The latest news, offers and tutorials from Xara

In this month's edition...

  • In this month's tutorial we take a look at Text and Photo panels, two of the most popular SmartShapes in the current Designer titles. SmartShapes are always incredibly flexible, follow our Featured Tutorial to discover how to make the most of them in your document or website. Also don't miss this month's new movie, on Bullet & Number lists.

  • This month's offer is a tempting deal on Photo & Graphic Designer. Panorama Studio 3 (worth $39.95) is normally only included in our flagship product Designer Pro, but right now it's included with Photo & Graphic Designer, so you could soon be stitching your photos into seamless 360 degree and wide angle panoramas! As an added bonus we're including a free Photo & Graphic Designer backup DVD too. Details below.

  • For the latest on Xara Online Designer, the Photo & Graphic Designer Update Service and an update to the Art Gallery check Other News, below. Also don't miss Inspirational Art, which features illustrations in two very different styles.
Inspirational Art // Art Mix 21

Some recent work from two designers that we first introduced to Inspirational Art last year, Aiyanne Chan and Michael Tumey. - Find out more

Photo & Graphic Designer // + Panorama Studio 3.0 + a free backup DVD
Featured Tutorial // SmartShapes Pt 2


A closer look at Smart Text & Photo Panels

Other News
Visit the Xara graphics forums to discuss or find answers to your graphics needs.

Our pick of Top Talk this month:
  • Ever wondered where TalkGraphics members live? Egg has just started to create a map showing the answer so if you'd like to add you name to his map then check into this thread. It will be interesting to see if it reflects the geographic spread of Xara owners.

  • In fact TalkGraphics currently has over 30,000 members, and there were over 20,000 posts last year. In other words if you have a question or suggestion, or you'd like to show your work to the community, then this is the place to be! Don't forget there are some general forums, such as Photography (nice Goldfinch photos TimS) and Fonts & Typography.

  • Something new in challenges this month, the D Challenge. Good question Rik, excellent answer Jonopen! Not sure if anyone can come up with a better way to create Rik's stylized D.
Movie // Bullet & Number Lists

Bullet and number lists are a pretty common requirement in both print documents and websites so as you'd expect our software offers some comprehensive and flexible list controls. Find out how to make the most of them in the latest movie in our YouTube channel.

Why not subscribe to our channel while you're there.

Other News

Xara Online Designer Update
There was a significant update to Online Designer earlier this month, including integrated access to the Pixabay photo stock library, color and text style schemes & more.
What's New
More about Online Designer

We would welcome your feedback on Online Designer. We'd be interested to hear how you're using it, and any change suggestions.
Feedback on Online Designer.

Art Gallery Update
The Xara Art Gallery includes portfolios from nearly 40 designers using Xara software for their creative work. We've just updated the selection from Andrew Wrigley and Aiyanne Chan to include some work recently featured in the Outsider and more.
Visit the Xara Art Gallery

Update Service Renewal
It's a year since we released Photo & Graphic Designer 365 so look out for a pop-up message within Photo & Graphic Designer that alerts you when your expiry date is drawing near, follow the links to renew. We have an 'early bird' offer on renewals before expiry, which is the same great value deal as our Launch Offer on upgrades last year, so look out for the pop-up!

Xara News, As It Happens
You can be first to receive Xara news by signing up to the RSS feed on our News page, or you can join more than 54,746 followers in our Facebook community or if you prefer our Google + page, or follow our tweets at twitter.com/xaragroup.

Hints & Tips

Using Ctrl to Constrain
You may not realize that holding down the Ctrl key can constrain the action of the current operation in various ways.

For example if you hold down Ctrl while you rotate an object, or a straight line created in the Straight Line tool, then the rotation is constrained to multiples of 45 degrees by default (but you can change this in File > Page Options > General).

Similarly if you are using the Quickshape Tool a rectangle can be constrained to a perfect square and an ellipse to a perfect circle.

Turning Guidelines On & Off
It's easy. First turn the Rulers on via Window > Bars > Rulers (or shortcut Ctrl + L). Then simply drag from the ruler at the top or side of your work space to create a guideline. And if you no longer need it, simply drag it off the page and it will disappear.

Press Reviews

MicroMart gives Xara Designer Pro X an Editor's Choice and 9/10:

"A worthwhile upgrade to what was already a fine product."

 
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