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Users of Xara-WD familiar with Xara Xtreme will think this is a no-brainer. It however a potentially valuable tip to a new user to Web Designer without a history with Xara's vector illustration software.
The tip is: Note that you can use Xara's highly practical & easy guide system to help align your graphic elements in your page design. Check out 'guides' in the help files and learn how to use these important layout aids. You'll learn to love them!
I love you!
Regards, Ross
For those who don't know ---> the other alignment aid in Xara-WD is the Alignment Tool. You can find it under the 'Arrange' Menu. The alignment tool has a rivalry with the guides. They both want to be your bestest friend! Xara has made both increadibly intuitive to use to good effect. Visit Xara's help files if you want explanations of their usage.
Regards, Ross
Rulers Rule..!
One note, they don't appear by default you need to press Ctrl+L..
However, if you enable rulers on a blank new page and then save the page as a new template File>> Save Template then give it an identifiable name (manually give it a .xar extension rather than .web - necessary for template files, though this will be changed in a future update, so bear this in mind), choosing that new template each time will always show the rulers.
Another quick tip that might be overlooked. While using ruler guides on your page, to have a clean view of your work without loosing the guides, you can toggle the guide layer on and off simply by pressing the numeric key '1'.
Looking forward to seeing your finished Portfolio site Ross ;)
If I'm not mistaken it's Ctrl+L actually to toggle rulers on/off.Quote:
Originally Posted by sledger
Regards, Albert
Quote:
Originally Posted by akubbeng
Ooops - muscle memory, do a lot of resizing in IrfanView and FastStone Capture, Ctrl+R is hard-wired now :o
(Corrected)
I recommend having rulers on constantly, they're a life saver when lining things up using the guides. :)
If you set up a template page for your website, with guidelines in place, and then press the Duplicate Current Page icon on the Infobar, the guides are automatically added to the new page.
Another useful tip for new users, is to get rid of all the guidelines at one time, right click on the screen rulers and select Delete All Guidelines.
And finally this little known tip. You can drag and drop a new guideline from an existing guideline by holding down the Ctrl key when you drag.
Neato' - little known no more... ThanksQuote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
Beyond simple guidelines, you can draw directly onto the Guides layer, using any of the main graphic tools (including the shape editor, rectangles, circles/ellipse ... even text). All components on the Guide layer are shown in red-dashed outlines.
Additionally, if want alignment references to major objects/elements on your web page, you can Ctrl+K (clone, in place), activate the Guides layer, then click the [Move] button at the top of the layer gallery. All snap rules apply to objects positioned on the Guides layer.
e d i t
Note that right-clicking on the ruler, then selecting 'Delete All Guidelines' will only delete true [straight] guidelines (those dragged from your rulers) on the current page. No other guide-objects will be deleted.
Short of deleting all guidelines, note that layers are page-specific and can be visually turned off (page by page).Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
Guidelines and guide objects can be assigned "repeating items" status.
You can also add a button to toggle rulers on and off by going to the Window menu > control bars chose button palette from the dialog, hold Alt and drag any button to any control bar. This also works in Xtreme.
I think Frances mean't that any button can be dragged to the control bars, but of course only the Page Rulers button will toggle rulers off/on..Quote:
Originally Posted by angelize
Yes that's what I meant.:o Thanks Steve, apologies for any confusion.
This was a GREAT tip for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by cursor
Thank You.
Alignment...one my all time fav tools.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross Macintosh
Tom
Interesting thread. This is the first I've heard of rulers and alignment guides in XWD. None of this seems to appear in the "getting started" or online guide docs. Thanks for posting it! :cool:
PS: no criticism of the documentation implied, only of my lameness in how I was trying to access it.
Curtis I missed this last month :oQuote:
Originally Posted by cursor
Can you show me how guidelines (not guide objects) can be assigned as a repeating object?
I've dragged the ruler icon in the toolbar at the top of XWD, that way it's always handy. ;)
I should have said guide lines, rather than "guidelines," perhaps. That said,Quote:
Originally Posted by sledger
- All elements that reside on the Guides layer are shown with the distinctive dashed red outline. Any fills are ignored, but not forgotten -- that is:.
- Create a circle (with solid color fill) on MouseOff
- Moving it to the Guides layer will make the fill inaccessible.
- Move the circle back to the MouseOff layer, and it's full attribute set is restored.
- Lines (and other objects, including text) can be created or positioned on the Guides layer that have one or multiple control points that snap to guidelines (or grid positions, or other objects ... on any number of layers).
All of these objects can be made repeating.- By attaching both start and end points of horizontal or vertical line segment to a single guideline, you can create a overlapping guide line that can be made repeating.
- While guidelines can't be named (and consequently can't be [formal] repeating objects), all guidelines that reside on the current page are automatically duplicated when doing an Edit > Pages > New page.
- The page is inserted directly after the current page.
- All page attributes from the current page are duplicated (size, background, etc.)
- Note that doing an Edit > Pages > Duplicate current page will behave exactly the same as > New page, except that in addition to the above, all graphic elements from the current page are duplicated (in place) ... including guidelines.
Thanks Curtis, I knew about objects (boxes, circles and lines) drawn in the guide layer. It was guidelines that had me stumped as they aren't selectable objects, so couldn't be assign to repeating status.
This will be useful to other members too.
Thanks again for taking the time.
With respect to genuine guideline, I found their behavior noted in the last two bulleted items to be interesting (when adding a new web page).
Yes this feature comes over from WD's parent, Xara Xtreme .
Unfortunately new guidlines on page 1 won't be repeated after already creating duplicate or new pages. Which was the query from 'frits' which brought me to your comments earlier.
An option to repeat new guidelines might be a worthwhile consideration by Xara.