Xara Xtreme 2.0a DL Oct 10 2005 report

[BobInce]

Xara Xtreme installs Windows Media Video 9 VCM without users' prior knowledge, and it is not used by any component of Xara Xtreme.

Guess I didn't notice as I already have it, but I would like to add to this request. I have no interest in the movies (which is presumably the purpose of this), and do not wish to install movies, codecs, fonts, demo plug-ins or clipart. I also do not want Xtreme *ever* to call home for updates, movies or anything else. Please give us these options.

Page Options, Grid, Ruler settings are not saved when creating new document.

WFM. There are issues with the Page Options dialogue because some of the settings are per-document and some are global. This should really be sorted out at some point. However the Grid&Ruler settings *are* saved in the document for me.

In the case of Xara Picture Editor, each botton has its own set of registry CLSID! Xara Xtreme should restrict use of registry to storing configurations and supporting shell extensions.

Sorry, but this is the Windows way: COM objects all over the place. You don't have to like it but it is in no way a bug.

After applying skew and rotate effects, the skew and rotation angles are set to zero, making it impossible to reset the settings without undo.

These are direct changes to the paths, not on-the-fly transformations applied to the original shapes. The same is true of scaling. Whilst you might want these operations to work as transforms it would be a major change and would have drawbacks too.

When saving a document to other format, the command is not 'File -> Save As', but 'File -> Export', which is an inconsistent behaviour.

Save As should only be used when you are establishing a new location for the current document. Subsequent Saves will then save to the same place. This is not appropriate for any filetype that Xara cannot handle 100% natively - for example you wouldn't want to Save As JPEG, then do an edit and save again, you'd lose your work.

Miter, Round, Bevel joint settings in Bevel tool do not work.

WFM. Note that the settings only have any meaningful effect on obtuse angles, so if you eg. put an internal bevel on a square you aren't going to see any difference in joint types.

Special Effect only works on bitmaps. [...further complaints about SE...]

Special effects are an artefact from before there were live effects. I would expect them to go away and the functionality replaced by LE eventually.

Pressing right arrow key causes grid to be toggled, making nudging object to the right impossible.

This happens only on Japanese keyboards. No idea why, but presumably it is related to the other non-Latin keyboard input problems (not playing nicely with dead keys or IMEs) which have always plagued Xara.

When turning off live drag, nudging still uses live drag instead of just showing object's outline.

Nudging is a one-step-at-a-time operation, with a full document change and redraw between each step. There is no 'in progress' time in which an outline could meaningfully be drawn.

When changing an object's Position, Dimension, Dimensions, Scaling, Rotation, Skew via Selector Tool Infobar Controls, an object's outline is not shown, even when live drag is turned off.

Editing these fields is also a one-step operation.

'Export Animated GIF' dialogue has Options button overlaps with Help button (see attachment xaraxxd).

This seems to be caused somehow by your system fonts. Somehow you seem to be using a unusually small system font (looks something like PMincho?) instead of the usual system font (which is used for the bits on the right). I'm not sure how you've managed this as usually MS usually lock the system font to a fixed-size sans-serif system font.

(Of course on Win2000 and later the Places bar will make the dialogue much bigger anyway.)

Ordered dithering does not work.

Ordered dithering doesn't seem to available any more full stop - anyone know why? I don't see anywhere left you can even select it, for it not to work.

When changing a brush's shape from normal line to others, the line colour is not preserved.

Line colour is preserved but ignored for most of the default brushes. You have to use brushes with the colour-replacement options set for it to have any effect.

[quanta]

In the case of Xara Picture Editor, each botton has its own set of registry CLSID! Xara Xtreme should restrict use of registry to storing configurations and supporting shell extensions.

Sorry, but this is the Windows way: COM objects all over the place. You don't have to like it but it is in no way a bug.

In that case, Xara shouldn't be implemented to use a COM object for each effect. For that matter, live effects should not be implemented as COM objects at all. Many graphics editors and viewers don't use them and they can work just as well.

These are direct changes to the paths, not on-the-fly transformations applied to the original shapes. The same is true of scaling. Whilst you might want these operations to work as transforms it would be a major change and would have drawbacks too.

Live effect feature already allows undoing, and reordering transformation of images, without actually using 'Undo' command. If a 'permanent' transformation is needed, it will be better to include some kind of collpase command, similar to the layer merging feature in GIMP.

