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Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
From version 3.2 onwards, holding down the space bar causes a temporary switch to the Push tool. Releasing the Space bar returns to the previously selected tool or pressing it once will switch to the push tool and pressing it again will return to the previous tool.
You can restore the old use of the space bar as a shortcut to the Selector tool.
Xara Xtreme 3.2
Download copyhotkeysini.zip
Extract the contents of the zip file
Double click the copyHotkkeysIni.bat
Xara Xtreme Pro 3.2
Start the Xtreme Pro Shortcuts utility
Select Tools from the left side
Select the 'Switch to Selector'(default shortcut of Alt+S) and choose 'Space' from the keystroke list.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Thanks! A question that has been unanswered for a while:
Let's say someone makes a bunch of shortcut modifications. Let's say thay also make other preference changes. Then their computer has problems and they need to reinstall windows. There just doesn't seem to be any reliable, portable way to back up shortcut and preference changes ( like totally customized icon toolbars ). Not like I have some elaborate system customization yet-- I've held off because I see no way to back it up--, but I've seen others', and it just seems like an hour to set up in extreme cases. The answer has been to hunt the registry entries down, and in my case, the mentioned folder in regedit was actually not there.
If there are many shortcut, icon bar, and preference changes made, can you explain how these would be saved to later restore from?
Thanks again, and thanks for posting here.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
I'll add this to the Xara Xone Shareware page as well.
Gary
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Hi Tallis,
I use a customizeable setup on mine. Most of the customization you can save with your default template. the rest just takes about 5-10 Minutes to redue... While testing, I had to redo mine about every week to 2 weeks.:)
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
I'd agree - as long as you have the changes you need to make noted down, it don't take long
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!
Gods, I must have gotten that cursed Push-tool a gazillion times by now.... Just couldn't get my brain to switch from space to F2.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Quote:
Originally Posted by
itsfransie
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!
Gods, I must have gotten that cursed Push-tool a gazillion times by now.... Just couldn't get my brain to switch from space to F2.
I use Alt-S, and always have. I'm getting good at shift-clicking now instead of right-clicking for line colour changes.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Does the batch file work with Xtreme 4? I tend to use Alt+S too, but I can see how much better this would be.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Under the utilites=>customize key Short-cuts opens an applet so you can redefine the short cuts as you want. I am used to xara's shortcuts so I haven't played much with it. Lots of folk have tho...
I am not sure if it is only in pro or also in xtreme. Try it... you might like it.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Quote:
I am not sure if it is only in pro or also in xtreme. Try it... you might like it.
Shortcut key configuration is one of the 'Pro' only features John.
http://www.xara.com/us/products/xtreme/features/
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Of all the extra features that 'Pro' has, custom key configuration is the only one that tempted me, but it doesn't justify an extra £70.00 for me.
This isn't a big deal, just curious. It seems that the space bar is under-used in hot-key combinations. It's the biggest and easiest to hit, so you would think it would be the most used.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Mark the batch file will not work with Xtreme 4.0 because the location of the hotkey.ini file is different than version 3.2.
The new location of the ini file is in C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Xtreme 4
The batch file determines if it is running on Vista or not and then copies (and renames) the ini file to the appropriate location for version 3.2
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Thanks Bill. As I say it's not a problem, I've learned to do this with the Alt+S combi anyway.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Did I neglect to mention that with notepad and about 10 seconds you can change the spacebar back to the older functionality?
No need for the batch file.
Exit Xara Xtreme.
Use Windows Explorer (or My Computer) navigate to C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Xtreme 4.0
Right click on the hotkeys.ini file and select Edit from the pop-up menu.
Scroll to the bottom of the file.
Edit the line that begins Hotkey 0x20
and change the word Push to Selector.
Save the file and exit Notepad.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Thank You Bill - That saves a lot of hassle.
EDIT: Except it doesn't seem to work - When I go back into Xara it's still the same "Push" tool........ Do you need to reboot to make it work?
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Keith, glad I could help.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Excellent, thanks again Bill, I'll give that a go.
Edit: No, that doesn't work for me either, even after a reboot. Thanks anyway Bill.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Hi guys, it's me again
Not doing to bad for only the second day play with version 4, but fraid I have to agree with Keith. Have modified the file as mentioned and get same results as Keith, even after rebooting. It's too bad cause I really, really do not like that stupied push tool, loved the old way of doing things........frank
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Check your systems to see if there is a copy of the hotkeys.ini file in your user folder's Application Data\Xara\XaraXtreme subfolder.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
No, there's only one copy of the hotkeys.ini file.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Keith can you zip your hotkeys.ini file and post it?
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Thanks Keith.
Try using the ini file in the attached zip file.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
The edited hotkeys.ini file must be copied to your user profile's
Local Settings\Application Data\Xara\XaraXtreme\4.0 folder.
