What small workflow improvements would you like to see in the future?

We've had some really positive feedback from many TG'ers on the improvements and changes in 16.1, and we're really grateful for everyone spending the time bringing letting us know what they like and dislike to help further improve Xara.

As you know we did a recent thread on what you would like to see in the future regarding website feature, and a lot of what you have mentioned I'm going to push hard for in future releases. Unfortunately, it's very unlikely that these new feature and improvement suggestions would be within the next update as development time and projects for that is pretty much set but most certainly for the ones after.

In a similar tone, we'd like to know what sort of small improvements you would like to see that would help with your workflow. We're not talking about things that would require a UI overhaul, but for example from the last update the mouse scroll to increase line width is something that's very much achievable. I do want to put an emphasis on small however, just small changes that would make a world of difference to the way you use Xara.

Many thanks
Rob

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

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In a similar tone, we'd like to know what sort of small improvements you would like to see that would help with your workflow. We're not talking about things that would require a UI overhaul, but for example from the last update the mouse scroll to increase line width is something that's very much achievable. I do want to put an emphasis on small however, just small changes that would make a world of difference to the way you use Xara.

Many thanks
Rob

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Hello Rob--is this one limited to web stuff?

If not web-limited, please push the file name into the export box for whatever type of export--but just PDFs would excite the heck out of me.

Thanks, Mike

The new TrueType support is welcome but the UI is not very helpful. I menu of available glyphs and ligatures would be a more intuitive way for a designer to select the apply these options.

The screen palette is woefully inadequate. I know that Xara determined long ago what users could select a primary color then adjust the color in the Color Editor but the primary colors seem to have been picked by some mathematical model instead of a more primary group of colors. A larger palette of colors would be more useful. Maybe a popup menu over each primary color with a selection of light and dark plus saturation options?

I mentioned this in the Web features request. The web animation dialog really needs a revisit. It is not intuitive and there is no way for a user to enter a specific time.

Some of the FX filter options could use an Apply button so the user can select several options at one time and then press Apply.

True grayscale that is recognized by Acrobat as grayscale and not RGB. Plus support for spot colors in bitmaps that will be recognized in PDF/X format as spot colors and not RGB.

When working in two page spread mode, separate controls for the left and right pages. When doing a book or a magazine for example, the left and right inside and outside margins might be different. Currently, there is an option to apply a change globally which is fine for one side or the other but not independent. Being able to just move the left text area over a bit or all the right page text areas would be a tremendous improvement.

And of course, Master Pages. And this is important both for print and for the web.

Sticky option for Content Catalog so the user can import several objects at one time.

Larger image in Content Catalog when you mouse over a stock photo or illustration.

The ability to move the ends of the control handles (the bezier handles) with the arrow keys.

Commonality across controls.

Slider controls with numeric input to set exact values a la Profile/Transparency/Blur controls. (c.f., Nib size/Smoothing versus Speed/Delay 0 - 5 secs).
All input boxes with dropdowns to respond to Wheelie mouse action (e.g., Stroke shape fails this).
Replace direct entry Controls with the same capability as Wheelie action to alter values (scroll +/- 1 unit, Ctrl +scroll +/- 5 units, ...).

Avoid overloading existing controls.
The highjacking of the QuickShape tool for Smart Shapes.
The hiding of the Smart transform option.

Xara shapes have a Rotate display of the current angle (0° +/-180°).
Do the same for H&V Skew.

Acorn

The ability to rotate and scale individual nodes within a vector object.

Have the flip vertical and horizontal buttons always available.

Or let me at least add it to my custom toolbar.

Thanks

Resizing text in variants. I spend more time checking between the variants than actually making them look how I want them. I then have to 'Stop Sharing With Variants' which kind of defeats the whole idea.

wheras xara's non-destructive bitmap editing is all well and good, many times it is necessary to 'fix' a bitmap first by making a bitmap copy [eg in order to trace] - a one-click internal copy function would be nice, such as is available for export

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Originally Posted by handrawn

wheras xara's non-destructive bitmap editing is all well and good, many times it is necessary to 'fix' a bitmap first by making a bitmap copy [eg in order to trace] - a one-click internal copy function would be nice, such as is available for export

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This is already possible. CTRL-K clones the selected object. You can even put a "clone" button on the toolbar if you like.

dutchim wrote:

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Have the flip vertical and horizontal buttons always available.

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Xara was one of the first graphics companies to introduce a context-sensitive menu that they call the Infobar. Today most applications have this. But the who point of the Infobar is to offer options for the currently selected tool. So when the flip icons are not available it is usually because with the current tool or operation, there is nothing to flip.