Make Alignment Accessible to Keyboard Shortcuts

[graphika]

I currently use the latest version of Xara Designer Pro and have been faithfully using Xara products for over 10 years.

One feature that would help productivity would be to expose the Alignment tasks as individual commands. Currently, you have the Alignment dialog box. I can create a keyboard shortcut to open the dialog box, but not to execute its individual commands (Align Left, Align Center, Align Center to Page, etc.). It would be great if you exposed these as individual commands.

One of Xara's greatest strength is its dynamic previews and interactive features. This enables us designers to not have our creative flow interrupted by dialog boxes. Currently, the Alignment tool limits this advantage by not only forcing us to open a dialog, but also forcing us to have to modify dropdown controls to choose which alignment option we want. By exposing the Alignment features individually, I can create a toolbar and add each task to the toolbar for one-click access. Or, I can simply create my own keyboard shortcut for each alignment option and get keyboard access as well.

This is something I enjoy in other programs and a better way to implement the alignment tasks, IMHO.

Thanks Xara!!!!

[ad1066]

+1. I use certain alignment options quite a lot (center horizontally, center vertically), having the ability to assign shortcuts to these would be great. Hell, even just having the buttons for them on the main toolbar would speed things up.

-- Ben

[amoore]

+1. Keyboarding often speeds things up. OTOH, I really like the Xara's Alignment palette, and I wouldn't want to lose it.

[gwpriester]

I agree. But there are shortcuts you can do in the preview window already. This from TIP #63 in the Old Xara Xone Tips and Tricks section.

Object Alignment TIP: Xara’s Object Alignment dialog (Arrange > Alignment...) gives you a quick way to align a selection of objects. The four colored shapes in the preview window show how the selected objects will align when you press Align.

(Left) Click in any of the nine locations indicated and objects will align as indicated by the icons.


(Center) Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the top, center of bottom to vertically align objects top, center, or bottom.


(Right) Hold down the Shift key and click left, center, or right to align objects horizontally left, center, or right. In addition selecting the Selection Bounds (the default setting) aligns objects within the selection. Selecting the Page option aligns the selection to the bounds of the page size. And selecting Spread aligns the selection to the bounds of the two page spread.

[angelize]

Hello graphika Welcome to Talkgraphics

That is a great suggestion +1 from me. However if you use the snap to objects button on the infobar (the little magnet icon) you can easily align objects to the centre of the page.

[MarcT]

This is a great idea indeed, I could easily see them assigned on a numpad,

1:: bottom left
2:: bottom center
3:: bottom right
4:: center left

etc...

Marc

[Christine Farrelly]

Would also be nice if it defaulted to page when only one item selected or the previously selected option.

Christine

[ad1066]

I agree. But there are shortcuts you can do in the preview window already. This from TIP #63 in the Old Xara Xone Tips and Tricks section.

Wow, you learn something new every day. That should speed things up a bit. Thanks!

-- Ben