Quote Originally Posted by charliescoffee View Post
I've tried many times unchecking "Smart Transformations" and/or holding down the Alt key and neither can be depended on working reliably or at all. In my opinion, and I've been using Xara since Corel, this has to be the stupidest thing Xara designers have done. I've NEVER had to resize the way the program is now defaulting. When I want to resize, I want to change a dimension one way or another, NEVER to include unwanted stuff that existed in whatever original that I very purposely cut out of the figure I'm using. I apologize to those users for whom this change works, but I think it's junk!

How can I get rid of this stupid change? (And don't suggest unclicking "Smart Transformations" or holding down the Alt key, as neither works.)
I think your frustrations are arising as you have not realised the results change whether you are using the Selector Tool or the Photo Tool and the Smart transform setting does have a part in this.

Smart transform was a numpty decision by Xara! Pure and simple. It assumed the user of its products never wanted to stretch or shrink text or images and that keeping the aspect ratio was paramount.
Dragging any control about simply ensures the image is contained within the boundaries of the box. When you went large the image scaled up and at all times the centre of the image aligns with the centre of it resized box.
Now I assume that you realise what you have is a Clipped Photo and as such you can Unclip it to recover the full image and even switch to the Fill tool and rotate, scale and translate it as you choose. To change the axes alignment, you hold down the Shift key.

First thing you need to do is use the Selector Tool and drag a middle handle. If the image scales or crops and keeps its aspect ration then you have Smart transform enabled.
You bypass this by holding down the Alt key first then selecting a handle.
As you are not one of Xara's miscalculated demographic, I strongly suggest you untick Smart transform and forget about it hereafter.

The second point to accept is when you switch to the Photo Tool, your dragging of a middle control will act as if Smart transform is selected.
So you are back with a cover or contain action.

Your need is effectively a fill action so use the Selector Tool.
If using the Photo Tool, you will need to Alt hold and then drag.

Acorn