THE XARA XONE | XARA.COM | THE XARA CONFERENCES

As always, we will be using Pixels as our units of measure. Right click on the screen and select Page Options... from the pop up menu. In the Units tabbed section, select Pixels for the Units and 0-255 for the Color Units. In the Grid and Ruler tabbed section set the Major Spacing to 100pix (key it in exactly like this please) and the Number of Subdivisions to 10. Press OK to close the dialog and apply the changes.

To see a tutorial on Xara Basics visit Workbook 20.

NOTE: You will notice from time to time I apply arbitrary colors to objects. I do this to make the objects easier to see. If I do not specify a fill for an object, you do not have to apply a fill or outline color.

When I show an ellipse or rectangle that has just been created, that has no fill, it is because I have set the fill to none before I exported the illustration. By default, all ellipses, rectangles and Quick Shapes have a black outline and a black fill. There is nothing wrong with your copy of Xara.

Naming Conventions. I use bold face to indicate the names of tools, galleries, keyboard shortcuts, and dialogs. Items such as unnamed icons and drop down lists, which have names when you let your cursor rest over them for a moment, are displayed in italics.

The Infobar is the context sensitive menu at the top of the screen and changes to reflect the options for the selected tool.

Some of the tool icons have changed in Xara X1, and this may cause some confusion for new users. If you are using an older version of Xara, click here to see my Rosetta Stone for translating the old buttons into the new.

New Users? I have created some quick start mini-tutorials to get you though the basics. Workbook 20, Workbook 30, and Workbook 31 cover the main things you need to know to get started.

While you should be able to create all the steps in previous versions of Xara, some of the tool icons have changed, and this may cause some confusion for new users. If you are using an older version of Xara, click here to see my Rosetta Stone for translating the old buttons into the new.

Select the Shape Editor Tool (F4). Click on the page, hold down the Ctrl key, and click and drag upwards until the height on the Infobar reads 150 pixels. Holding down the Ctrl key constrains the angle of the line to vertical.

Open the Line Gallery (F12). Change the Width to 4pt and from the Set Line Cap drop down list, select Round Cap and then press Apply.

With the line selected, open the Stroke Shape folder, select Concave 2 and press Apply. This adds a taper to the line. From the Arrange menu at the top of the screen, select Convert Line to Shape.

Select the line shape and change the color to the color shown above. (Click here if you need help editing colors). Select the Freehand and Brush Tool (F3) and click on the line shape to select it. Click the Create Brush button on the Infobar. Name the new brush Pine Needle and press OK.

Draw a horizontal line with the Freehand and Brush Tool as shown above. We will use this to edit the brush.

LAST PAGE   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   RESPONSE PAGE   NEXT PAGE