[Tip] Guides are your friend...

[Ross Macintosh]

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

[Ross Macintosh]

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

[steve.ledger]

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

[akubbeng]

Rulers Rule..!

One note, they don't appear by default you need to press Ctrl+R

If I'm not mistaken it's Ctrl+L actually to toggle rulers on/off.

Regards, Albert

[steve.ledger]

If I'm not mistaken it's Ctrl+L actually to toggle rulers on/off.

Ooops - muscle memory, do a lot of resizing in IrfanView and FastStone Capture, Ctrl+R is hard-wired now

(Corrected)

[nickydude]

I recommend having rulers on constantly, they're a life saver when lining things up using the guides.

[gwpriester]

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.

[steve.ledger]

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... Thanks

[cursor]

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.

[cursor]

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.

Short of deleting all guidelines, note that layers are page-specific and can be visually turned off (page by page).

Guidelines and guide objects can be assigned "repeating items" status.