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 Rectangle Tool (keyboard shortcut Shift F3) and draw a rectangle to the size shown above. Draw it roughly to the size shown and then enter the exact numbers in the Width and Height text entry boxes on the Infobar at the top of the page. Press Enter to apply the change.

Press the magnet icon on the Infobar to enable Snap to Objects or select Snap to Objects from the Window pull down menu. Draw a second rectangle over the first, and to the exact size. I'll explain why in a minute.

With the new rectangle and the Rectangle Tool still selected, press the Curved Corners icon on the Infobar.

The reason for drawing the second rectangle is this, if you resize a rectangle and then apply Curved Corners, the corners may be distorted and not be rounded properly. Drawing the rectangle to the exact size ensure perfectly rounded corners.

With the rounded rectangle selected, from the Arrange menu, select Convert to Editable Shapes.

Move the rounded rectangle to one side and delete the first rectangle.

Select the rounded rectangle and then switch to the Shape Editor Tool (F4). You will see all the control points that define a vector object (if you remembered to Convert to Editable Shapes ). Drag a guideline from the top screen ruler (Ctrl L to display rulers) through the two control points shown above left in red outline. Drag a second guideline and snap it to the top of the rounded rectangle.

Select the Shape Editor Tool (F4) and draw a horizontal line that extends to each side of the rectangle and is on the 2nd guideline.

Hold down the Shift key (to multiple select) and click on the rectangle and the horizontal line. The status bar in the lower left corner of the screen should indicate "2 Objects Selected". Alternately, you can drag a selection rectangle (a marquee) around the line and rounded rectangle with the Selector Tool (the arrow pointer).

From the Arrange menu, select Combine Shapes > Slice Shapes or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl 4. Select the top portion and delete it.

INTERESTING NOTE: The easiest method is to select and delete the top 2 control points with the Shape Editor Tool, but a feature (bug) in Xara Xtreme creates a filled outline which will not do what we need to do with it. You can try this if you want and notice that when you delete the top 2 control points, the status line reads "1 Line".

With the shape selected, switch to the Shape Editor Tool. Drag a selection rectangle around the top 2 control points and use the up arrow key on your keyboard to raise the top of the shape to the top guideline.

TIP: I set my Nudge Size (the distance an object is moved each time you press an arrow key) to 1pix (right click on the page, select Page Options > General to change the Nudge Size amount).

Guidelines TIP: The fastest way to clear the page of guidelines is to right click on the screen ruler and select Delete All Guidelines. To remove individual guidelines, right click on the guideline and select Delete.

Using the Rectangle Tool (Shift F3), Create a tall slim rectangle, 18 pixels wide by 175 pixels tall. This will be a guide rectangle.

Draw a new rectangle on top and apply Curved Corners by pressing the Curved Corners icon on the Infobar.

From the drop down list of Slider Types on the Infobar, select Curvature and change the setting to 0.1. Press Enter (or Return) to apply the change.

To make the next steps easier, make the rectangle with the roundest corner pink and the rectangle with straight corners pale blue.

Draw a new rectangle that is 125 pixels tall, the width is not important. Align this rectangle to the bottom of that large rounded shape and drag a guideline through the top as shown above, bottom right. Delete the measuring rectangle.

Align and duplicate (Ctrl d) the pink and blue rectangles as shown above. It is very important that the two outside blue rectangles be aligned exactly to the larger gray shape. Use the Alignment menu (Arrange ) to left and right align the rectangles.

If you are unfamiliar with the Alignment menu see Workbook 44.

TIP: This is a bit labor intensive but you can move an object a specified amount by modifying the X or Y Duplication Distance in the Page Options menu (Right click on the page and select Page Options...)

To move the blue or pink rectangles exactly 36 pixels (2 times the width), set the X: Duplication Distance to 36pix and the Y: distance to 0 and press Apply. Select the rectangle and press Ctrl d (duplicate) to create the properly spaced rectangles. When you are done, set the distance back to 20pix and -20 pix and press OK to make the changes and close the dialog.

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