Pop-up Hell

[Acorn]

I agree with John. I see minimum use for this feature, in fact I ignore it. Just another annoying pop-up.

Egg, the last part is the telling point of all this.

With the Text tool selected, Click-drag over a Shape to try and make a Text Column or Text Area. You know exactly what you are building but now Xara steps in and blows all this away.
If you select On Top, you are now stuck with a Text Line.

Where is the sensible workflow to get round this? Oh yes, click somewhere else and then move the text!
If the somewhere else happens to be over the shape and you change our mind, you may not get the pop-up to kick in again.

Acorn

[Egg Bramhill]

Totally agree Acorn. This ' improvement ' leaves me totally confused and I can never understand where I would possibly use it.

[gwpriester]

Somehow, Xara believes that the ability to put text inside objects with a few options to make the text larger or not is more important than something as really useful and competitive as left and right pages in a spread that act independently or master pages.

The only advice I can offer is FOCUS people. Stop throwing shiny coins in the air and give the users features to make their design experience better and easier.

[Acorn]

Totally agree Acorn. This ' improvement ' leaves me totally confused and I can never understand where I would possibly use it.

But Xara claimed it was one of the highest asked for features arising from a survey. While it might have its uses, it is a rarity that could have been met with existing Xara functionality. he major difference being the design would have total control as to what was wanted without have another set of workflow constraints that hamper.

Acorn

[mwenz]

...With the Text tool selected, Click-drag over a Shape to try and make a Text Column or Text Area. You know exactly what you are building but now Xara steps in and blows all this away.

The only time that happens here is if I have the shape selected. If I do have a shape selected, like right after drawing a shape, and choose to add a text column or a text line, I hit the escape key and whichever type of text object gets created normally.

Seems fine to me.

[Acorn]

The only time that happens here is if I have the shape selected. If I do have a shape selected, like right after drawing a shape, and choose to add a text column or a text line, I hit the escape key and whichever type of text object gets created normally.
Seems fine to me.

Until you have a clutch of Shapes on the page and switch to the Text tool...

...the one thing I have discovered is if no Shape is select and you go to the Text tool and use Ctrl+Select the pop-up appears for that Shapes; if you just Select you get normal (Xara) capability.

It is the Select within the bounds of a selected Shape that is the problem.

Acorn

[mwenz]

Like I said, just hitting escape works no matter what. Even with the text tool active before I begin drawing out the text area.

If I have multiple objects selected, choose the text tool and have forgotten to deselect those objects and start the text area within the bounds of the last selected object and get the pop-up, I can hit escape twice, once dismisses the pop-up and once again deselects the objects, I can draw the text area anywhere.

[iamtheblues]

'Xara Designer Pro' and 'Xara Graphic Designer' the clues are there in the titles of these 2 programs. They are both called 'Designer' presumably because they are purportedly for use by Designers. Although these unwanted popups would suggest otherwise. If I load a design program, I want to start drawing or typing with it. That was easier to do in the early days of the program than it is now. That isn't progress in my book. Nothing that has been introduced in later editions of the program over quite a few years now has come remotely close to improving the user experience. It gets tougher all the time to ignore all the distractions thrown up by new improvements that require turning off, or at least stopping to read what one has done to incur the displeasure of the program. This nannying is becoming one of the main features of Xara. I love the program for its ease of use, but these annoyances are actually getting in the way of both productivity and any pleasure that used to be derived from using the program.

The spiral tool* works nicely, and some of the newer brushes are a welcome addition, but nothing much over the last decade or more has sent me scurrying off to my credit card to invest in what has been on offer. This is a huge disappointment. We have made plenty of suggestions for new or revamped tools, but nothing much has been forthcoming (except of coure the new Auto-fitting Text inside a QuickShape - and who knew that we all wanted that?). I have acknowledged elsewhere the improvements to text handling, but in this regard, they have been long overdue.
*as long as one has an internet connection (and how dull is that?)
Edit: Apologies to Rod Sterling and The Twilight Zone TV series for plagiarising their logo

[mwenz]

If you want, there is a Registry entry that will shut off the automatic placement of text inside, along with the pop-up. This setting returns the old behavior without removing the ability to place text inside a shape...see below the image.



One can still opt to place text into a specific object by right-clicking the object and choosing to do so and selecting the desired option.

[handrawn]

thanks for that Mike [saves me looking ]

the one popup the irritates me more than any other is the one that presumes an imported image would be best be converted to a jpg - I never use jpgs in my Xara designs... jpgs are for photos and my art is not that kind of continuous tone image, and for why would I use a lossy format anyway, just storing up trouble down the line

can be killed in the registry