Version 23.7 Blocks

[Chris M]

Yup, it's a little bit like spreading out a packet of M&Ms and saying 'look at the choice you have!'

[Chris M]

Posting on this thread as I've returned to try and see if I can make use of the blocks system. I've been asked to revamp an existing site, and, despite the more rational side of me saying 'make the site, take the money' I find myself clicking the blocks thingy again.

I'll be the first to admit that if you put me in a room with an instruction booklet and 100 buttons, some of which will set off a nuclear missile launch, there's a very real chance the unread booklet will be destroyed in a nuclear blast.

With the above line in mind. I saw a clip from a Xara tutorial that clearly showed a toolbar for blocks. It even had a name, 'Flex Layout Bar'. I went looking in the 40 other videos to see where this toolbar was Harry Pottered from. If you ever want to test your mental endurance, try and watch more than 3 of those tutorials. Yes, I'm a bad example. I get as far as 'Wet Paint - Do Not...' before I've sat on the bench. But, those tutorials a really boring.

In the very, very small sample I watched, there was nothing to show where the toolbar came from. Indeed, the bar seemed to disappear in some of them. Where do I find the mysterious, yet seemingly very helpful, Flex Layout Bar?

[MB365]

Posting on this thread as I've returned to try and see if I can make use of the blocks system. I've been asked to revamp an existing site, and, despite the more rational side of me saying 'make the site, take the money' I find myself clicking the blocks thingy again.

I'll be the first to admit that if you put me in a room with an instruction booklet and 100 buttons, some of which will set off a nuclear missile launch, there's a very real chance the unread booklet will be destroyed in a nuclear blast.

With the above line in mind. I saw a clip from a Xara tutorial that clearly showed a toolbar for blocks. It even had a name, 'Flex Layout Bar'. I went looking in the 40 other videos to see where this toolbar was Harry Pottered from. If you ever want to test your mental endurance, try and watch more than 3 of those tutorials. Yes, I'm a bad example. I get as far as 'Wet Paint - Do Not...' before I've sat on the bench. But, those tutorials a really boring.

In the very, very small sample I watched, there was nothing to show where the toolbar came from. Indeed, the bar seemed to disappear in some of them. Where do I find the mysterious, yet seemingly very helpful, Flex Layout Bar?

As of Plus v23.7

Web Blocks in Freeform Websites

A Freeform website is any website project that was constructed using individually placed objects, as opposed to a Modular website that is built only from Web Blocks. Now when you add a Web Block to a Freeform website, it gets converted into ordinary groups, one group in each variant. This makes it easier to work with the contents of the Block in a Freeform site, since it avoids having a mixture of Web Blocks and other objects on the same page. For the same reasons, any existing Web Blocks in a freeform website are automatically converted to groups when the website project is opened. A warning is shown on open if any Web Blocks have been converted.

http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/des...Anchor:582R2k4

In summary, The Block Toolbar is shown when you are working with a modular/block website. It does not appear when a block is inserted into a freeform site as it is no longer a 'block'.

[Chris M]

As of Plus v23.7

Web Blocks in Freeform Websites

A Freeform website is any website project that was constructed using individually placed objects, as opposed to a Modular website that is built only from Web Blocks. Now when you add a Web Block to a Freeform website, it gets converted into ordinary groups, one group in each variant. This makes it easier to work with the contents of the Block in a Freeform site, since it avoids having a mixture of Web Blocks and other objects on the same page. For the same reasons, any existing Web Blocks in a freeform website are automatically converted to groups when the website project is opened. A warning is shown on open if any Web Blocks have been converted.

http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/des...Anchor:582R2k4

In summary, The Block Toolbar is shown when you are working with a modular/block website. It does not appear when a block is inserted into a freeform site as it is no longer a 'block'.

Not a freeform site, the Modular Website. The whole thread is about me working with the tailor made blocks for the first time. I'm pretty keen to play, as I can see myself throwing these blocks around with abandon in the future.

The pic shows the standard modular website, with no toolbar, and no option to turn it on in the place I would expect to find it.

[MB365]

Not a freeform site, the Modular Website. The whole thread is about me working with the tailor made blocks for the first time. I'm pretty keen to play, as I can see myself throwing these blocks around with abandon in the future.

The pic shows the standard modular website, with no toolbar, and no option to turn it on in the place I would expect to find it.

Solution: Go to Control Bars... and click Reset.

[Chris M]

Solution: Go to Control Bars... and click Reset.

AHA! Now I can play with the big boy toys.

I'll be back with more useless insights in a day or two.

[Chris M]

I went back for a further play after Matt gave instructions on how to make the Flex Layout Bar appear.
The site is here >>> Auzlink Home <<< Click the Xara Blocks button, and there's a download for the project file on the home page.

Earlier, I bemoaned the inability to 'Repeat On All Pages'. Solved that. All you have to do is set the repeat before adding to the block...or remove from the block and add it back.
I also said I preferred the Freehand blocks to the Flexible ones. However, pressing Shift when releasing an object stops it going into the block, and pressing Alt when releasing allows it to be part of the block, but can move around like a Freehand block. In a nutshell, you really only need a single Flexible block to achieve everything.

I did have fun trying to use the Push Photo Inside Frame function. I moved the image slightly and the whole page sprang off like opposing magnetic fields. To be fair, it was the image that scuttled off in my first report, and I prodded, poked and generally abused the block it's in. This was before I had the Flex Layout Bar.

Major moans:
Moving multiple objects can (often, but not always) make the objects disappear, or multiply. It's virtually impossible to see what you're doing.
Not being able to marquee select inside a block. The amount of times I instinctively drew a box around items only to be rejected like Oliver Twist.
Not being able to input the height of a block by typing in the toolbar.

Once you realise that doing any editing is best done outside a block, the process is very neat and tidy. Learning the Shift and Alt was a huge eye-opener, and I found I was working with the software as opposed to battling with it for the most part.

Will I be using blocks in earnest? Yes, yes I will.