Designer Pro 6 Manual

[Tabvla]

Subject : Customizing Designer Pro

In the DP6 Pro Manual (hardcopy) frequent reference is made to "Customising Designer Pro - see page 448". The Index at the end of the Manual provides the same page number.

However, page 448 deals with "Working with Templates", not customising.

I have paged through the Manual but cannot find a section which deals with customising DP6 Pro. Within the program itself, in the Help, there is an extensive and detailed section dealing with customising DP6 Pro - which means that it does exist.

Does anyone know why this section was ommitted from the Manual.... or is it just a printing oversight..... or have I just missed it and a visit to the optometrist might be a good idea

T.

[masque]

Customising Designer I would say comes down to arranging the tool bars to suit your preferences and possibly creating or adding to existing toolbars to make sure you have the shortcuts you want to hand.
You can do this by going to Window>Control Bars where you can turn on or off control bars. The bottom bar in that selection is the Button Pallet which contains every shortcut button available. By holding down ALT and left click dragging a button form the pallet you can drop them onto existing tool bars and so add to the bar. Similarly you can drag unwanted shortcuts from a bar in the same way.
If you left click and drag a bar near the edges you can move that bar to any location you wish around the screen or leave it floating if that’s what you want.
Apart from tool bar customisation you can set preferences for the default page to open by saving page templates. If for instance you want an A3 landscape page with rules showing and the unit set to inches you set that up and then go to FILE>SAVE TEMPLATE. You can do this for any number of variations of page template you might want. You can also select a page as the default page to open with when the program starts by selecting your template and then ticking the use as default template option in the templates dialogue. Line thickness, things like nudge and duplication distance etc can also be saved with these page templates if you set them before saving the page template.
The one thing you can’t set is the shortcut icon size anymore, which I miss as they are currently too large. Altering the UI colour is also not available though there is a work round to that mentioned in other threads if you are someone who dosen't like the dark UI.
Derek

[cbutton69]

Subject : Customizing Designer Pro

In the DP6 Pro Manual (hardcopy) frequent reference is made to "Customising Designer Pro - see page 448". The Index at the end of the Manual provides the same page number.

However, page 448 deals with "Working with Templates", not customising.

I have paged through the Manual but cannot find a section which deals with customising DP6 Pro. Within the program itself, in the Help, there is an extensive and detailed section dealing with customising DP6 Pro - which means that it does exist.

Does anyone know why this section was ommitted from the Manual.... or is it just a printing oversight..... or have I just missed it and a visit to the optometrist might be a good idea

T.

T., If you have the product installed from the CDs, you have a PDF version of the manual (on the XARA XONE 6" CD). "Customizing Designer Pro" can be found starting on page 564 and goinf through page 585.

I ordered the hard-copy manual, but I haven't received it yet.

[Tabvla]

Thanks Masque and Charlie for your feedback.... and yes, I agree with both your comments.

The BIG plus factors about a hardcopy Manual is that firstly, you can read it without being at your computer and secondly that you can have the Manual open on your desk while testing out various things on the computer, which is much more convenient than clicking back and forth to a Help File.

Masque, as a Moderator on this Forum, you may want to send Xara an email and tell them that they ommitted the entire Section "Customizing Designer Pro" from the hardcopy Manual. The next time they reprint the Manual they can include this Section.

The biggest problem is that as you read the Manual there are frequent cross-references to this Section. Throughout the Manul one finds references such as : "...please see page 448 Customizing Designer Pro..." If you want to check the cross-reference then you have to be reading the Manual while sitting at the computer. Alternately you can print out this section from the PDF version of the Manual. But that really defeats the purpose.

T.

[cbutton69]

The manual arrived here at my humble abode this morning, and I see what Tabvla means. It frequently refers to the chapter "Customizing Designer Pro (on page 448," as well as in the index, but it includes no such chapter.

Oh, well, maybe (???) XARA will publish a corrected version some day. Until then I'll have to use the PDF version.

[Tabvla]

The PDF Manual provides a 21 page (from 564 to 585) section on "Customizing Designer Pro". This is very useful information and would certainly be welcomed if it was included in the hardcopy version of the Manual as this would prevent one having to print it yourself or click back and forth between the PDF and the DP6P program if viewing on the computer.

Xara certainly seems to have intended to include this section in the hardcopy Manual, so it seems as if it was a printing oversight with this edition.

Perhaps next time

T.

[taccom]

Is the hardcopy manual being shopped separately? I got my CD & shortcut card but no manual.

Thanks
Paul

[steve.ledger]

The manual is a separate purchase unless you are a new user of the 'Pro' version of the software. Upgrades don't include the manual.


► $30 from Xara

[taccom]

Guess I got spoiled in the past ... but for $30 its worth it! Thanks again, Steve.

[Tabvla]

Paul, if you have not as yet spent the $30 then you may consider printing out the PDF Manual which you will find on the CD...... yes I know it sounds bonkers but there is some small element of sanity in this suggestion.

The downside of printing the PDF Manual is that it is 646 pages.... which means that you can do a little weight-lifting between chapters

On the plus-side it is a much more comprehensive manual than the printed version. Throughout the printed version you will be referred "See PDF Manual" for more detailed explanations. The authors of the printed version have also omitted (either by error or by design) entire sections. A typical example is "Fills". This entire section is omitted from the printed version whereas the PDF version has a detailed 14-page section on the subject. There are numerous other omissions like this.

The PDF version is full color whereas the printed version is B&W. This may sound like a minor detail, and I can fully understand the cost-savings in printing B&W, but from an understanding and readabilty point, the color does make a very big difference in many of the examples and particularly the sections that deal with color, fills, transparency.... etc

In my view the PDF version is a much more complete document, whereas the printed version does seem like a "work-in-progress". I don't know why Xara don't simply give the PDF version to the printing company and tell them "print that". It does seem to make a lot more sense... afterall they have already figured out that the wheel is round, why try to go and reinvent it

T.