I changed Xara, need help changing back

[mightyfun]

I don't know what I did again.

Somehow I changed the look of xara to add animation and I don't know how to change it back to regular view. It won't let me look at my paper and I can't work with my images well.

Another thing... My files are somehow becoming HUGE. I am not making intricate or big images, but they're showing sizes of 55 to 79 MB per .xar file. What's going on?

Jen

[AndFarr]

Jen,
When you do make changes to Xara you should write down what you did just in case you need to revert , as in this case.
Of course it is easy for me to say that now, but really, if you are not that confident in what you're doing, a few carefully scribbled notes can be your best friend in the future.
As for removing the animation bar, go to Menu bar at the top of the page and click on Window > Control Bars, then un-check the box in front of "Animation".
- Andy

[mightyfun]

Thanks Andy,

That's good advice except I don't think I ever did make a change. I think my system is acting screwy on me. I've been having issues with Xara all day.

Now I have to figure out why my simple files are gigantic in size. This has been a frustrating design day. *Sigh* I've uploaded the image of my xar file, maybe that can give some insight as to why my files are so huge.

Jen

[DGehman]

Bitmaps can be big things, especially if you're unaware that one or more is at some hugely-high resolution. You might try a "save as" copy of the file, then one-by-one, remove a bitmap, save the file, then look at the file size.

Another possibility is some sort of corruption of an object. Or some sort of complex operation. Again, deleting objects one by one in a second, disposable file, would help pinpoint which one is ballooning your output.

Finally, there is some overhead in the undo function, though I have no idea how much. Frankly, I need that overhead, because I often need maximum undo.

[Odat]

Bitmaps can be big things, especially if you're unaware that one or more is at some hugely-high resolution. You might try a "save as" copy of the file, then one-by-one, remove a bitmap, save the file, then look at the file size.

The bitmap gallery shows you the size of all of the bitmaps that are currently in the file, so if that's the problem it should be pretty easy to determine which is which.

Something else to look for might be if you use live effects and have a high resolution set. I don't know (because I don't use that tool), but presumably it's possible that the xar file might store a copy of the bitmap version of the application of the live effect to speed up loading and displaying the file.

[handrawn]

Hi Jen

Again at the risk of being wise after the event, very good practice is to save your file regularly as you work with a succession of different names - eg: project01,02...etc

This gives you points at which to go back to if latest file refuses to reload, and helps you to determine where things go wrong more easily.

If the file size has suddenly become huge I'd agree with whats been said so far - there may also be a 'hidden' object or two somewhere - that is an object set to both no line and no fill - switching to outline view, or using tab key to select each object in turn usually helps to identify any of these

[amoore]

...a few carefully scribbled notes can be your best friend in the future.

For this reason among others, I keep an icon for NoteTab in my QuickLaunch bar.

NoteTab is a free text editor that has lots of useful features, including multi document capability and a tabbed interface for easy access. Perfect for keeping notes like these. It's one of my indispensable apps. www.notetab.com.

[GeoBen]

reinstall.

geo.

[Odat]

Somehow I changed the look of xara to add animation and I don't know how to change it back to regular view. It won't let me look at my paper and I can't work with my images well.

Just a shot in the dark, but did you maybe accidentally set an animation to your default template?