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.

If you are a new user, I strongly recommend you look at the text and links above. It may save you a lot of time and trouble and save me from having to answer questions that have already been covered.

Create a tall rectangle to the size shown above. Create 3 ellipses to the sizes shown and center them (Arrange > Alignment) over the rectangle. Create two rectangles, 100 and 115 pixels tall and use these to measure the distance and to position the ellipses. Convert the ellipses and rectangles to editable shapes (Arrange > Convert to Editable Shapes).

Select the rectangle then switch to the Shape Editor Tool (F4). Drag the sides of the rectangle outward until the curved sides align to the ends of the 2nd ellipse.

With the rectangle selected, click the Shape Editor Tool on the corner control points to enable the Bezier curve control handles (the handles are the tiny red squares on the end of the gray lines), and modify the shape as shown above so the sides align to the 2nd and 3rd ellipses and the bottom curves inward. This may take some time if you are not familiar with editing Bezier curves. I've shown the position of the control handles.

Make a duplicate set of all these objects (Ctrl d) and set them to one side. We will use them several more times. What you have left over at the end of the tutorial you can delete.

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