New Alignment Panel?

[wfcentral]

O.k., I know this has been brought up before and there has never been a solution, so I'm going to suggest a solution and see what happens.

I have been using Xara since version 1.0 - about four years now, and I STILL to this day have a problem using the alignment panel. Every time I use it I seem to pick the wrong dropdown. Oops, no "align top" is not in this one... pick the other one... I don't know why it's so hard for me to remember... So, I redesigned the panel using xara and here's what I think could work. If you have a better design post yours... maybe if we get a real good design - we might get it??

Robert

[wfcentral]

O.k., I know this has been brought up before and there has never been a solution, so I'm going to suggest a solution and see what happens.

I have been using Xara since version 1.0 - about four years now, and I STILL to this day have a problem using the alignment panel. Every time I use it I seem to pick the wrong dropdown. Oops, no "align top" is not in this one... pick the other one... I don't know why it's so hard for me to remember... So, I redesigned the panel using xara and here's what I think could work. If you have a better design post yours... maybe if we get a real good design - we might get it??

Robert

[Klaus Nordby]

wfcentral, you're wonderfully RIGHT on target!!! Yes, those wordy-wordy-wordy drop-downs in XaraX is a damn nuisance. I'm not exactly an enemy of words, they have their place in the scheme of things - but the people at Xara haven't *fully* grasped the basic idea of a Graphical User Interface. But you have! :-)

However, the Alignment panel already IS a good GUI, as shift-clicking, etc., on those colored objects will nicely visualize the arrangement - so your new version is slightly redundant. But I still applaud your effort!

What we *really* need is an Alignment panel which also has underlined keyboard commands, like in CorelDRAW - THAT is the efficient way to work.


K

[wfcentral]

Klaus, thanks for the click shortcuts. I never knew they existing. After playing with them I came up with this list... if anyone knows more let me know...

Vertical TOP-CENTER-BOTTOM = Hold down Control and click on the alignment representation in the alignment panel...

Horizontal LEFT-CENTER-RIGHT = Hold down Shift...

Center Both = Hold down ALT and click on the alignment representation...

Reset = Control-Shift and click on the alignment representation...

The best alignment tool I work with is in Flash 5, here's what it looks like - kinda where I got my idea from...

[Erik Heyninck]

I don't use the align panel anymore.

I choose "SNAP TO OBJECTS" and to align a side I drag with the side. To align centrally, I drag with the centre. The moment the cursor has a little magnet, I let go.
Much quicker and easier.

If you don't work against time, time often works for you.

[wfcentral]

I had never thought about using the snap, how would that work on a document with hundreds of objects where you want to line up several dozen at a time??