Why can't I resize a Smartshape?

You guys are amazingly helpful but I keep getting into ridiculously baffling situations with Xara - I guess I am just not on the same wavelength as its designers, but honestly I NEVER have so much trouble with other software!

Latest is this: Open Xara Designer Pro X, create a new empty page, Insert|Shape|Speech Bubble. Now just try to re-size it: Click on it with the arrow pointer, the usual resize handles appear and the prompt in the status bar tells me exactly what to do, but try to drag them and nothing happens. Try typing a new value in the W and H boxes on the toolbar - I can type new numbers (or use the up-down buttons) but as soon as I hit enter they snap straight back to the original numbers and the shape is unchanged. Ditto skew and rotate handles - they are there as expected but cannot be dragged. Seems to be the same with several other Smartshapes I've tried. (Though limited, because Xara's web site seems to be down so on-line resources are not available.)

Last time I got into a head-bang like this, you guys pointed out what I was missing, but this one is just so damn simple that I cannot see what I could possibly be missing!

What happens when you try to resize the speech bubble with one of the quick shape tools? Does that work?

No problem here John. I inserted a speech bubble, switched to the Selector Tool and it resizes perfectly.

There are also resize handles in the Smart Edit Mode.

Try it again.

Hi John,

It sounds like you selected the basic shape inside the SmartShape, rather than selecting the SmartShape itself.

Did you hold down Ctrl while you clicked? If so, why? Or maybe you have reconfigured the functions of your mouse buttons so that a click is treated as a Ctrl+Click?

If you simply click on the shape the handles will work as expected.

Phil

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

No problem here John. I inserted a speech bubble, switched to the Selector Tool and it resizes perfectly.

There are also resize handles in the Smart Edit Mode.

Try it again.

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Here is what I am seeing:

Attachment 114311

As you can see the handles are square, not like yours, but they still look like they should work. The usual double headed arrows appear when I hover over the handle and the status bar tells me to drag to resize, but it will not drag! I can drag the whole object across the page to reposition it so nothing wrong with my trackpad. If I hold Ctrl when selecting the handles move in tight round the rectangle, but will still not be dragged.

How do I get "Smart Edit Mode"? Search in the help file does not locate that "as a thing".

Afraid I'm up against a deadline and I've had to resort to PowerPoint!

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Originally Posted by JohnHind

How do I get "Smart Edit Mode"? Search in the help file does not locate that "as a thing".

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Select one of the Shape tools (Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool or QuickShape Tool)

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Originally Posted by Boy

Select one of the Shape tools (Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool or QuickShape Tool)

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OK I can use that to draw shapes and those shapes can be resized as expected both with the shape tool and with the normal Selector Tool. But clicking on the Smartshape with the shape tool selected has no effect. I also found the "Live drag" button in the status bar - with that engaged, both with the rectangle and the smart shape resizing by dragging handles shows a dotted guide rectangle, on release the rectangle snaps to the guide rectangle, but the Smartshape snaps back to its original size. Still not seeing the blue dot handles per gwpriester's post though.

If you see the square bounding box handles then double click to enable the controls. You can double click on almost anything in Xara to enable various controls and features.

Or select the shape with the QuickShapes Tool.

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Originally Posted by JohnHind

Still not seeing the blue dot handles per gwpriester's post though.

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Have you tried to redownload the smartshape? Have you tried to insert a smartshape in a new document? Have you tried to restart the program? Just asking some questions. Who knows, one of them might work.....

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Originally Posted by Boy

Have you tried to redownload the smartshape? Have you tried to insert a smartshape in a new document? Have you tried to restart the program? Just asking some questions. Who knows, one of them might work.....

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In other news, I do not seem to be able to access any of the online content - just an endless wait cursor. So no to the first, yes to the other two. (Anyone else having problems with this? Are they down? Obviously not a problem my end as this forum is fine!).

In this screen shot, The rectangle on the left was drawn using the Rectangle Tool, the one on the right inserted using Insert|Shape|Rectangle. They started out the same size, then I tried clicking on them in turn and dragging the center top handle up to the same new height with the result shown - the Live Drag rectangle worked for both but the smart shape snapped back down to its original size on release.

Attachment 114312

Double-clicking the left rectangle switches to the rectangle tool and there are small square handles at the corners which resize it. Doing the same on the right one switches to the "star" quick shape tool and there is one small square handle only on the bottom left corner. It cannot be dragged.

Well, I'm stumped. But did you notice that PhilM, one of the Xara devs, jumped in (post #4) and came with a suggestion and some questions? He may be your best bet to sort things out....

Another possible reason for the problem is that the JavaScript that runs the SmartShape is not working properly for some reason.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't think of a reason why the JavaScript might not work (assuming that your installation worked properly and that you haven't changed anything inside the program folder).

