagree . It's quite ingenious that I can work on something with a custom grid and rulers, set it aside for a month, and then come back to it and everything is exactly as I left it, regardless of what I may have been doing in the meantime, including using a grid or not, let alone what the grid might be set to.

On the other hand the first thing I do after an install of Xara software is spend 5 minutes making sure that the templates that I use have rules and the options I want set, while I'm setting toolbars to my liking and making sure the layer gallery is ready to go.

Alternatively, for a modest monetary fee I'll gladly spend the couple of minutes to change unit settings in someone's templates for them. I'm always on the lookout for a simple revenue stream.

[Alan]

thanks for clearing things up guys, and i thought i knew quite a bit about Xara but did not know the program was setup this way.

Alan

[HayTay]

Alan, et al,

Please read, or re-read as the case may be, my response to the thread Rik started on this very subject several months ago, Re: Page Units.

For those that want the condensed version and don't want to click on the thread/post links above, Xara software has no idea what any 'units' are besides millipoints. Every other unit of measure (cm, in, mm, yd, mi, km, ft...) is converted from millipoints to whatever measuring system you like to work in based on what you've set up and saved in your document. If you like to work in a certain unit of measurement, change the settings appropriately, and then save the document as a template making sure to check the box to make it the 'default template'. You can't get much easier than that. Then every time you open up Xara 'whatever' the units are set, exactly, to your preference.

I set up a default template way back when I was using Xara Xtreme 3 (approx. 2 years ago) and except for a few minor tweaks, signature and named color samples, I'm still using the same template in Xara Designer Pro 6. I just make sure I copy the template from the previous versions folder to it's equivalent folder in the new version, open the document, then re-save it as a template making it the default. Close the application and restart it to make sure I didn't miss a step and I'm ready to start drawing. This takes less than 2 minutes and I don't have to worry about working in other units unless I want to or until a new version of the software is released.

How can something so simple be so difficult???

Set 'em, make a template, then forget 'em,
Harry

[angelize]

Just to throw my 2 cents in I love the fact that I can create templates with different settings. I have a special one for Good morning sunshine. it's set to cm and I have custom settings for snap radii and nudge distance. It also has custom guidelines. It would be a royal pain if I had to set that up every time.

[jwhitham]

Template lover here too. I might also point out that MS Word has always saved such settings in document templates and, love it or hate it, it's probably the most used piece of software to date.