Can I say how much I hate.. ?

**remi** · 07 November 2006, 10:57 PM

I would pay for an SVG import/export and an better AI import/export and an Scripting Engine and new vector drawing functions, but not for an enhanced Align Panel...

Remi

**pauland** · 07 November 2006, 11:27 PM

Sadly, you get what you're given with software. The AI import/export is certainly ripe for an update.

**Logo Kid** · 08 November 2006, 01:07 AM

Originally Posted by PhilM

But we are listening to everyone's suggestions and thinking about them.
Phil

Don't bother wasting your time on what comes down to just taste ... do some real work and get on with implementing some proper new functionality to this vector application which has had nothing but window dressing for the users for the the last two 'major' updates ...

But it's nice insight into a Xara Dev Teams working day!

It's no wonder a commercial business desided to go open source.

**PhilM** · 08 November 2006, 04:07 AM

Originally Posted by Logo Kid

Don't bother wasting your time on what comes down to just taste ... do some real work and get on with implementing some proper new functionality to this vector application which has had nothing but window dressing for the users for the the last two 'major' updates ...

But it's nice insight into a Xara Dev Teams working day!

It's no wonder a commercial business desided to go open source.

Hey Logo Kid,

I posted in my own time, on a Saturday, and did so specifically to point out that 'taste' was involved in the suggestions and to illuminate the discussion by raising some of the technical issues involved.

Phil

**sallybode** · 09 November 2006, 01:37 AM

If you use Xara as an animation tool, exporting to flash would be a much bigger advantage than an alignment panel. I would also hope for scripting, which allows users to customize certain features of Xara to automate things. Corel has this and it is a real time saver if you collect the scripts.

Assigning scripts to toolbar locations with a customized icon is my favorite time saver.

As far as alignment goes, the folks as isocalc.com has a free script for alignment that I use all the time, you can leave the tool up all the time, just takes a second to launch it and it is exceptionally easy to use. If you can read you can use it, also comes with diagrams of everything, if you are into that. The one tool is all I have found I need, does everthing.

Being able to have some kind of a description in the layers palette of items on a layer is a very useful feature. If you are having trouble finding things, it is a real time saver.

Also like guides that rotate. Though don't use it allot.

I was really disappointed with dropping the support for spot color as X1 had. If you are using the program in a professional printing environment, it is useful to have the spot color ability, that and a good print preview dialogue box.

Whether toolbars dock or not, no big deal. It would be handy if you could have both the line color and the fill color up at the same time. As it is, I am switching a lot. It would be a timesaver for me.

**Markku** · 09 November 2006, 06:23 AM

As with all new releases there are always a few new features and then some fixes to the old features. And that goes for all software.

I don't expect Xara to spend all of their time on the Align panel, far from it. Making the changes to it should be a piece of cake. They have the code and all that moves objects so it is just a matter running the same code via a more standard align panel, which to me looks a lot more simple task than it must have been originally with the old panel. The new panel would ONLY have simple buttons/icons that do not move or anything.

So fear not, should this be done it would not be a big deal regarding Xara's resources or what other features get implemented or not.

Ps. I second the idea what someone said that the align panel and the color panel should act the same way as other panels. They should dock, and there should be an option to turn off docking altogether.

**MarkMyWords** · 09 November 2006, 12:41 PM

As for the docking thing, I don't mind that.

Once docked each gallery remembers its size and position, I tend to keep the layers gallery open and quite slim on the right.

It would be nice if we could dock several galleries at once, one on top of another and they were accessed by tabs, or we could toggle all palettes/galleries off and on with a hotkey (like the Tab key does in Photoshop).

**-=Drifter=-** · 09 November 2006, 12:43 PM

MarkMyWords, I posted this earlier in this thread. It is not necessary to keep your galleries docked. NONE of my galleries dock anymore, not since this informative thread:

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...hlight=docking

**MarkMyWords** · 09 November 2006, 02:08 PM

Thanks Drifter, but I really don't mind them docking, I'm just thinking about quick, easy and consistent ways to clear the screen if I have one or several galleries open at once.

I suppose I'm just trying to transplant my working preferences from Photoshop again LOL!

Learning all the hotkeys is O.K., but a simple toggle to clear the screen of all the clutter and bring back the stuff when you need it is quite a good way to work (for me at least).

Then again, perhaps I over-emphasise the need for speed in my workflow.

**DukeofThomas** · 13 November 2006, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by pauland

.. The align dialog Box.

It should be a dockable panel, not a floating one and/or it should be available with other menu panels. I won't bother to ask for real time alignment guides..

..The lack of nested layers.

Examples courtesy of Flash 8..

OK, I feel better now..

A lot of the user interface in Xtreme sucks big time. It's as if the programmers think they are catering for users with 2" monitors (yes, TWO inches) that can only display 100 x 200 pixels, or something.

If you are going to give the user options, DISPLAY as many of them as possible, as MUCH of the time as possible, so the user doesn't have to click and click and click, over and over again, every time they want to select what they've just selected a million times. It's down to bad program design, pure and simple, and a complete inability to empathise with other people. i.e. a GOOD programmer will ask himself, when implementing the user interface: "How would somebody who'd never seen this program before use this piece of the interface? How can I make it easier to use? How can I put as much information as possible in front of the user, so they don't have to search for functions that could be on the screen already, or click their way through numerous unnecessary steps every time?" Unfortunately, most programmers don't ask these questions...
Why can't we have up and down buttons to adjust the zoom, and the line border? Why are all the arrows that ARE on the user interface, so tiny they are a real pain to use? (Again, if you had one of the programmers' mythical 200 by 100 pixel screens, I guess those arrows would look pretty huge...)