Why can't I resize a Smartshape?

[JohnHind]

You guys are amazingly helpful but I keep getting into ridiculously baffling situations with Xara - I guess I am just not on the same wavelength as its designers, but honestly I NEVER have so much trouble with other software!

Latest is this: Open Xara Designer Pro X, create a new empty page, Insert|Shape|Speech Bubble. Now just try to re-size it: Click on it with the arrow pointer, the usual resize handles appear and the prompt in the status bar tells me exactly what to do, but try to drag them and nothing happens. Try typing a new value in the W and H boxes on the toolbar - I can type new numbers (or use the up-down buttons) but as soon as I hit enter they snap straight back to the original numbers and the shape is unchanged. Ditto skew and rotate handles - they are there as expected but cannot be dragged. Seems to be the same with several other Smartshapes I've tried. (Though limited, because Xara's web site seems to be down so on-line resources are not available.)

Last time I got into a head-bang like this, you guys pointed out what I was missing, but this one is just so damn simple that I cannot see what I could possibly be missing!

[Boy]

What happens when you try to resize the speech bubble with one of the quick shape tools? Does that work?

[gwpriester]

No problem here John. I inserted a speech bubble, switched to the Selector Tool and it resizes perfectly.

There are also resize handles in the Smart Edit Mode.

Try it again.

[PhilM]

Hi John,

It sounds like you selected the basic shape inside the SmartShape, rather than selecting the SmartShape itself.

Did you hold down Ctrl while you clicked? If so, why? Or maybe you have reconfigured the functions of your mouse buttons so that a click is treated as a Ctrl+Click?

If you simply click on the shape the handles will work as expected.

Phil

[JohnHind]

No problem here John. I inserted a speech bubble, switched to the Selector Tool and it resizes perfectly.

There are also resize handles in the Smart Edit Mode.

Try it again.

Here is what I am seeing:



As you can see the handles are square, not like yours, but they still look like they should work. The usual double headed arrows appear when I hover over the handle and the status bar tells me to drag to resize, but it will not drag! I can drag the whole object across the page to reposition it so nothing wrong with my trackpad. If I hold Ctrl when selecting the handles move in tight round the rectangle, but will still not be dragged.

How do I get "Smart Edit Mode"? Search in the help file does not locate that "as a thing".

Afraid I'm up against a deadline and I've had to resort to PowerPoint!

[Boy]

How do I get "Smart Edit Mode"? Search in the help file does not locate that "as a thing".

Select one of the Shape tools (Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool or QuickShape Tool)

[JohnHind]

Select one of the Shape tools (Rectangle Tool, Ellipse Tool or QuickShape Tool)

OK I can use that to draw shapes and those shapes can be resized as expected both with the shape tool and with the normal Selector Tool. But clicking on the Smartshape with the shape tool selected has no effect. I also found the "Live drag" button in the status bar - with that engaged, both with the rectangle and the smart shape resizing by dragging handles shows a dotted guide rectangle, on release the rectangle snaps to the guide rectangle, but the Smartshape snaps back to its original size. Still not seeing the blue dot handles per gwpriester's post though.

[gwpriester]

If you see the square bounding box handles then double click to enable the controls. You can double click on almost anything in Xara to enable various controls and features.

Or select the shape with the QuickShapes Tool.

[Boy]

Still not seeing the blue dot handles per gwpriester's post though.

Have you tried to redownload the smartshape? Have you tried to insert a smartshape in a new document? Have you tried to restart the program? Just asking some questions. Who knows, one of them might work.....

[JohnHind]

Have you tried to redownload the smartshape? Have you tried to insert a smartshape in a new document? Have you tried to restart the program? Just asking some questions. Who knows, one of them might work.....

In other news, I do not seem to be able to access any of the online content - just an endless wait cursor. So no to the first, yes to the other two. (Anyone else having problems with this? Are they down? Obviously not a problem my end as this forum is fine!).

In this screen shot, The rectangle on the left was drawn using the Rectangle Tool, the one on the right inserted using Insert|Shape|Rectangle. They started out the same size, then I tried clicking on them in turn and dragging the center top handle up to the same new height with the result shown - the Live Drag rectangle worked for both but the smart shape snapped back down to its original size on release.



Double-clicking the left rectangle switches to the rectangle tool and there are small square handles at the corners which resize it. Doing the same on the right one switches to the "star" quick shape tool and there is one small square handle only on the bottom left corner. It cannot be dragged.