Thumbnails move when page size is adjusted

[bwood]

Interesting that all Push and Auto fit options are off. I took 40 thumbnails and put them on one layer, then locked the layer. It helped a great deal; but if a particular thumbnail had a custom “drop image onto” option that image moved when page size was adjusted. Always learning!

[Acorn]

Interesting that all Push and Auto fit options are off. I took 40 thumbnails and put them on one layer, then locked the layer. It helped a great deal; but if a particular thumbnail had a custom “drop image onto” option that image moved when page size was adjusted. Always learning!

Bill, can you upload a simple version of your thumbs with the special option; I cannot get my head around it.

Thanks.

Acorn

[Chris M]

Could you not use a Photo Grid? It would make life easier in the future too.

Make sure Lily has an extra treat from me.

[bwood]

@chrism. I am using photo grids on a couple of pages. The challenge is 53 thumbnails. I designed a straight grid for all the thumbnails because of additions and deletions daily, which is good for an animal shelter.

Lily is just fine and I’ll say hello. As well as 53 cats.

[bwood]

Bill, can you upload a simple version of your thumbs with the special option; I cannot get my head around it.

Thanks.

Acorn

Sorry Acorn. Terminology. That would be a *smart frame* aka drop the photo onto the frame. Smart frames from the catalogue.

[Acorn]

Sorry Acorn. Terminology. That would be a *smart frame* aka drop the photo onto the frame. Smart frames from the catalogue.

Bill, I find Smart Frames anything but. They are mutton dressed as lamb.
Whatever trapping you tweak them with, you inherit if you use Photo pop-up.

I prefer mutton, using basic Xara tools (pre-Smart) that Pop-up Layers.
Finer control and presentation for the cost of learning some basic features that can be repeated and varied as you choose and not constrained by a designer remote from your work.

Whimsy.xar uses the two Smart Frames and Photo pop-up on the left.
I did the same with Pop-up Layers on the right and rework the thumbnails bottom right.

I threw in a made up design across the bottom to show that no Xara designer would think of such a thing but I did and immediately could see all sorts of opportunities...

...I could make a 16x4 thumb grid accessing 64 Layers or Pages. Pages would be better because I would "retire" a page when the cat had secured a new home but remove its thumb (not literally) for the next inmate.
The new owner could keep a link to their Cat#1305 page and you have a historical record to show as a "cat"alogue page for the casual mouser (sorry, browser).

Acorn

[bwood]

Many thanks @acorn. I’ll definitely play with that.

[Gypsyjoe]

Acorn, after looking at your wimsy.xar it has created a question for me. Is it possible to create your own photo frame within xara or must you always use the ones in the content catalog? I guess what created my question is when I looked at whimsy.xar at the star frame I thought about giving it 6 points instead of 4 and tried. I see no way how. Then went to the help for xara and looked up photo grids, all it talks about is the ones in content catalog. I like what you are showing in whimsy.xar, just created a question in my mind!

[Acorn]

Acorn, after looking at your wimsy.xar it has created a question for me. Is it possible to create your own photo frame within xara or must you always use the ones in the content catalog? I guess what created my question is when I looked at whimsy.xar at the star frame I thought about giving it 6 points instead of 4 and tried. I see no way how. Then went to the help for xara and looked up photo grids, all it talks about is the ones in content catalog. I like what you are showing in whimsy.xar, just created a question in my mind!

Bill, what Xara is calling Smart frames is basically some wrapping around existing capability.

Of the two examples, Rounded Square and Star, both are actually made from the rectangle Tool and the QuickShape Tool but Xara has hidden away some controls.

I find this a pointless exercise and automatically use the right Tool for the job, which is actually the QuickShape Tool as you can morph a shape into a box, ellipse, circle, star or cog with up to 99 points.
Then magically, Xara allows the addition of a Bitmap fill and it then markets this as a Smart Frame.

There is no need for 95% of the Online Content Catalogue. You could get by with one Smart Line, one Smart Labeled Line, one Smart Table, a few Charts and buttons. Most are badly implemented.
The Spiral is innovative but has its limitations.

To get a six-pointed star. Use the QuickShape Tool. Drag the Blue control (Number of points) @ 3 o'clock and you can change from 4 up to 30.
I did this for the 7-point star thumb, bottom right.
If you wanted a 37-pointed star, with a non-symmetrical Stellation radius and Offset, then Xara Smart Star Frame is no good.

Acorn