Magix Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 Owners Manual Help

User Manual: magix Xara Photo & Graphic Designer - 2013 - Owners Manual Free User Guide for Magix Xara Photo Graphic Designer Software, Manual

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Purchasing and unlocking Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013
What’s New in PGD 2013 & Pro X v8
- Photo Tools
- Design & Usability Enhancements
- Web Authoring / Web Publishing (Pro only)
- Other minor enhancements
Introduction to Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013
- Welcome to Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013
- Photo & Graphic Designer terminology
- Windows terminology
Getting Help
- Support
- Support website
- Document info
- About Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013
- Tooltips
Getting Started
- Drawing Tools
- Object Based Design
  - Stacking Order
- The Selector Tool
- Right-click menus
- Using Templates & Clipart
  - Adding New Pages To Your Website
  - Flash Animations
- Theme Colors
- Photos
- Text
- Page Size
  - Changing The Page Size of Templates
- Saving & Exporting Your Work.
- Automatic Backups
- Groups
  - Soft Groups
  - Synchronized Text
- Repeating Objects
- Layers
  - Moving Objects Between Layers
- Creating Buttons, Banners And Other Web Graphics
Document handling
- Starting a new document
- Opening an existing document
- Selected document and title bar
- Control bars
- InfoBar
- Main toolbar
- Rulers
- The status line
- The indicators
- X/Y co-ordinates
- Normal/full screen modes
- Opening a second window
  - Selecting which window to display
  - Ordering multiple windows
  - Minimizing multiple windows
- Changing the zoom value
  - Using the Zoom tool
  - Changing the zoom value using the mouse
  - Changing the zoom using the zoom InfoBar/control bar
- Sliding the document within the window
- Changing the page size
  - Paper size
  - Orientation
  - Outer margin
  - Bleed
  - Double page spread
- Multi-page Documents
  - The current page
  - Inserting pages into your document
  - Copying and pasting pages
  - New page from template
  - Duplicate a page
  - Moving pages within the document
  - Removing pages from your document
  - Navigating between pages
  - Pages with different sizes and layers
  - Naming pages
  - Double page spreads in multi-page documents
  - Page & Layer Gallery
- Saving the document
  - Save option (on the File menu)
  - Save as (on the File menu)
  - Save all (on the File menu)
- Support folders
  - Support folder naming
  - Support folder contents
  - Exporting websites with support folders
- Closing the document
- Automatic Backups
  - Backup open documents
  - Backup location
  - Revisions
  - Untitled documents
  - Backup open documents on program close
  - Recovering from abnormal program closures
  - Backups on system shut down
  - Recovering backups
- On-screen grid
- Rulers
  - Displaying/hiding rulers
  - Changing the ruler zero points
- Measurement units
  - Millipoints
  - Options dialog box
  - Changing the default display units
  - Creating a new unit
  - Deleting a unit
  - Applying a scaling factor
  - Deleting a scaling factor
- Decimal point & thousands separator characters
- View quality slider
- The constrain key
- Galleries
  - Displaying a gallery
  - Moving and docking a gallery
  - Using galleries
  - Selecting items
  - Re-ordering items in the gallery
  - Searching for an item name
  - Adding to a gallery
  - Deleting sections from a gallery
  - Moving content from previous versions of Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013
- Naming objects
  - Adding names
  - Names applied
- The Name Gallery
- Exports, slices, and stretches properties
  - Exports
  - Slices
  - Stretches
- Selecting objects using the Name Gallery
- Undo and Redo
  - What are undo and redo?
  - The undo command
  - The redo command
  - Changing the size of the undo list
- Copying & Pasting between Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 and other programs
  - Microsoft Outlook 2003
Drawing Lines and Shapes
- Drawing a line or shape
- The Freehand & Brush Tool
  - Erasing while drawing
  - Drawing straight segments in the Freehand Tool
  - Extending a line
  - Joining two lines
  - Closing a freehand shape (to create a filled shape)
- Editing lines/shapes with the Freehand & Brush Tool
  - Sketch Mode
  - Pressure sensitive drawing
  - Trace mode
  - Brush styles
- The Straight Line & Arrow tool
  - Why a straight line tool?
