Make my cursor smarter when I want to drag an item

[RistonRants]

I spent the weekend creating my first Xara site, and within the few items that really had me shaking my head, was the way that a cursor only gets intuitive about dragging an item after it has been selected, and the left mouse button has actually been clicked. So you'll know, I'm a WebPlus refugee, really coming to grips with XWD for the first time.

WebPlus procedure:

- select an item
- run cursor across item.

Result: anywhere that the item can be grabbed for dragging, the cursor turns into a 4-arrowhead crosshairs


Xara procedure:

- select an item
- run cursor across item, and observe that there is no visual feedback as to when the item can be selected.
- perhaps after a few attempts, finially grab hold of the item by depressing left mouse button

Result: Observe that only now does the cursor transform to a gunsight and also a 4-arrowhead crosshair...both of them...side by side.


Well, it's a bit late at that point. I have already grabbed the item, and know that I can move it. What I need is visual feedback to let me know WHEN I can select the item for dragging, not AFTER I already have it.


....Just a workflow issue that would be better served by a smarter cursor.

[Acorn]

If an object is draggable, it is selectable.
The visual feedback is in the Page and Layer gallery.
This seems to be quite an innocuous paradigm.

When dragging you have the crosshairs and the sub-pointer can be a crosshair or snap to...

In Web Designer, the Selection Boundary Handles provide feedback to allow resize, stretch or squash, skew and rotate.
You also have further modifiers with the Alt, Shift and Ctrl key combinations.

A right click give the Context Menu and a right drag copies the object.

A second left click changes the Selection Boundary Handles to explicit show what the handles will do.

A double click may allow Edit inside.

What should the cursor be for external drag and capture of multiple objects?

Forcing a crosshair cursor, on hover, would not express or suggest all the above.

Acorn

[RistonRants]

A right click + drag is the best piece of info I've received today. I did COPY/PASTE until my eyes bulged this past weekend.

...and, at age 70, they aren't the best eyes to be anything...especially bulging!

[Acorn]

A right click + drag is the best piece of info I've received today. I did COPY/PASTE until my eyes bulged this past weekend.

...and, at age 70, they aren't the best eyes to be anything...especially bulging!

Just wait to your restrict it with a Ctrl key and snap to objects or grid.

Also try Ctrl+Alt+D, where your can change the jump spacing.

Acorn

[RistonRants]

Yeah, I guess....but, the right click + drag was worth today's price of admission. Thanks.

[ss-kalm]

You can also left click + drag, and without letting go of the left button, tap the right button to drop a copy.