connectors

[colin.baxter]

I use XARA X to draw process flow diagrams for display on the web, because the quality of the final GIF image is so crisp. I manage to use the shape editor to draw connections, but they of course do not lock as they would using Powerpoint or Visio.

Does anyone have similar requirements of XaraX? and if so how do they get round them?

Thanks

[colin.baxter]

I use XARA X to draw process flow diagrams for display on the web, because the quality of the final GIF image is so crisp. I manage to use the shape editor to draw connections, but they of course do not lock as they would using Powerpoint or Visio.

Does anyone have similar requirements of XaraX? and if so how do they get round them?

Thanks

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xara Conference Colin.

Have you tried enabling Snap to Grid? It might make it easier to connect the symbols. Right click on the page and select Snap to Grid.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

beehive or bus melt

[jclements]

Colin,
I use it quite often for flow/process diagrams which are then used for Powerpoint presentations or Web based manuals. If you scan an example and post it here (or email it to me JClements@BrwnCald.com) I may be able to give you particulars.

One trick (you can search for my previous postings for details) is that you select multiple objects with the Selector (F2, aka the "arrow" tool), then switch to the Shape Editor tool (F4), shift-select nodes in different objects and drag them simultaneously ... which is great when you need to go back and change the position the objects your connectors are "attached" to.

Make sure to utilize snap to objects (the magnet in the Standard Tool bar) and the the snap to guidlines. Combined with the procedure in the previous paragraph you can quickly realign the endpoints of connectors including arrowheads.

Finally, use LAYERS and Named Colors as much as you can. For instance, if you associate colors with process flows and you use Named Colors and you later add a process to your diagram, you can easily tweek the colors so there is enough contrast between the processes. I usually put connectors on one layer, text labels on another, and the remaining objects/symbols on a still another. Layers are also great for producing progressive disclosures and overlaying them in Powerpoint to make a psuedo-animation.

Check Gary's XARAXONE (www.xaraxone.com) for other tools that may help you. Attached is a Xara template I use to make Poweroint images. You can easily produce similar templates which simulate the background of your web site .... greate when you need to produce transparent GIFs or transparent PNGs.

[diniel]

Colin,

welcome to Xara's world !

You'll find that there's a keyboard shortcut for pretty much everything within Xara. I find that sometimes your flow of work gets interrupted if you have to shoot off into menus too often.

There is an easy keyboard shortcut for both showing/hiding the grid and snapping/not snapping to the grid. See the diagram below.

(If you don't like the size of the grid, you can change it by pressing ctrl+shift+O, to get the Options window open, and then select Grid and ruler)

Daniel

[colin.baxter]

Thanks for the responses and suggestions. Its nice to know that people are willing to share ideas especially on such a good product like Xara. I have been a user since version 1.00 albeit only a light user, but I am a very big fan of the product.

Cheers