Scaling issue workaround?

[Xhris]

I know this has been discussed in the forum before, but I don't find the thread anymore. Anyhow:

When I scale an object horizontally or vertically, then individual parts are moved, not scaled. This is, of course, not what I want. I figured that I can press Alt when using the handles, and then scaling is back to normal. However, when entering dimensions manually, then the issue persists.

What is the workaround for Xara's scaling oddness?

Interestingly, I've just updated my course discussing this web feature. It is known as "group squashing" (also search help file) and applies only in web documents. When a group is stretched/squashed, it is not done so affinely like would happen in print documents; instead the constituent objects aren't stretched and only their positions are changed. Apparently, the rationale for this is that in web documents, when stretching/squashing headers or footers eg in mobile site variants, it's more useful for this kind of squashing behaviour. As you've discovered, you can Alt-toggle to revert back to affine scaling. Alternatively, you can use a print document or permanently turn this off by setting the registry entry Dragging\EnableGroupSquash to 0.