For example on my Windows XP system the full path is
C:\Documents and Settings\btaylor\Local Settings\Application Data\Xara\XaraXtreme\4.0
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Here is a new zip file containing the hotkeys.ini file and a new batch file specific to the 4.0 version of Xara Xtreme.
Extract the contents of the zip file
Double click the copyHotkkeysIni40.bat
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
That works very well, thanks Bill.
I must say that having the selector toggled with the space bar is far better, excellent. Thanks again.
Further, I'm guessing that using the same method, we can pretty much switch any hotkeys in the .ini file? Something worth playing with...no doubt I'll break something and have to reinstall. LOL!
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Glad it is working. It took some trial and lots of error to get it sorted out :D
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Thanks Bill. That appears to work fine now.
That Push was almost useless since it appears that the push tool is on the mouse wheel click as standard (as it is with a lot of programs, Autocad included), and is much more intuitive there.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
It took a few false starts but I'm glad it is working now. :)
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
I'm in heaven, I'm in heaven, la la da da da la.......sorry, humming that old song to myself right now :) . So, looks like your today's man Bill, but it was like pulling teeth. Why you ask........well, I changed the line myself with no results. Then lastnight I downloaded the hotkey file you posted, copied it and pasted it over the original xara copy. It was correct but it did not work. This morning I noticed you posted a new zip file, downloaded that...ran the batch file and now it is working, but when I look at the file in wordpad it looks exactly like I had modified it..........go figure
Why does it work when you do it and not when I do it.....guess somebodies got the magic touch and it looks like it's not me. Looks like I owe you, go get a glass of milk and a cookie and put it on my account......frank
P.S. I would like to really thank Steve also, who pm me also trying to work me through this problem. Unfortunatly he is one of those rich ones with the pro version. Mind you, it's the thought that counts and his thoughts were full of good vibes so thanks again to all for helping me with the new computer, the new operating system, and the new version
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Hi Frank,
The batch file within the zip copies the hotkey.ini file to a location within your profile space on the hard disk rather than into the Program Files\Xara folder space.
Xara Xtreme does not read the ini file from the Program Files folders, that is why the one you edited did not change the spacebar behaviour.
The milk and cookie were excellent :D
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Does it strike anyone else as odd, that Xara doesn't read the hotkeys.ini file from where it put it? If it needs it somewhere else, why didn't it put it there?
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
I must admit, after working with this new (old?) configuration for a few hours, I can see what all the fuss was about. This is a far better arrangement.
Nicely done Bill.
EDIT: I've made a couple of other key changes which seem to be working O.K.
Because I use Xtreme mainly for linework, I have changed the X key to toggle the line gallery. I still have to open the strokes/shapes folder and make sure that the gallery is big enough to show them all, when I start a new session, but now I can quickly change line shape without even looking at the keyboard, the improvement in workflow is noticeably more comfortable.
Why can't Xtreme remember which folders were last open in a gallery and what size I left the gallery between sessions?
I have also changed the V key to select the shape editor, this is a minor adjustment, but when I have occasion to use a tool other than that or the selection arrow, it gets me back to linework quickly and having that for the selector seems redundant.
No doubt I'll keep tweaking, though I'm very aware that I could bollox things up at anytime. LOL"!
Now, does any know of a way to make changing line width quicker and easier? Right now I click on the linewidth field and scroll with the mouse wheel, which is good, but limited to the 'preset' linewidths and you need to be careful when putting in custom linewidths. Try typing in 3 pixels width then click and scroll with the mouse wheel to see.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Hi again Bill
This should be the last you hear from me for a while (if your lucky), but just one more thing........help
Okay, I have opened the installion file and see where you sent it, but where are you sending it? I am trying.......start; my computer; windows_xp (c); documents/settings; my folder; application data; magic; xara xtreme4; extreme configuration settings (which has 0kb)........so obviously I am in the wrong place.
Do you mind writing out the whole path for me. I don't need it to tell the truth but if I am going to learn xp a bit, this looks like just as good as place as any to learn.
Excuse my ignorance but all my experience to date has been with win95 and win98.............thanks again and hope you didn't finsh the bag of cookies........frank
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
HI Frank
Glad to see you so happy
according to Bill's batch file the path is [for XP]:
C:\Documents and Settings\"%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Xara\XaraXtreme\4.0\hotkeys.ini"
where "%USERPROFILE%" is your user name
you have looked in the wrong 'Application Data' folder - easy to do
PS - I am not rich :D [yet]
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Thank you again Steve. Is my face red or is it red :mad:
Sorry about the icon but it is the only one with a red face. Make note toself.....I owe Steve a red face (a happy red face)......frank
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Seagull
Make note toself.....I owe Steve a red face (a happy red face)
You should be able to make a nice one with your bright shiny new Xara Xtreme 4, that will do just nicely.
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Re: Altering the behaviour of the space bar in Xara Xtreme 3.2