Confused and freaked out by Xara 16 - please help!

I recently got a new computer and decided to get the latest version since it had been a few years.

I am confused and freaked out. There is no bitmap editor at all to start with, when you put a path to it into the options, it forgets it so you have to do it every time you load it up.

The behaviour of the bitmaps ... I have no words! I found a Youtube video that suggest to use the fill tool instead. I thought, I know how to get round this! I'll get a normal shape, group it with the bitmap, and it'll behave like normal, but no! Even in a group the bitmaps still do their own peculiar thing.

There are no effects AT ALL. There isn't even an effects button on the left side, and after searching through the menues I couldn't find how to put one there. I'm not talking photoshop plugins here, just like ... the HUE one, for example.

And to top it all, the basic bitmap editor doesnt have a TICK anymore to apply the adjustment to the image.

Oh yes, and it hard crashed 3 times out of the perhaps five times I've tried to make sense of this insanity.

Am I missing something???? What has happened?????

I'm used to using (old) Xara as my daily workhorse for everything from photos to artwork to social media and then some, I would really appreciate any help you could give me!

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

which old version were you using ?

there have been a lot of changes over the past few years... bitmap editing in particular

you will find the magix effects [as well as photoshop style plugins] under the live effect tool which is the Fx button on the photo tool flyout bar [or press ctrl+5] - to make this work you must first have the object[s] selected that you need to work on, and then having clicked Fx click the new button on the info bar to get the list

Attachment 124959Attachment 124958

if by HUE you mean transparency type - yes that is no longer a default option but you can restore it will a registry edit if you wish

the photo tool flyout bar has most of the bitmap editing functions available [xara now calls bitmaps photos]

Quote:

---

And to top it all, the basic bitmap editor doesnt have a TICK anymore to apply the adjustment to the image

---

not sure what you are referring to here, sorry

hope this helps

Could not reproduce your problems.
Xara remembers the path to the external bitmap editor in my install. Maybe you have some registry protection running, or maybe the windows rights don't permit Xara to write to the registry. Did you try to run Xara as administrator and then make the setting?
When selected XPE opened in the background at my install, but that is the only glitch I encountered so far, and I have this problem with other programs as well all the time...
No crashes, and the tick to 'commit' the changes is still there for me.
The live effects tool is now a separate button at the photo fly-out. The Hue tool is placed directly in the photo tool (looks similar to the select colors to enhance button).
Which product are you using? Maybe WebDsigner doesn't have those features?

two other things

as a user from a while back, you should right click on the lock aspect ratio padlock in the selector tool and untick 'smart transform' that will restore some of the bitmap editing behaviour

start the program by right clicking and select run as administrator - you only need do this once - it may help with the crashes

ah - that HUE :)

XPE - that is still there... fair enough.. I use photoshop

Thank you Handrawn for the flyout image! Effects have been found. Result!

I've been a Xara user for a long time but I have never done "registry entries," that side of thing is a total mystery to me.

The missing TICK which approves the image and puts it back into active window is this: Attachment 124960

Making the bitmap editor work is of the essence for my workflow. I use Gimp if I absolutely have to (1 time out of a million!).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by siran

Could not reproduce your problems.
Xara remembers the path to the external bitmap editor in my install. Maybe you have some registry protection running, or maybe the windows rights don't permit Xara to write to the registry. Did you try to run Xara as administrator and then make the setting?

---

Thanks about the admin tip, it's been so long I forgotten that.

Quote:

---

When selected XPE opened in the background at my install, but that is the only glitch I encountered so far, and I have this problem with other programs as well all the time...
No crashes, and the tick to 'commit' the changes is still there for me.
The live effects tool is now a separate button at the photo fly-out. The Hue tool is placed directly in the photo tool (looks similar to the select colors to enhance button).
Which product are you using? Maybe WebDsigner doesn't have those features?

---

Pro X 16.02 fresh install on a brand new HP Omen. I unchecked XPE and manually put in the path to the Xara editor in the programs folder. Right upon install it said No editor configured! and if you picked XPE it just hard crashed (as in alt ctrl delete stop program crashed). But it seems all good now. Screenshot of the TICK issue I posted above.

Thank you for your help. I was super stressed by this!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by handrawn

two other things

as a user from a while back, you should right click on the lock aspect ratio padlock in the selector tool and untick 'smart transform' that will restore some of the bitmap editing behaviour

---

I know the padlock but where/what is "smart transform"???

Have just looked again, I can't see it anywhere. Alright. (Consults help files, finds there is a teensy menu on the padlock! Wow I never knew that?!?!? Tries ... and ... WHOOHOO! The bitmaps are squishing normally once more! JOY!)

Hey thanks that is awesome! One by one my problems are going away ... Now there's just the TICK left :-)

Thank you guys for responding so quickly with your helpful solutions.

1. Bitmaps behaving badly = solved :)

2. Making Xara remember settings = solved :)

3. Still hard crashes on ticking the XPE box in Utilities (I tried it in admin just to see what would happen) but that's not a problem because the direct path works in the second box.

