Again, major problems creating and manipulating photo selections (or masks)

[David.P]

Hi forum,

it could not be a simpler task: I need to

1. create a rectangular selection;
2. manipulate (move) the borders of that selection in order to exactly match the rectangular photo area to be selected; and
3. convert that selection to a mask

I draw a rectangular selection, and afterwards there are no handles at its borders to manipulate that selection!?!

It takes about one second in Paint.net or whatever other photo software to figure out how to adjust/manipulate a rectangular selection inside a bitmap. However, although I have like hundreds of hours work experience with XPGD and thousands of hours in other graphics software, every single time this comes up in XPGD I am absolutely embarrassingly lost. I feel like a complete idiot who has never used a computer sitting here and not being able to resize that selection rectangle.

Pls. help and tell me how on earth I can adjust a simple rectangular photo selection.

Cheers
David

[David.P]

OK, the selection (which is not even a mask yet in the understanding of the user who drew a selection not a mask) has to be UNLOCKED in the Page and Layer gallery mask layer list. Only then, the selection handles appear and the selection FINALLY can be manipulated.

Again, @Xara team -- this workflow (which is more of a hidden workaround than a workflow) is unusable (i.e. un-findable) for users!

Thanks for listening,

David.P

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi David, I don't do much photo manipulation and can't understand why you'd need a rectangular mask as opposed to just using the crop tool, but for what it's worth, using a Photo document:

Create a rectangle over your image.
Ensure the "Show Selection Bound Handles is on".
Resize as required.
Hit the Mask Painter Tool (Alt + F7)
This creates a mask layer.
Cut the rectangle out from Layer 1
Paste it in Mask Layer.

From there I don't have enough knowledge of using masks

You might like to view HERE

[David.P]

Thanks Egg, however already the second of your steps is where things don't work:

Create a rectangle over your image.
Ensure the "Show Selection Bound Handles is on".
[Resize as required.]

The "Selection Bound Handles" are the handles of the entire bitmap, not of the selection. Thus, the selection can't be resized with those handles.

[David.P]

Ah I see, you create a rectangle, not a rectangle SELECTION at first.

This way, it works, However, this is only one other way to würg*-around a proper workflow.

My objection therefore is upheld: editing selection or mask boundaries seriously needs improvement.

--
*german for "strangle"

[Egg Bramhill]

I can't see anything wurgling the workflow David

[David.P]

Every single time I try and use a rectangular mask I instantly get stuck with the same problem.

How can I adjust the rectangular mask's size by dragging a corner (or a side) of the mask?

[Acorn]

Every single time I try and use a rectangular mask I instantly get stuck with the same problem.
How can I adjust the rectangular mask's size by dragging a corner (or a side) of the mask?

DP, any shape you create can be copied/moved into the Mask layer.

If you want to manipulate a rectangle to adjust its corners (separately), you can either convert the rectangle to editable shapes before or after the move.
You then manipulate the mask object with the appropriate tool, as Xara normal.

I have all the control points I need.

Acorn

[David.P]

Thanks -- it seems that this is still the official "way" to go:

the selection [mask] has to be UNLOCKED in the Page and Layer gallery mask layer list. Only then, the selection handles appear and the selection can be [vectorially] manipulated.

Again, @Xara team -- this workflow (which is more of a hidden workaround than a workflow) is unusable (i.e. un-findable) for users!

Thanks for listening

[Acorn]

Thanks -- it seems that this is still the official "way" to go:

DP, in General Options, there is a selection "Current layer always visible and editable".
So if you are working on the Mask layer, items can be manipulated.

Acorn