Newbie advice: Making properties current..

[morphonius_821]

Hi all...
just wondering if anyone can help...
im doing my first design on xara (I'm from a corel background)
And im having a few issues:

1) making properties current...
(especially with feathering applied ETC when i get an object the way i like it can i easily make this the default setting for new objects? if so how?)

2) copying a colour to a small object....
(with the colour editor it is apparent you can drag colours to the edge or in-fill of any object..however when i am attempting to do so with small objects,..,......only the edge cursor appears and i can not seem to get it to drop on the in-fill of small objects...any hints?)

3) copying a colour to the palette..
(is there an easy way to do this......i tried drag and drop but this does not work?

4) is there any short cut or "hot key" to get the picker tool to ignor the current layer...
(this would be very handy as often the colour, from the raster art on a lower layer with the colours i want is actually obscured by the current working object and obviously i dont want the picker to select this.....and moving the object sideways seems tedious...
Can this be done?

help appreciated...thanks all.

[Soquili]

Question 2:
You do not need to drag and drop colours onto ojects. Select an object then click the colour you want on the colour line. Left Click applies the colour to the fill, Shift+Left Click applies to the outline.

Question 3:
To add a colour to the colour line you must assign it a name. When you have the colour you want in the Color Editor click the New Named Color button. After you enter a name and click OK the new colour will be on the colour line. When you save the file that colour will also be save as a part of the file.

Question 4:
There is no way to sample a colour below another colour on the active layer if it is covered by an object on the active layer. If there is nothing covering the area of the layer below you can sample a colour.

Question 1:
If you do not have any object selected:
Left click on the colour line to make that the current fill colour.
Shift+Left click on a colour to make it the current outline colour.
Select a different font in the font list and that will become the current font.
Feathering cannot be assigned as current; however, you can copy an object that has the attributes you want to apply to another object or selection of objects. Use Ctrl+Shift+A to paste attributes to the selected object(s).

[handrawn]

Hi

Question 4)

when they are on different layers:

in the layer gallery you can toggle any layer visible/nonvisible and editable/noneditable by ticking/unticking the appropriate boxes by the layer names - ok this is not instant, but often preferable to moving objects unneccessarily and quite quick if the gallery is docked

[raynerj1]

If you are using a bitmap as a reference for a drawing, and the bitmap is on a layer underneath the drawing then I would open 2 instances fo the same file by using new view (Window=>New View). Then you can have the drawing zoomed in on one instance, and zoomed out on the other. You can also turn on and off (show layer)the layer on one and not on the other.

This is best if you have a pretty large monitor or dual monitors. Matter of fact it is pretty sweet on dual monitors.

[handrawn]

yep two instances - if you have the monitor space - good point John

[Seagull]

A little bit off subject but following Bill's lead. When you add a new colour to the colour bar it is always inserted on the right hand side. If you wish to move it to a more appropriate place on the bar use the selecter tool and the control key, click on the colour and move it where you prefer............frank

[PhilM]

For Q1: You could turn on "Give new objects most recent attributes" in the General Tab of the options dialog. That will remember (nearly) every attribute change you make and then apply them to the next object you draw.

Phil

[MarcT]

It would be great if it could be one shot deal also, like to fix default attribute based on one specific object.

This way you could keep references objects aside and pick the "style" you need as you go. It would be faster than pasting attribute each time or to set each attribute individually. This could greatly improve workflow.

Regards,

Marc

[raynerj1]

I always tell new users to watch the videos that are supplied with xara. I would say it is twice as important for users of other programs to watch the movies. After 1 viewing most folks can hit the ground running. Xtreme and XtremePro are just that sweet...

PS... The lady who does most of the narrations has a voice one wouldn't mind listening to repeatably anyway... I just picture Jenny Aguter and listen away...

[morphonius_821]

For Q1: You could turn on "Give new objects most recent attributes" in the General Tab of the options dialog. That will remember (nearly) every attribute change you make and then apply them to the next object you draw.

Phil

Thanks bud... that does help.....