Best suggestion at the moment is to re-install.

Phil

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Originally Posted by PhilM

Another possible reason for the problem is that the JavaScript that runs the SmartShape is not working properly for some reason.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't think of a reason why the JavaScript might not work (assuming that your installation worked properly and that you haven't changed anything inside the program folder).

Best suggestion at the moment is to re-install.

Phil

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Just to give some closure, I solved it, but it opened a whole other can of worms!

You will remember I was also having problems accessing the online content? Well I found that problem occurring with some other web sites including my ISP and The Independant, but excluding The Guardian as examples. I phoned my ISPs excellent customer support (Zen to give credit where it is due) and they talked me through some things eventually leading to the MTU setting in my router. Oddly, I'd not touched the router settings for months, so how it suddenly went wrong is a bit of a mystery. Once that was fixed everything is OK - the smartshape now resizes as expected, double-clicking gives the round blue handles etc.

But really guys, it is a poor show when a bad internet connection stops a locally installed program working and an even worse show when it just loses some random features without any kind of diagnostic message! I have a real love-hate relationship with Xara - conceptually it is great, but a serious lack of attention to usability and some, let us say, "eccentric" UI choices make it very hard to recommend!

Thanks for the follow-up. I learned something new and perhaps Xara did too but to blame them for not giving you messages when there is something wrong with your computer/router settings seems a bit of stretch.

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Originally Posted by Boy

to blame them for not giving you messages when there is something wrong with your computer/router settings seems a bit of stretch.

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I disagree - if a program cannot do what it is supposed to do for any reason it should alert the user, not just sit there doing nothing like a truculent teanager! This is doubly true when the problem is getting no reply to a network request - this happens frequently enough for it to be something you should specifically expect to handle.

This is a recurring problem with the Xara UI - last time I got into a head-banging session with it, it had recoloured a block of text to alert me that it was overflowing its frame. Trouble was there was no other clue to this, so I kept trying to put the colour back the way I wanted it , the UI giving no indication that this was not possible. Bizarrely for something that was supposed to be a UI cue, this locked recolouring was actually even printed out!

I'm sorry, but these things are just bad design and carelessness about usability!

Of course you disagree, you made that clear in your earlier post, and it's your good right. Possibly you have a point and Xara may take it but it seems to me that in an imperfect world it doesn't make sense to expect everything to work perfectly, certainly when it concerns an issue that involves various parties and shows in some cases and not in others. The whole thing seems, albeit frustrating, more like a learning moment.

John

To set the context.

Disconnect your Internet connection.
Open your Xara application and try to access the on-line content.
Your Local Designs gallery should open and be flagged as offline.

Reconnect your Internet connection.
Open an item in Local Designs gallery.
Xara tries to set up a link to its on-line content site.
If it succeeds, the offline flag disappears.

If a user's Internet is broken in a way that the application is getting partial responses, the application has no real way other than asking again and again.
A stack of connections and requests are probably building up and overwhelming your PC. MS didn't then pop up and say it had problems so why should your Xara application?

There possibly could be a better interrogation of HTML responses that could be trapped through a transaction service, or try & catch routines.
For Xara to think of a test case of "Incorrect MTU Setting" is a little beyond the pale.
They might do so now that they have a real scenario to play to.

Acorn

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Originally Posted by Acorn

John
For Xara to think of a test case of "Incorrect MTU Setting" is a little beyond the pale.
Acorn

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I did not mean to suggest it should have popped a message saying "Your router MTU setting is wrong, you idiot!", but if it requests something over the internet and does not get a reply, that is a problem for any program to handle sensibly. The UI knows that it cannot resize the object, because it is not resizing the object, so the visual cues should reflect the unavailability of that feature, not let you keep trying and doing nothing. But in any case, why does it need information from the internet for this feature? The object was clearly available locally since I was allowed to insert it. I was not able to insert "online content" which is perfectly understandable given the fault.

I never criticise software that I do not rate - life is too short! My criticism of some aspects of Xara actually reflects that I think at core it is a very good program, worth rescuing, and it benefits a lot from a passionate and very helpful community. The UI just need a bit of a conceptual re-think and a little more attention to detail.

I have said from that weekend we all experienced when Xara was not fully functional because someone forgot something at Xara that software that is dependent on an internet connection to fully function is way to vulnerable and problematic. It is one thing when you have signed up for a cloud program because you know the issues. But to have the "desktop" version stop working in any way due to an internet issue...sorry. NOT a good idea.

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Originally Posted by JohnHind

.... but a serious lack of attention to usability and some, let us say, "eccentric" UI choices make it very hard to recommend!

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Ouch, that's so true... And my main reason not to update.