How to Change File>Export>Save as type order
When you want to export a file from Xara Designer to some other format, such as SVG or EPS, you click the Files of Type drop-down list and are presented with a mountain of file formats. The order in which the file types are listed are a thorny problem for me; 99% of the time, I need to export to Illustrator format, and this type is tucked somewhere hard to find quickly.
Fortunately, TG Moderator and Xara genius Acorn told me how to edit a file and make the list custom-tailored to my personal needs.
Here goes:
Locate your Xara folder. It should be wherever you installed it (usually C). Open the folder and find FileFormats.xml. It’s in the root, not in a subfolder or anything. See Fig. 1.
Don’t do anything yet! If you can’t find Notepad, especially in Win 10 that displays a lot of new stuff, but puts old favorites in a closer, find Notepad.exe; it’s in the root of Windows/System32. Now, launch it.
You can either drag the FileFormats.xml into the Notepad window, or if you’re feeling masochistic, Choose File>Open in Notepad, and then locate FileFormats.xml and open it.
You’ll see some lines that begin with <Format Id="14" Name="Xara Designer Pro (*.xar)"/>; following this line are the other file formats with which you can export to different formats. See figure 2.
Carefully, and I cannot emphasize CAREFULLY too much—because you CAN screw up this file, and then Xara will scream at you the next time you open it— let’s assume you want the Adobe Illustrator export to be available right after Xara’s native file format.
Highlight the <Format Id="5" Name="Adobe Illustrator (*.ai;*.eps)"/> line in its entirety. Take a deep breath and then cut it (Ctrl+X), and for God’s sake don’t put anything else on the Clipboard right now.
Insert the text cursor at the end of the (*.xar)"/> | <right there after the greater than character.
Press Enter (or Return), and you’ll see that there is a new empty line after the Xara line.
Put the cursor at the front of that blank line and then press Ctrl+V to paste the Illustrator line into this space.
Your file should look a little like mine does here in Figure 3, depending on your preferences of export order. Make sure there are no spaces between lines and that the beginning of the line aligns with all the other text lines. It's not a deal-breaker, but "tidy code" lets you and others do editing in the future with some assurance you know what is what, and know what you're doing.
Now: choose File > Save as, and then use the same extension (NOT *.txt) to save FileFormats.xml. If you feel a little squeamish about over-writing a native file, save this edited file to a location on your hard drive, and then copy the original out and name it ORIGFileFormats.xml or something similarly clever. Then copy and paste your edited file right next to the original file.
Launch XDP, create a simple shape just to test your new export order, and then press Ctrl+Shift+E. Drop that Files of Type drop-down down, and check out your new super-charged export list. See Figure 4.
Thanks again to Acorn for this exceptionally valuable procedure! And if you want to impress on looking friends as you work, just tell them casually, “Oh, I just hacked the file. No big deal.”
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Changing Xara's Export>Type of File order
Originally Posted by Gare
Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
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