Newbie question about saving effects on text

[calcat]

Hi all,
I've discovered that I can create bevel, drop shadow and colour effects on text. This is quite similar to what I've been doing in Photoshop Elements and is quite satisfactory I don't like using PE because I can't easily save the 'styles'. I can't manipulate other 'styles' I've downloaded - PE is hobbled, compared to PS. In any case, why use those programs when the effects can be created in Xara Photo & Design X10

In Paint Shop Pro, for example, I save the info about the effects I've applied to text, in a notebook file, so that I can use it again, supposing I want to change the text message. At the moment, that is also what I'm doing in Xara, until I'm able to find a solution?

I am wondering if I can save the combined bevel, drop-shadow and colour effect, so that I can simply apply it to some other text at some time in the future, if I want to. It would be so much easier to be able to do that, than to open the notebook file I've saved with that info on it.

Thanks for any help,
Calcat

[mwenz]

Nope, if Xara products had the ability of saving object styles the answer would be to do that. But they do not have that feature.

In general, you can open a previous file and copy/paste attributes. Not every type of effect copies/pastes to other objects, though. And for live text, even the font will paste and so if you have changed the font to something other than what you are copying, then it changes.

What I have done when I want to emulate something in a new project is to simply have both files open and look at the properties in the one file to replicate in the other. However, usually the parameters need to change in some way, but that does provide a starting point.

Here's hoping Xara will get off its butt one day and add object styles...aside from the half a billion other items on the wish lists.

Mike

[Egg Bramhill]

Here's hoping Xara will get off its butt one day and add object styles...aside from the half a billion other items on the wish lists.

Well stated Mike.

[angelize]

While I would dearly love to see Xara implement real object styles there is a workaround for things like bevels, fills, transparencies and dropshadows.

1. create a folder for your text treatments.
2. click and type some text and apply your bevel, fill, etc
3. Save the file to your new folder
4. Add the folder to your designs Gallery by clicking disc designs at the top of the gallery and follow the prompts to browse to your folder open it and click add.

Once you have your text effects saved in the gallery you can easily drag one from the gallery and just edit the text.

Note: for complex text effects that involve multiple layers this doesn't work.

[calcat]

Thank you very much I did try that. I save my page in xara format. When I went to disc gallery to add it to my folder, there was nothing there at all?

Also, kind of embarassing, I just discovered that I asked this same question back a couple of weeks ago. So, thanks for your patience, and for everybody's replies It will be nice if Xara incorporates a save style feature some time in the future. In the meantime, I'm okay with saving my settings in a text file. Xara does bevel and drop shadow so much better than PSP!
Calcat

While I would dearly love to see Xara implement real object styles there is a workaround for things like bevels, fills, transparencies and dropshadows.

1. create a folder for your text treatments.
2. click and type some text and apply your bevel, fill, etc
3. Save the file to your new folder
4. Add the folder to your designs Gallery by clicking disc designs at the top of the gallery and follow the prompts to browse to your folder open it and click add.

Once you have your text effects saved in the gallery you can easily drag one from the gallery and just edit the text.

Note: for complex text effects that involve multiple layers this doesn't work.

[gwpriester]

We frequently ask the same question time after time. Fortunately for many of us, we will never remember so we will not be embarrassed.

[mwenz]

...Xara does bevel and drop shadow so much better than PSP!
Calcat

Bevels are so much cleaner in a vector application. Sometimes too clean, sterile, but much better.

Drop shadows? I think PSP does a pretty darn good job, as good as XDP does I think. But they certainly are far easier in XDP than most vector application (DrawPlus being one exception).

In the image below, one line of text with its drop shadow was done in PSP, exported as a PNg and brought into XDP where the same line of text was set and a drop shadow applied. I'll leave y'all to figure out which is which. After all, there's a 50% chance just a guess is correct...

Mike



Edit, of course reexporting it from XDP intorduced some artifacts in the PSP version, but hey, nothing is perfect...