Shapes and variants

[gpholman]

Hi, I'm just doing a simple test to make sure I understand fully how text and shapes are shared across variants...

On a web design with Main and Mobile variants I drew a circle on the Main and then shared it with Mobile. Having changed various attributes of the 'Main' version it seems to me that the following rules apply:

Attribute Gets Applied to Mobile Variant?
-------- ------------------------------
Size No
Colour Yes
Line Yes
Position No
Shape No

I can understand why changes to Size and Position do not automatically feed across to Mobile but why not changes to the Shape? How should I go about ensuring this sort of change is reflected across all variants? I could delete it from the Mobile and reshare it again from Main but is this the only way?

Thanks

[Egg Bramhill]

Best if you can supply an example web/xar file Grant.

[gpholman]

Example attached. I changed the shape of the circle in main but this isn't reflected in mobile. Why?

[PhilM]

Variants allow you to layout web pages differently, while sharing the look and the textual content.

So anything related to "layout" (including size, position and shape) is not shared between the Variants.

If you want to share layout between variants use LiveCopy.

Phil

[gpholman]

Thanks for the reply Phil. I created a LiveCopy of my shape and attempted to share it with all variants but got the attached message.

[Christine Farrelly]

I think Phil means place a live copy on the variant.

[gpholman]

Well if he did that doesn't get me any further as LiveCopies won't inherit shape changes either.

[siran]

That is strange. It works for me. What I did:
Create a Live copy of a shape on one variant.
Cut the copy to the clipboard (CTRL + X) (select "Delete just this").
Paste it on the variants.
Change the shape on one of the variants and the others are changed as well.
Change size or rotation and the others do not change.
Change colour, line width or line colour and the others change.

[PhilM]

When you make a Live Copy it puts a "wrapper" around the original object. Each wrapper can be moved, rotated, squashed, etc., individually but everything inside the wrapper gets copied between all the linked Live Copies.

To see how this works, try this:
* Draw an ellipse
* Create a Live Copy of it
* Now squash one of them using the selector tool (e.g. drag the bottom middle handle up)
=> You will see that the other Live Copy doesn't change

* Undo
* Ctrl+Click on the selected ellipse (so that you have selected the ellipse inside the Live Copy)
* Squash it again (e.g. by dragging the bottom middle handle up again)
=> You will see that the other Live Copy does change this time.

Phil