Adding additional photos to Stock Article/Photo preview template

[Paraleyes]

Okay, so I tried for several hours to take this apart and well reverse engineer so to say this photo preview template, but no matter what I try or look at, I can't seem to figure this out and end up just wrecking the code so it won't work at all.

I am wanting to add more thumbnails to this design and then make the same additional articles to be displayed as descriptions below the main image. So apparently there must be some coding necessary to do this?

I'd sure appreciate some help on this!

Thanks!

[steve.ledger]

There's no coding necessary in plain vanilla Xara templates. Which template is this, I can't find anything like it in the designs gallery.
What you are trying to do is possible of course and again, there is no coding necessary - it's just a matter of popup layers. But I just need to be sure of your starting point (the template you have messed with ) to help further.

[Paraleyes]

Yay! That is good news!

It is page 13 of the legal theme. This same photo arrangement is on at least a couple pages in other web themes as well.

Thanks for helping!

[steve.ledger]

OK, got it...
Yes it's quite straight forward (when you know how)..
I'll create a small video to show how this works and how to add more thumbnails and comments, but not right away because I have stuff that needs doing first.
Hang tight it will be done...

[Paraleyes]

Oh super, thanks

[Paraleyes]

I am seeing all the parts and pieces in the Page & Layer Gallery, but whatever I seem to do just wrecks the dynamics of the "soft group" I love how all this works. I just want to add 4 more pictures/articles to the set in this case. I"m really looking forward to your video!

Thanks so much for your time!

[steve.ledger]

I"m really looking forward to your video!

Thanks so much for your time!

I ran out of time to create the video last evening and will be out all day today, so no video at this time.
But here are the steps which should help (I hope)

[1] remove softgroup
[2] Select then right-click drag-copy the 4 thumbnails on the m/off layer
[3] While copies are still selected remove the bitmap fill (change to 'Flat fill')
[4] SHIFT drag new images from explorer to new blank thumbs
[5] create 4 new layers - use unique names for each layer
[6] Copy large pic and text area on m/off layer to the clipboard
[7] hide all layers except one new layer which will correspond to one of the new thumbs
[8] Press ctrl+shift+v to past in place.
[9] From the bitmap gallery, drag and drop the matching thumbnail to the large image to replace it
[10] Edit text description.

Repeat steps 7-10 for other new layers

[11] Select one new thumbnail, then in the link properties >> popup layer, choose the matching large-image layer name and press apply.
[12] Repeat for remianing thumbnails.
[13] Hide all layers except the m/off and re-softgroup the thumbnails/large image and text area.

Remember, functionality of this is not dependent on soft grouping, the purpose of the soft-group is to keep all the parts together for positioning on the page without turning them into one single image on export (which a normal group would do).

I can still create a video later if necessary, let me know

[Paraleyes]

Thanks so much! I'm busy for the rest of the day too. I'll check it out this evening. Looks like I was on the right track so far. This should be what I needed. I'll post back if I have any other specific questions on this.

[Paraleyes]

Wooo Hooooo!!!!!!!!!!! I did it! Excellent directions!

Thanks for all the help dude! Sorry it took me so long to post progress, I had a lot of image editing to get done 1st.

[steve.ledger]

Thanks for the report, happy the instructions helped you out