Transferring Styles across Documents/Sites

[Vortilon]

I have three subsites for my website ie three separate WEB files. Is it possible to "save" the styles from one site/WEB document and use them on one of the other sites? This would save me manually setting up/changing the styles. Getting lazy, I am!

I did have a look in Help and the forum but couldn't see anything relevant.

[Acorn]

Vortilon, I have thought this over several times.

What it boils down to is Xara lacks a Master Page feature.

Guides layers can be pasted.
Paragraph and Character Texts can be pasted but you get duplicate names with suffixed indices.
You can paste whole pages but there s no means to force original pages to following, only new ones.
You cannot build one slider and switch to any other.
You can alter colour themes, replacing identical Named Colours.

You could argue that Auto-fit to Page, if done correctly might work.

The closest you are going to get is probably with Web Blocks but even here you are fighting layouts across Main and Variant all the time.
Web Blocks can perform adaptively, noting, it is actually the Flex Layout part that does the heavy lifting (Plus products only).
I use Flex Groups in freeform websites as you can resize them fluidly, making dynamic redesign so much quicker.
We just have to get Xara to toggle in the Flex Layout whenever a Flex Group is selected.

Acorn

[Vortilon]

Thanks Acorn.

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi Vortilon, are you talking about just text styles?

[Vortilon]

I am, Egg, just to save me having to edit each style on other sites. My main site is slowing down so I've made two sub-sites, but if I want to change a style, I have to manually do it across all three. With 4 styles x 2 variants x 3 sites, it becomes tedious to change a style.

[Egg Bramhill]

Yes, it's possible. I'll get back asap.

[Egg Bramhill]

Okay, I'm back. Try this:

VIDEO

[Acorn]

Sorry Egg, I find you approach overegging the custard.

In creating your style-card, you have necessarily invented different style names for each paragraph style.
When you copy the style-card into another document, these style names immediately become part of the document and soon you build up a clutch of names that are nugatory and should never be used.

If you keep the same Heading 1 style et al in your style-card instead and paste into a new document, as the names are the same, Xara changes the imported style to include a suffix letter(a) and increments this suffix for every new paste.
Do the same with your Egg styles and after the first usage, you will have Heading 1, Egg 1, Egg 1 a, and so on.

The cleaner way is to compose your style-card with what your need as the new formats.
The key point is you set all of the styles to (No style) - Clear Styles.
You can copy and paste the 'No-style' style-card into any number of other design files.

The steps then become:

1. Select and Copy (Ctrl+C) the faux Heading 1 style line from the Main 'No style' style-card.
2. Select the target document's Main Heading 1 line or text including a carriage return (Four consecutive mouse clicks).
3. Paste Attributes (Shift+Ctrl+A).
4. Immediately Update 'Heading 1' to match.
5. Repeat for all Main Paragraph Styles.
6. Repeat with the Variant 'No style' style-card for all Variant-only styles.

In doing this you lose all Character styling: Bold, Italic, specific Characters Styles, ...

In 'Vortilon's case you could have the style-card in one design file, Copy a faux Style from that and step all three target design files and Paste Attributes and Update 'Style' to match for each one in turn.
@Vortlon's comment about 'tedious' still stands as it is no way automated.

Acorn

[Egg Bramhill]

Do the same with your Egg styles and after the first usage, you will have Heading 1, Egg 1, Egg 1 a, and so on.

Import your Egg 1 , 2 & 3 and Egg Normal text

Replace Heading1 with Egg 1. Heading2 & 3 will automatically change to Egg2 and Egg3.

Replace Normal with Egg Normal

Delete the imported Egg 1 , 2 & 3 and Egg Normal text from the page. (That's the only copy of this text.)

Save and close.

Reopen and you only have Heading1, 2 & 3 and Normal text but in the egg style. No mention of Egg1, 2 & 3 as Xara by default deletes unused styles.

[Acorn]

@Egg, the Xara delete of unused styles is new to me; never found it in the Help. A situation I would hate having created a Style to lose it totally if it was unused.
Styles need not be based on prior Styles.

Either approach is useless when you copy across a page of text/Styles from another design as you have you wade through all the suffixed Styles and additional Styles to work out what goes where.
Yes, make all the changes across all designs to harmonise before page pasting but it is all still hard work. Remediation of a design where the creator has not been rigorous in creating Styles is also a big problem.

I invariably use more than just H1-H3 + Normal: lists, baseline shifts, ToCs and line spacing and in-line effects (Character Styles) make for lots of Styles to support.

What we need from Xara is an approach similar ro https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...tte-from-Photo.

Acorn