Version 23.7 Blocks

[Chris M]

This is/was just a testing ground and play using the 23.7 release. I don't own or rent Xara, but have access through a customer. This customer invariably calls me after an update because something breaks. We had two sites that used a single page, made with blocks, that were displayed through an iframe on their main sites. The customer opened up the latest version of Xara to update a single picture, only to be told that the whole page is now a bunch of groups and not blocks. "Do not panic" says I. "Cross my palm with silver (again) and I'll rebuild the page." However, imagine my dismay when I can no longer make a single page, nor can I use a standard page anymore. No worries, I'll just delete the variant...can't do that either. I ended up making the main 720px wide, and pretending the mobile didn't exist. Not very professional, and I'll be looking to revert to tables and photo galleries.

Here's a link to the site I'll be talking about below >>> index (auzlink.net.au) <<<
The .xar project file is attached so you can 'follow along'.

My observations:
Can't paste in place, as ctrl+shift+V doesn't paste inside the block. I tried ctrl+shift+v+alt to see if that would paste in place inside the block. The universe tilted violently, planes fell out of the sky and the oceans dried up.

The mobile variant disappeared altogether, to be replaced by Main(2). Main is now Main(1) and they are identical twins. No amount of ctrl+z would restore the mobile variant, and now we can't delete variants either. I banished the whole thing to the bowels of the earth and pulled a working version from the auto backup folder.

Flexible blocks just aren't, unless you only have one thing in each block. On the Synthwave page, for reasons unknown, a flexible block with two objects (an SVG and a jpeg) decided to be wider than the page. I couldn't alter the width, nor height of the block, and at some point the whole thing simply disappeared. I later found it at the very top of the pasteboard when I altered the zoom to 10%. It's still there today, and probably will be forever.

I placed two text areas in a freehand block. There's only one in the mobile variant. Makes me wonder what else may go AWOL.

Annoyances:
Why can't I delete a variant?
Why MUST I have a variant in the first place?
Why can't I marquee select in a block?

I didn't realise, but I use 'Repeat On All Pages' a lot. When using blocks (I presume because they now insist on having a mobile variant from the start) how do I get around the 'LiveShared objects cannot be made repeating' thing.

The project file is 15.5 MB, a tad big for the forum. You can download directly here >>>xara-blocks.xar<<<

[bwood]

I’m working through it Chris on a tablet. I’ve been obsessive on speed lately. Desktop comes up all green and very fast. Mobile in the high amber range. All okay, even though a larger file.

The arrow up to top has a white bar, smaller than the arrow, on the tablet anyway.

The first page on Magic, second text paragraph. It looks like in the first line, the title is bold and a larger font.

Synth wave is a good page, all looking correct.

Comic pop art page is very nice.

That’s just viewing on a tablet, I’ll have to dig into the file.

Many thanks for this.

[Chris M]

Bill, the idea of this was to play with the web blocks. The content is largely irrelevant, and all of it, including the text, is AI generated and largely unchecked.

The arrow with white bar, for instance, is there because I wanted to see if an element could be placed off page, as in a standard project. The white bar is to make the arrow stand away from the edge of the page and would be 99% transparent for a real site.

So far, I have learnt that all the different blocks are basically just 2, presented as being a lot. I much prefer the Freehand to the Flexible, as, ironically, the Freehand blocks are much more flexible.

To say this was my first real foray into blocks, I was able to easily get going, and most things are extremely similar, as you would expect. A few things need a thought process adjustment. Being forced to have 2 variants from the outset is contrary to my normal way of doing things. If something goes very awry early on in the variant, you wouldn't know unless you're constantly checking. In this example, on the mobile variant, a whole block packed up it's belongings and marched off without my knowledge, and, on the pop art page, Mr. Lichtenstein's very famous Whaam flew away. Again, I didn't notice until later, so a simple undo was not an option.

A couple of things I've found out since posting.
On the mobile variant, I used a pop-up layer for the menu. If the background is made to stretch full width, it disappears. Likewise, I think this happened to Whaam as well, as it is on top of a full width image.

I would have no problems in making a working site with blocks, but not yet, more to do with me not being comfortable with the workflow at the moment. The forced variant, and no way to delete it, is my only major worry...so far.

I'll play with it a little more today.

[bwood]

Got it on your premise and the arrow off page. I wondered about that as well.

When blocks was introduced I had a zoom call with Xara. They asked what are some of things you want blocks to do? I responded that I wanted to bring a block into a free form design. I think that was a naive answer.
Acorn answers it well. You need a good basic grounding of Xara best practices, because as Chris M has shown, when things go wrong, they really go wrong.

[Acorn]

So far, I have learnt that all the different blocks are basically just 2, presented as being a lot.

Chris, I had a chuckle. It's funny how my expose on Smart Line, tables and the like passes people by.

Tables call themselves "Financial" without any attempt to make them crush the numbers. 70 flavours of the one construct.
Charts run a different flavour of embedded data to Tables.
Fancy Buttons you can wave a stick and all they have is a different Line Profile. Xara be better and teach people how to alter your deigns, across the board.
I'm choking on Smoke fogs.
Whatever did a Photo Frame bring?
Twelve Triangles. They can even have 30 sides. None are scalene or obtuse; you have to fiddle them and then find those ones don't have rounding. Then when you rotate one, it explodes.
Four Pie Segments.
Two Web Blocks, well there were two Delivery Vans awaiting a load.
Few will snap to position with anything.

I'm amazed there's still only one Spiral.

Things should be turned on their head.
C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Designer Pro+\basefiles\smartshapes\ folder should contain one example of every feature so those cut adrift with Magix gone could rebuild their own patterns.

For TG to be worth it for us and Xara, we need a reformat to easily flag products, versions and features.

Thank you. It's nice to have moan once in a while!

Acorn

[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.