Save As should only be used when you are establishing a new location for the current document. Subsequent Saves will then save to the same place. This is not appropriate for any filetype that Xara cannot handle 100% natively - for example you wouldn't want to Save As JPEG, then do an edit and save again, you'd lose your work.

As I recalled, many other type of software implement 'Save As' that allow choosing different type of file types. The way 'Save As' is done creates inconsistent user interface. If preserving image detail is a concern, Xara should just inform users on incompatible changes before saving.

Miter, Round, Bevel joint settings in Bevel tool do not work.

WFM. Note that the settings only have any meaningful effect on obtuse angles, so if you eg. put an internal bevel on a square you aren't going to see any difference in joint types.

Bevel tool only changes the colour of a line across its thickness, not the outline of the line, so there shouldn't be reason for it to interfere with the use of joint type.

Pressing right arrow key causes grid to be toggled, making nudging object to the right impossible.

This happens only on Japanese keyboards. No idea why, but presumably it is related to the other non-Latin keyboard input problems (not playing nicely with dead keys or IMEs) which have always plagued Xara.

I use English (US) keyboard, but I still get this problem.

When turning off live drag, nudging still uses live drag instead of just showing object's outline.

Nudging is a one-step-at-a-time operation, with a full document change and redraw between each step. There is no 'in progress' time in which an outline could meaningfully be drawn.

However, nudging usually doesn't move an object to exactly where it is needed, so it is not exactly a one-step operation. What Xara needed is a deferred nudging, which only makes permanent change in location after user confirms it.

When changing an object's Position, Dimension, Dimensions, Scaling, Rotation, Skew via Selector Tool Infobar Controls, an object's outline is not shown, even when live drag is turned off.

Editing these fields is also a one-step operation.

Again, it is like nudging, there is no preview of these effects before users can confirm the change. When changing those properties via Selector Tool Infobar Controls, those settings are supposed to be experimental before confirmation, just like changing them by dragging object's handles. Furthermore, editing properties via Selector Tool Infobar Controls involve more steps than just dragging handles, it is better to have a quicker preview before commiting changes.

'Export Animated GIF' dialogue has Options button overlaps with Help button (see attachment xaraxxd).

This seems to be caused somehow by your system fonts. Somehow you seem to be using a unusually small system font (looks something like PMincho?) instead of the usual system font (which is used for the bits on the right). I'm not sure how you've managed this as usually MS usually lock the system font to a fixed-size sans-serif system font.

(Of course on Win2000 and later the Places bar will make the dialogue much bigger anyway.)

I am using system font, at default settings. I doubt it has anything to do with font, because if it does, it will affect more than just one dialogue.

[jens g.r. benthien]

Xara Xtreme installs Windows Media Video 9 VCM without users' prior knowledge, and it is not used by any component of Xara Xtreme. This unauthorized behaviour is dishonest and waste of users' resources, and must be stopped IMMEDIATELY.

Quanta, I second that. It's bugging me. Worst of all I don't know if it will render my system unusable if I just delete the unwanted files...

I don't know if Windows Media Video 9 VCM is the same as the Windows Media Player, but I definitely don't want a second media player on my machine. I've killed the windows media player long time ago and use VLC media player - a much better alternative. But after installing xtreme I have another MS app I don't want on my machine. The installer should check if there is a media player installed.

My suggestion: the X movies should be in DivX format, and the installer should come with the DivX codecs and install them (4.x should do the trick). The result would be very small file sizes for the movies and no need for another proprietary player...

[amoore]

>What Xara needed is a deferred nudging, which only makes permanent change in location after user confirms it.

Oh good lord, no. Why would you want add another layer of complexity to tools that are fast and reliable as they are? One of the things that makes Xara great is that it requires minimal effort (fewer keystrokes, fewer button pushes, less mousing) to do most tasks, particularly fundamental tasks such as the ones you mention. Undo is also fast. I do not want to have to confirm every [*read favorite expletive*] change I make. Yikes!

If you want to lumber, there plenty of other applications that will support your aspirations.

[wall]

Pressing right arrow key causes grid to be toggled, making nudging object to the right impossible.

This happens only on Japanese keyboards. No idea why, but presumably it is related to the other non-Latin keyboard input problems (not playing nicely with dead keys or IMEs) which have always plagued Xara.

I use English (US) keyboard, but I still get this problem.

This has been bugging me for a while and I finally found this thread. It's not a showstopper nevertheless. I'm bumping this up as a note that the bug still exists in Xara Xtreme Pro. Admittedly I'm running a Chinese Windows OS though.