Resizing images

[Acorn]

I didn't miss what you said, I was trying to offer a complete answer and the point I was making it is easy to think you've held down the Alt key before dragging but I still get out of sequence.

Selector Tool:

• (ST Off &) middle drag --> Stretch a.k.a. Fill
• (ST On &) LeftAlt down + middle drag --> Stretch

• (ST On &) middle drag --> Grow a.k.a. Cover or Contain
• (ST Off &) LeftAlt down + middle drag --> Grow

My personal preference in bold.

I tried these on you XAR file and all work as I offer here.

Acorn

[Daniel]

In case everyone is talking at cross purposes, I recorded a video with the bitmap being stretched without ALT being held down with and then without Smart Transform being on, then with ALT being held down with Smart Transform off, and then finally without it.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvsAbKcOuQg - charliescoffee are you not seeing the same thing?

Are you sure that the ALT key on your keyboard works? (you can test it on a site like this one)

This is on a fresh install of Xara Designer Pro+ on a brand new PC, with the "new style" blob handles still enabled. I'd normally turn them off (but even with them off, the behaviour is the same)

[charliescoffee]

Hi Acorn,

Hmmm. Whether or not Smart Transform is on or off, the behaviour is the same for the second image. Also, I have the Selector tool on. Import a photo. Click once, the mode changes, click again, the mode changes back. The Selector tool stays on for both modes and Photo does not come on (it did once, but usually does not).
I'm using Xara DPX19.

This is interesting but it isn't the way my Xara works. I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to delete the program and download again, perhaps something's corrupted.

[charliescoffee]

Whatever is actually going on, I may have found an easy work-around - I tried grabbing the corner handle and stretching it only in one direction and that seemed to work, at least it worked on the attachment I posted. I'm going to try this for a while and see if that works.

To all who posted here, I've read everything and I apologize if I've seemed ungrateful. I've always found TalkGraphics folks to be extraordinarily kind and helpful and the folks who posted here certainly have lived up to that history. I do a lot of stuff on Xara and very often have to resize clipped images and it seems like every time I have to do this, I've been frustrated by this behavior. I don't know why I didn't try the corner handle before, but it did work the one time I tried it on the attachment. I still think the program change was wrongheaded. I tried switching to Illustrator once several years ago and I don't want to go through all the hassle and expense again, so if this works, I'll try to be happy. If I have further problems, I'll post again.

[handrawn]

daniel's suggestion of checking your ALT key was a good one, worth doing just in case...