Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
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Pages
Xara is capable of creating multi-page
documents, perfect for desktop publishing documents.
To create a new page (within the same document), click
the Insert A New Blank Page After The Current Page
icon on the Standard Toolbar, and you're moved to the
blank new page onscreen. Xara multi-page documents
are presented as a continuous-feed arrangement, easy
to navigate by pressing PageUp and PageDown (or by
dragging the middle mouse button to pan). To delete
the current page, click Edit | Pages | Delete Current
Page. If you are more comfortable with the desktop
publishing metaphor of facing pages onscreen, you can
press
CTRL
-
SHIFT
-
O
(Utilities | Options) and check Double
Page Spread on the Page Size tab.
Tools
N
Many of the drawing tools serve multiple
functions. For example, you can draw
and
edit by
using the Shape Editor Tool. The Toolbar is covered
in more detail in the following section. From top
to bottom, the Toolbar is organized with tools for
creating shapes, special effects and dynamic relations
such as Contours and Blends, tools for dynamically
editing an imported photo or other bitmap artwork,
and the Push and Zoom Tools.
The Color Line
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By default, the Xara color line is
populated with the Standard Palette library of swatches.
You show or hide color libraries via the Color gallery;
you right-click a folder and then choose Show In Color
Line. A permanent library cannot be directly added to
or changed, and you know the swatches on the color
line are from a library by their diamond shape.
Local
colors—colors specific to a document that you add to
the color line—appear there by naming a color through
the Color editor and the Color gallery. You can save your
own colors to the color line by naming colors (covered in
Chapter 5) and then saving a Xara file as a template via
File | Save Template. To apply a solid color swatch to a
shape, left-click a swatch when the object is selected, or
drag a swatch and drop it onto a shape. You
SHIFT
-click a
swatch to assign that swatch as a selected object's outline
color; if a shape has no outline width, Xara applies a
default width of one pixel when you
SHIFT
-click a swatch.
When you drop a swatch onto a shape, you're in the
