Coorindates and size of objects change when I don't want them to...

[jonazen]

I've run into something a bit frustrating that may be due to the way I'm using Designer Pro. I'd love some perspective from others who may know the right answer here. This has to do with untouched x/y coordinates and w/h dimensions changing when I modify one of them -- even with the Aspect Ratio lock deactivated.

Current challenge: I have two "FAQ" answers living in 20 group objects (background with shadow and a text area) living on 20 separate layers. I simply want the left edges of these to be aligned, and all to be the exact same width, so it doesn't look *wrong* when a user clicks through the FAQ questions and each layer with an answer pops up in turn. Sounds simple, but it's turning into a real challenge.

I tried selecting all 20 across the 20 layers and aligning them to the left. Then I tried setting the widths to be the same - first while all were selected (didn't protest, but didn't work), and then individually. What was frustrating was:
I might type in 550px for width (properties bar), and DPX9 would respond by setting the width to 549.2, or 548.7, etc -- closer to what I wanted, but not exact. What I found is that the second try is closer, and finally, on the 3rd try, it finally leaves the width at what I type in. Strange, and I thought it a fluke, but it was consistent across all 20 layers.
When I changed the width, the X coordinate would also change -- as I type this, I'm wondering if I need to change to anchor point of each of these to be the left edge...maybe that would work?

I'm especially concerned, because my client now wants an indicator to appear at the left edge of the selected line of text when the popup is open - so alignment becomes critical, since I'll have to implement this as part of the popup.

Am I missing a step or a trick here? I'd just love to be able to type in a value that I want for X, Y, W or H -- and have it actually "stick" at what I enter... Suggestions?

[Acorn]

As I've seen the example of your site, I believe what is happening is down to the glow shadow around your layered text boxes.

At some point you may have resized them and the glow has also changed its width. Then when you are aligning left edges, Xara is ignoring the glow and aligning the boxes left edges. Later, when you look at the result and the (X,Y) co-ords, things seem to have skewed.

Clone one box and place off page.
Remove all glows and left-align and size the text boxes.
Ctrl-click on the off-page glow box (not text) and press Ctrl-c.
Select each layered box with Ctrl-click (again, not text) and press Ctrl-Shit-a to apply the same glow dimensions.
this will probably correct the line widths of the text boxes too.

Acorn

[jonazen]

I suspect your assessment is correct Acorn. I wound up clicking inside each item, e.g., each shadow group, and selecting the rectangles and manually setting their widths and x-coordinates the same, then the shadows...Did this with the text areas as well. Then, when I multi-selected and aligned left, it finally came together. Really strange seeing the coordinates and size not quite observing what I entered until I did it 2 or 3 times. Anyway - they're now all the same size and all aligned. I'll have to be more careful next time to make sure I either avoid tweaking after cloning...or be sure to multi-select and apply the same changes to all.

thanks again! One step closer...