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.

Select the Ellipse Tool (keyboard shortcut L), hold down the Shift key to constrain the ellipse to a circle, click and and drag out a 350 pixel circle. You can see the size on the Infobar as you drag.

TIP: Here is an easy way to create an ellipse or a rectangle to an exact size. Draw any size rectangle or ellipse, after you release the mouse button, change the dimensions in the W and H text entry boxes on the Infobar and press Enter (or Return) to apply the changes.

Add some text with the Text Tool (T). Select a font to your own choosing. Center justify the text and make the text large enough to fill the circle. I've used a 60s psychedelic font called MotterFem D.

Apply a 40% Black outline to the circle and the text. Apply a white fill to the text. (With the object or text selected, left click on a color on the screen palette to add a fill color and right click on a color to change the outline color. Some users will see a pop-up menu with the option to Set Outline or Fill color when you right click on a color).

Select the text then switch to the Shadow Tool (Ctrl F2). Click the Wall Shadow icon on the Infobar, it's the second icon from the left. Select the circle and the text (hold down the Shift key to select multiple objects), and group them (Arrange > Group or press Ctrl g).

NOTE: When you export your website, Xara creates a separate image for every object on your site. If you do not group the circle and the text, Xtreme will create a circle image and a text image. If you group these two objects, Xtreme exports a single image of a circle with text. This creates a smaller file size and your images will load faster.

Select the Rectangle Tool (M). Draw a small rectangle 120 x 40 pixels. Add the text HOME and center the text inside the rectangle. Apply a white fill. Leave the outline on the rectangle for now. Select the text and change the fill to 40% Black. Group the text and the rectangle.

TIP: If you enable Snap to Grid (right click on the page and select Snap to Grid from the pop up menu), and you are using pixels as you are supposed to, you can easily snap your rectangle to the exact size and position. You can turn Snap to Grid off after you have created your five buttons.

Duplicate the rectangle four times and stack the rectangles vertically. The rectangles should not overlap.

Select the text on the other buttons (Xtreme can select text on a group) and change the button text as shown above.