Confused and freaked out by Xara 16 - please help!

[Ray69]

I recently got a new computer and decided to get the latest version since it had been a few years.

I am confused and freaked out. There is no bitmap editor at all to start with, when you put a path to it into the options, it forgets it so you have to do it every time you load it up.

The behaviour of the bitmaps ... I have no words! I found a Youtube video that suggest to use the fill tool instead. I thought, I know how to get round this! I'll get a normal shape, group it with the bitmap, and it'll behave like normal, but no! Even in a group the bitmaps still do their own peculiar thing.

There are no effects AT ALL. There isn't even an effects button on the left side, and after searching through the menues I couldn't find how to put one there. I'm not talking photoshop plugins here, just like ... the HUE one, for example.

And to top it all, the basic bitmap editor doesnt have a TICK anymore to apply the adjustment to the image.

Oh yes, and it hard crashed 3 times out of the perhaps five times I've tried to make sense of this insanity.

Am I missing something???? What has happened?????

I'm used to using (old) Xara as my daily workhorse for everything from photos to artwork to social media and then some, I would really appreciate any help you could give me!

[handrawn]

which old version were you using ?

there have been a lot of changes over the past few years... bitmap editing in particular

you will find the magix effects [as well as photoshop style plugins] under the live effect tool which is the Fx button on the photo tool flyout bar [or press ctrl+5] - to make this work you must first have the object[s] selected that you need to work on, and then having clicked Fx click the new button on the info bar to get the list



if by HUE you mean transparency type - yes that is no longer a default option but you can restore it will a registry edit if you wish

the photo tool flyout bar has most of the bitmap editing functions available [xara now calls bitmaps photos]

And to top it all, the basic bitmap editor doesnt have a TICK anymore to apply the adjustment to the image

not sure what you are referring to here, sorry

hope this helps

[siran]

Could not reproduce your problems.
Xara remembers the path to the external bitmap editor in my install. Maybe you have some registry protection running, or maybe the windows rights don't permit Xara to write to the registry. Did you try to run Xara as administrator and then make the setting?
When selected XPE opened in the background at my install, but that is the only glitch I encountered so far, and I have this problem with other programs as well all the time...
No crashes, and the tick to 'commit' the changes is still there for me.
The live effects tool is now a separate button at the photo fly-out. The Hue tool is placed directly in the photo tool (looks similar to the select colors to enhance button).
Which product are you using? Maybe WebDsigner doesn't have those features?

[handrawn]

two other things

as a user from a while back, you should right click on the lock aspect ratio padlock in the selector tool and untick 'smart transform' that will restore some of the bitmap editing behaviour

start the program by right clicking and select run as administrator - you only need do this once - it may help with the crashes

[handrawn]

ah - that HUE

XPE - that is still there... fair enough.. I use photoshop

[Ray69]

Thank you Handrawn for the flyout image! Effects have been found. Result!

I've been a Xara user for a long time but I have never done "registry entries," that side of thing is a total mystery to me.

The missing TICK which approves the image and puts it back into active window is this:

Making the bitmap editor work is of the essence for my workflow. I use Gimp if I absolutely have to (1 time out of a million!).

[Ray69]

Could not reproduce your problems.
Xara remembers the path to the external bitmap editor in my install. Maybe you have some registry protection running, or maybe the windows rights don't permit Xara to write to the registry. Did you try to run Xara as administrator and then make the setting?

Thanks about the admin tip, it's been so long I forgotten that.

When selected XPE opened in the background at my install, but that is the only glitch I encountered so far, and I have this problem with other programs as well all the time...
No crashes, and the tick to 'commit' the changes is still there for me.
The live effects tool is now a separate button at the photo fly-out. The Hue tool is placed directly in the photo tool (looks similar to the select colors to enhance button).
Which product are you using? Maybe WebDsigner doesn't have those features?

Pro X 16.02 fresh install on a brand new HP Omen. I unchecked XPE and manually put in the path to the Xara editor in the programs folder. Right upon install it said No editor configured! and if you picked XPE it just hard crashed (as in alt ctrl delete stop program crashed). But it seems all good now. Screenshot of the TICK issue I posted above.

Thank you for your help. I was super stressed by this!

[Ray69]

two other things

as a user from a while back, you should right click on the lock aspect ratio padlock in the selector tool and untick 'smart transform' that will restore some of the bitmap editing behaviour

I know the padlock but where/what is "smart transform"???

Have just looked again, I can't see it anywhere. Alright. (Consults help files, finds there is a teensy menu on the padlock! Wow I never knew that?!?!? Tries ... and ... WHOOHOO! The bitmaps are squishing normally once more! JOY!)

Hey thanks that is awesome! One by one my problems are going away ... Now there's just the TICK left :-)

[Ray69]

Thank you guys for responding so quickly with your helpful solutions.

1. Bitmaps behaving badly = solved

2. Making Xara remember settings = solved

3. Still hard crashes on ticking the XPE box in Utilities (I tried it in admin just to see what would happen) but that's not a problem because the direct path works in the second box.

4. One major problem remains - the missing TICK. (And this is a major problem to me, without being able to use the picture editor inside Xara I frankly don't know what I would do!).

I wonder if 3 and 4 are related?

[handrawn]

as I said before, I don't use xpe, so maybe siran will know more - but I am inclined to think that you click the save icon if you want to commit changes and return to the main program