a weird problem

[sjukmidlands]

I have just tried that file you attached. I tried two ways of copying; firstly I clicked/selected the top text line, clicked CTRL+C then CTRL+V to paste a new copy, resized the copy (with the ratio padlock down/selected) and it went wrong as it has for you. I then tried the other method of copying, simply right clicking and dragging another copy from the original text at the top and then resizing this copy - and this copy works perfectly.

I have come across this problem before whilst setting a newspaper in Xara which I do every month (yes, I set a whole newspaper in a single Xara file, including all its ad's).

So I assume there is some sort of bug in Xara, but right clicking and dragging will allow correct resizing of text.

Good luck!
Steve

[PhilM]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the screenshot, Rik. That provided the answer.

Yes, it is a bug and it is caused by having spell checking turned on. It looks like the underline on mis-spelt words is being take as part of the size/shape of the text and so affects the aspect ratio when you scale.

I've reported this into the Xara bug tracking system and hopefully it will be fixed in the next release. In the meantime, the workaround is to turn off spell checking when you don't need it.

(Oh, and I got the same problem whether the text was copied-and-pasted or dragged-and-dropped. I think that's a red-herring.)

Phil

[angelize]

I can force it to happen when I copy text that I have squashed but dragging and dropping doesn't seem to do it to me, unless I drag and drop into another document. The new document is fine but the original document has the stuck aspect ratio. It also seems to happen if I make a bitmap copy of the squashed text. In any case I know to watch for it and reset the aspect ratio if needed.

[PhilM]

I've looked into this a bit further and it's not entirely due to spell-checking. It only happens when spell-checking and "scale line widths" are turned on. There is a deeply technical reason for this that I won't attempt to explain.

So another workaround is to turn off "scale line widths".

Phil

[angelize]

Turning off scale line widths doesn't seem to make a difference for me I am currently using a PC that is running XP I could test it on my other machine that is running vista if it would help.

Edit: I decided to test it on my other machine which is a laptop with a dual core processor and I couldn't make it happen. My XP machine has a history of memory issues. I don't know if any of this is helpful or not.

[Rik]

OK Guys and Gals.

Reading through the thread...

I have tried a few things.

My problem is not to do with 'Scale line widths'.

If seems that if I type something with 'Spell Check' set to on, then I get this problems of incorrect scaling.
If I type something with spell check off, then I do not get the problem.

If I type something with spell check on and then turn it off before scaling, the problem is still there.
But... The problem is only there if the word is seen as a mis-spelt word.

This BUG needs to be eradicated please Xara.

[zaphodeist]

Just a thought - the page units are in pixels, the font in points and the ruler set up for centimetres, could these settings [especially the first two] have a bearing on this?

[Rik]

Thanks for the suggestion John and I set everything I could to points and it still does the same.

I still think it's to do with Spell Check. If it is selected and it doesn't recognise a word, then the resize problem occurs.
With Spell Check selected and if the word is recognised, then the resize is fine.

[Rik]

Just in case people don't believe that this problem exists, I have now tested this on three different computers.

If you have Spell Check turned on and you type a word that Xara doesn't recognise, then the resize problem happens.
If the word is recognised, then there's no problem, whether Spell Check is on or not.

This problem is likely to happen when typing names (and you have Spell Check set to on), as was the case with me.

So, that's what I have experienced.

[PhilM]

Here is the minimal method to reproduce the problem:
* In V6, new document
* Ensure spell checking is turned on
* Ensure scale to line widths is turned on
* Type a word which is not in the spell check dictionary so that it is given the red wavy underline
* Go to selector tool and drag the top right bounds handle to make the text bigger
=> The text aspect ratio is no longer 100% (you can verify that in the text tool infobar)

If you follow the same sequence with either spell checking or scale line widths turned off the aspect ratio of the text is not changed.

QED

Phil