4. One major problem remains - the missing TICK. (And this is a major problem to me, without being able to use the picture editor inside Xara I frankly don't know what I would do!).

I wonder if 3 and 4 are related?

as I said before, I don't use xpe, so maybe siran will know more - but I am inclined to think that you click the save icon if you want to commit changes and return to the main program

the path to xpe has changed over theyears - I dont know if that has anything to do with your crashes..

cancel the bit about the save button - that just saves out the file to disk - the tick is there for me if when try it out, as it is for siran, so i think your xpe is not set up correctly

if you have the old xara still installed then it is possible you have two instances of xpe - one for each version and it is important that you link to the correct one for the new version

sorry about the piecemeal replies but the forum website is playing silly buggers at my end

Quote:

---

.... but the forum website is playing silly buggers at my end

---

Same here HD.

Is that "your token has expired" error?

Yes back to Xara problem - nope it's a clean install on a brand new computer. No other version of Xara there.

Attachment 124963

token expired is a forum thing
take out your manual path to xpe
close xara
reboot computer
run xara again as admin
set xpe using the utilities\options/ photo editing tab
close xara
reboot computer

if that does not work I am out of ideas

edit _ I have just seen your screenshot - you could try reinstalling/repairing the installation [and then running as admin]

Attachment 124963

Sorry for the double post!

I can't choose XPE bec. as soon as I do, the program hard crashes. Completely unresponsive. Drch. I guess I could try and re-install it again, but I fear the same thing will happen - upon first load, it comes back with "no bitmap editor configured."

I remember a time when (Corel)Xara just worked straight out of the box ... :'(

I can confirm that there is no tick if you open XPE as an external editor via specifying the path.
I suggest to try re-installing and to start the installer as administrator.

if I open xpe from outside of xara there is no tick, that is understanndable as there is no host program active then to commit to

maybe somehow the two programs are not in sync

I know you are reluctant to reinstall, but I think you might have to, and now siran has suggested it too

uninstall it first before reinstalling

It is true that I was reluctant. But I did it. Starting from attempting to uninstall the 1st installation, over 2 hours passed. Here are some of the highlights.

Attachment 124970

Now bearing in mind that ...

I'm a long term Xara user
with a brand new state of the art PC, bright and clean
and purchased the latest version directly from Magix
AND knowing about this forum
AND getting fast and knowlegdable support from you good people (and moral support, thank you!)

... this was really not a good experience.

I used to recommend Xara to my art students, who would not have the above list of advantages, but how can I, after this?

Really still sad. Well guess I'm tired.

Thanks again for your help and moral support, guys. May the cyberangels smile upon all you do!

it's working now ok ? :)

I am having difficulty accessing your attachment images [the forum website is still not right] but from what I can see of the thumbnails maybe, and no more than that, there was a configuration error with xpe possibly an update issue

always glad to help

Yes, it seems to be working now. Apart from that devilish check on the "smart transform" or whatever that is, which has now decided to ignore my attempts (in Admin mode and out of it!) to make it stop.

Shakes head and laughs ... I can learn to live with that. Again, thank you sincerely for your help!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ray69

Yes, it seems to be working now. Apart from that devilish check on the "smart transform" or whatever that is, which has now decided to ignore my attempts (in Admin mode and out of it!) to make it stop.
Shakes head and laughs ... I can learn to live with that. Again, thank you sincerely for your help!

---

Ray, don't laugh, complain. It is a mess of Xara's own making and the sorry story is in https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...ing-megathread.

If Xara hide a function and have it so designers are blocked in their work, complain.

Acorn

one thing that may make the squish work better, once you have unticked 'smart transform', is to make sure in the selector tool that 'show selection bounds handles' button is pressed:


Attachment 125004

and do the squishing using the selector tool [not the photo tool]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ray69

I used to recommend Xara to my art students

---

I don't think you are doing them any favours by doing so. The world that made us love Xara software has changed significantly and students need to look at affordable, capable software to learn that will give then a skillset valuable to employers. I don't mean Adobe, either.

Could you enlighten us about the program that you have an affinity with? ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by iamtheblues

Could you enlighten us about the program that you have an affinity with? ;)

---

LOL

I still remember buying Xara Studio 1.0 at a design exhibition in Islington, London. I was stunned by how amazing it was. It was a Magic experience, not a Magix one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pauland

LOL

I still remember buying Xara Studio 1.0 at a design exhibition in Islington, London. I was stunned by how amazing it was. It was a Magic experience, not a Magix one.

---

I don't want to rush against Xara, but until Xara goes into a reprogramming of his XDP software, we will only see javascript scraps and other unimportant stuff. Too much money to renew. Affinity shows you how.
I've often written that I'm leaving Xara. There are some things that have not been implemented in other programs and I have remained true to Xara.
But one day it'll be enough. I'm gonna wait for XDP 17. Amd then …