Stupid question about editing

[Acorn]

Okay, after two days of this, and finally asking for help, I'm as confused as ever. I highlighted the entire rest of the page and selected Apply Soft Group. Doesn't seem to do much of anything. I tried Group and tried to move it, and it looks like it selected only the pictures and not the text, and moving it messed up the entire page.

Seriously this CAN'T be this hard! How in the Sam Hill do I insert some text?

I move my cursor to the place I want to insert. Then what?

Gary, as I don't know what you have done prior, I can't tell what's next.
What you don't do is just select a lots of things and soft-group. I tried to explain what soft-grouping an image with text is all about.
What you definitely do not do is just Group - the output will then become an image.

I have been trying to explain that you should create block of text with the images repelling the text that they are above. That is the fist very basic step.

You do this for each topic, which can be one or more paragraphs with pictures.

These blobs can be moved around and space created for the insertion of another blob.

What you seem to be trying is using the Text tool and then clicking into the text area and typing.
Doing just this will lead to a mess over time.

Do read my first ask or upload your current design so we can all talk from the same starting position.

Acorn

[gwpriester]

Insert the text cursor and from the Edit menu select Paste > Paste as Unformatted Text.

I am not sure why you soft grouped the text. This is not necessary to edit text or to insert more text.

[Gary Tayman]

Actually, I think I have a plan here. Scrap the whole thing and start over from scratch.

The next thing I was going to look at is scaling. I'm told that with Pro, you can make a page that scales according to the size of the user's browser. All the pages I've made so far are specific sizes. Hopefully I can figure out how to make a "Scale" page, and just cut and paste all the stuff from the old page to the new.

Thanks for your help anyway.

[Acorn]

Here is an example for future reference: Push Power.xar.

Acorn

[gwpriester]

Gary - In any menu, you can press Help to see a context sensitive list of information relating to that specific feature.

There is a Scale to Fit Screen option in Web Export Options. You have to select Page Transitions for this to work and your website must be a SuperSite which has its own problems.

There is also a Scale to Fit option in Web Export Options. This works best if your pages are short. Then the content scales OK. If you pages are long, then the scaling makes the page too small.

[Gary Tayman]

Thanks for all the responses.

Basically my situation is this: it's Christmas, I'm out of town visiting family, and during some of this downtime I've decided to tweak up a few pages on my website. First edit is to add some information on the aforementioned speaker page, and ran into a roadblock trying to allow room for the new text.

I'll take all of the suggestions with me, and study them better once I'm back home. There are a lot of nice ideas and I'll try them out later. But if I sound a little frustrated, it's not from the help -- it's from my inability to do an easy task. I'll figure it out later. Overall I love the program, and if you want to visit the other pages, you're welcome. If you actually have a classic car and are interested, contact me directly -- but otherwise just look at the format of the pages. It's easy to tell which pages have been redone with XARA and which ones are still the "old" format. Even so, I still prefer simplicity over fancy graphics, animations, and such -- I use the KISS -- Keep It Simple Stupid -- concept, realizing I frequently go back in and make changes.

Thanks again!

[Gary Tayman]

After all of this, I just had to respond again with my stupid answer. I went back in and started playing with editing, and I found one very important factor. The entire page is one big text box! That explains my trouble with grouping, but it's also making it easier to edit. Just start typing! As I'm adding text, I can later move those illustrations around to give it a pleasing appearance.

What threw me off -- most of my other pages use several text boxes, arranged with buttons and graphics, and can be edited such. Also, I was apprehensive that the "import" of a premium page into Pro X was a factor. I'm on my way -- before long I'll have an updated page!

Thanks again -- yes, I've learned from your suggestions!

[Acorn]

After all of this, I just had to respond again with my stupid answer. I went back in and started playing with editing, and I found one very important factor. The entire page is one big text box! That explains my trouble with grouping, but it's also making it easier to edit. Just start typing! As I'm adding text, I can later move those illustrations around to give it a pleasing appearance.

What threw me off -- most of my other pages use several text boxes, arranged with buttons and graphics, and can be edited such. Also, I was apprehensive that the "import" of a premium page into Pro X was a factor. I'm on my way -- before long I'll have an updated page!

Thanks again -- yes, I've learned from your suggestions!

Gary, I am glad you have it now sorted. It was sad you missed my "If you could advise how you page is composed, we can help further."
With a single block you now need to apply Push and also ensure the top graphics are Repel text under.

Good luck,
Acorn