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With every upgrade witch I have, back to the Original Xara, I have asked for a Twain module. It sure would be simple to scan from within the program. Must be like Illustrator you have to go elsewhere if you want this function. Otherwise all is good, well almost.
Very much doubt it will ever happen because it's too easy to scan to clipboard then paste into Xara Designer.
That's a cop-out if ever I saw one!Quote:
Originally Posted by sledger
That's rather hostile. It's actually exceptionally convenient and works very well.
Didn't mean to be hostile, sledger; in fact I'm in awe of your contribution to this forum. By scan to clipboard, do you mean using the scanner's own software?Quote:
Originally Posted by sledger
I'm with Steve. Xara should stick to developing things people can't do, not things they can.
If I understand the development of this correctly, adding a TWAIN menu choice would really just be a hook into calling the built-in software and then transferring the image back from either the clipboard or something very similar. I don't think it would be a major undertaking to "take away" from program development. I work with a lot of businesses that use a lot of software with this feature in it and the software is not very complex - doesn't have its own scanning engine or even UI, just calls the existing one when it's needed, and for those who use it, it's a big convenience.
One could say that you can resize a photo in Paint, so why add it to Xara, you could just leave the program and then copy/paste it back in, right? How about the table creation people have been asking for for years - yeah, you can create a pretty table in Excel then paste it in and it really works pretty well, but it would be nice to a. not have to have Excel and b. be able to do it right in Xara without any kludgy workarounds.
Just my $.02.
I haven't used every scanner on the market of course, but I've owned many and installed lots, and yes - they all seem to have basic options to scan to file, scan to email scan to clipboard. Some even have buttons on the lid (like my HP) which are configurable in the driver software.Quote:
Originally Posted by tonylondon
With regards to this scanning method, it ain't no kludge - why else would scanner manufacturers have such an option?
I think the difference is that if you have a scanner, you also have the ability to use it and the added value of Xara adding Twain support is low.
The other examples - using word or excel as a workaround, or paint, sucks because it's a pain to do and you may not even have the software and the expectation is that a company that's building a page layout solution should be able to incorporate good table support inside the software.
If they added Twain support, fine, but it wouldn't add much value for the typical Xara user, I suspect, while table support would be greeted with rapturous applause.
No religious wars over this, but I stick by my original comment. I suspect that if it were that easy Xara would have just added Twain years ago.
Right, I'll investigate my scanner. Up until now I've always used an intermediate program. If I am able to avoid this then that's going to be a distinct improvement and I'll have learned something new.Quote:
Originally Posted by sledger
Don't know whether this is suitable for you - Dmitry Malutin's Microscan http://www.xaraxone.com/html/shareware.html [scroll down a bit to find it]. Long time since I used it as I rarely need to scan so can't guarantee how it works on more modern systems
Attachment 97292
As an added bit of trivia with relevance to this particular thread...
Lexmark scanners allow you to chose additional programs that you can have your scans appear in. With that function, I can scan directly to XDP X9, which saves a step anyway.
I hope that helps,
Eric
Yes, you're right Eric, I'd forgotten about the option to launch an application.
This of course is an automated extension of the scan to clipboard function.
Microsoft removed/no longer supports twain in 64-bit applications/OS. If Xara added support, it would be to the 32-bit versions of Xara applications. Which means for all of y'all using 64-bit Xara applications you would need, in essence, a second application (the 32-bit version) with which to scan into. Many/most scanner manufacturers don't have 64-bit versions of their drivers.
I use VueScan. Look it up.
Take care, Mike
You know - it's a convenience thing. Corel Draw has an Acquire, as does Draw Plus, Photoshop and many others. We use it here to scan checks and contracts and such directly into QuickBooks. Of course we could go to another program and save a document then go back to QB then import that document as an attachment, but just clicking Scan and then gong through the normal scan steps is a LOT faster and much more convenient. It doesn't have any "programming" for the scanning function built into QuickBooks, just a call to the canner driver application. The rest is magic.
Personally, I couldn't care less about the feature since I don't have a scanner on my system and I mostly don't need the function, but I can understand why people would have the request.
Good advice. I can't find any option on my scanner to scan to clipboard but I have found Microscan and that seems to work fine. ThanksQuote:
Originally Posted by zaphodeist
(Just hope I remember where it is next time it is needed!)
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/...p-cs4-cs5.htmlQuote:
Originally Posted by slavelle