  - Drawing & editing straight lines
  - Adding arrowheads & tails
  - Reverse path
  - Adding more line segments
- Eraser tool
- The Shape Editor tool
  - To draw a straight line segment
  - Mixing curved and straight lines
  - To draw a curved line segment:
- Extending the line
- Finishing the line
- Adding a new point handle
  - To the end of a line:
  - To the middle of a line:
  - To the start of a line:
- Selecting multiple point handles
  - Selector Tool
- Deleting points
- Moving point handles—Shape Editor Tool
  - Using the text boxes on the InfoBar
  - Moving point handles—Selector Tool
- Smoothing a line
- Constraining the line
- Changing curves
  - Using the curve handle
  - Dragging the line segment
  - Making sharp corners
  - Making smooth curves
  - Balancing curves
- Changing a straight line to a curve (and vice versa)
- Joining lines
- Splitting a shape
- Changing the line width (thickness)
- Variable width lines
- Line Gallery
  - Change join type
  - Change line cap
- Brushes
  - Using an existing brush
  - Creating a new brush
  - Editing a brush
Selecting Objects
- The Selector Tool
  - The InfoBar
  - Alt + S
- Selecting objects
- Double-click shortcuts to tools
- Identifying a selected object
- Hiding objects
- Locking objects
- Soloing objects
Object Handling
- Moving objects
- Removing objects from the document
  - Cutting objects
  - Deleting objects
- Duplicating and cloning
  - Duplicating
  - Cloning
- Moving objects forward and backwards
- Rotating objects
- Scaling (resizing) objects
- Flipping objects
- Snapping
- Guide Objects and Guidelines
- Summary of shortcuts on the numeric keypad
- Grouping and ungrouping objects
- Photo Groups
- Editing inside groups
  - Editing group contents
- Other types of groups
- Soft Groups
- Alignment
- Copying Styles: Paste Attributes
- ClipView
- Repeating Objects
Shape Handling
- Closing a shape
  - Closing a freehand shape
- Joining shapes
  - Breaking joined shapes
- Combining shapes
- Creating regular polygons (the Quickshape Tool)
  - Polygons with rounded corners
  - Editing a polygon
- Creating stars (polygons with indented sides)
  - Removing stellation
- Editing stars
- Creating rectangles and squares
  - Creating a square
  - Creating and editing rounded corner rectangles
- Creating circles and ellipses
- Making shapes editable
Distorting Objects
- Stretching and squashing objects
- Skewing objects
- The Mold tool
- Feathering
Page & Layer Gallery
- The Page & Layer Gallery
- Pages
- Layers
- Layer Operations
  - Layer Properties
- Special Layers
- Objects
  - Shadows, Bevels & Contours
  - Finding Objects
- Hiding Layers and Objects
- Locking Layers and Objects
- Solo Mode
- Show All & Unlock All
- Moving Objects Between Layers
Color Handling
- The color line
- Applying fill & line colors by drag & drop
- Editing an object’s color
- The Color Editor (simple)
  - Using the eye-dropper to pick colors
  - Advanced color operations
- The Color Editor in detail
  - Previous and Current color
  - 3D color editor
- Specifying colors in the Color Editor
  - Limit to Browser palette
- The color models
  - CMYK colors and transparency effects
- Colors on the screen and on the printer
- Local colors and Theme colors
- Theme color schemes
- Creating your own color schemes
- Creating new named colors
- Editing named colors
- Normal colors, Tints, Shades and Linked colors
- Creating a Tint, Shade or Linked color
  - Editing the parent color
- Importing colors and palettes
- The Color Gallery
Text Handling
- Introduction
- Terminology
- The Text Tool
- The Font Menu
  - Web Safe Fonts
  - Live Font Preview
  - Live Font Size preview
  - Instant font menu navigation
  - Bold, Italic & Synthesized fonts
- Simple text
- Text in a column
  - Changing the width of the column
  - Changing the angle of the column
- Text areas
  - Connecting text areas—text flow
  - Resizing text areas
  - Word count
- Text along a curve
  - Adjusting the left and right margin of text on a curve
  - Swapping sides of the line
  - An example
- Editing text
  - Selecting the whole text object
  - Swap case
  - Smart Quotes
  - Entering special characters
  - Entering dummy text ('Lorem Ipsum')
- Spell checker
  - Language selection
  - User dictionary
- Find & Replace
- Synchronising text across multiple text objects
- Tabs, Margins and Indents
  - Rulers
  - Margins and indents
  - Text along a curve
  - Tabs
  - Custom tabs
  - Custom tab types
  - How to creating hanging indents
- Repelling text objects
  - Making an object repel
- Anchored Graphics
  - Moving Anchored Objects
  - Soft Groups
  - Viewing the anchor point
  - Inline anchored objects
- Embedding Graphics
- Text Styles
  - Text Styles InfoBar
  - Paragraph Style and Character Style
  - Updating Text Styles
  - Styles based on other styles
  - Creating new Styles
  - Removing Styles
  - Style Properties
- Applying text attributes
  - Changing the font size
  - Condensing and expanding characters (aspect ratio)
  - Bold & Italic
  - Text Underlining
  - Justification or text alignment
  - Subscript & superscript
  - Indents and Outdents
  - Bulleted Lists
  - Numbered lists
  - Line spacing
  - Tracking
  - Kerning
  - Baseline shift
  - Paragraph Spacing
  - Advanced text properties
- Text links
- Text inside groups for websites
- Copying text appearances
  - Applying attributes to whole text stories
- Copying/Pasting formatted text (RTF)
- Seeing fonts in use
- Changing text into editable shapes
- The Fonts Gallery
  - Applying a font from the Fonts Gallery
  - Installing or uninstalling a font
- Fonts and PDF
- Font embedding
- Browser text compatibility
Fills
- Introduction
- The Fill Tool
  - Creating a graduated color fill
  - Fill Tool InfoBar
- Flat fills
- Linear fills
  - Moving the start or end handle of the fill
  - Changing the colors in a fill
- Circular fills
- Elliptical fills
- Conical fills
- Diamond fills
- Three-color fills
- Four-color fills
- Bitmap fills
- Fractal fills
- Multi-stage color graduations
- The Fill Gallery
Transparency
- Applying flat transparency
- Applying graduated transparency
- Multi-stage graduated transparency
- Transparency types
- Enhance
  - Applying Enhance transparency
  - Photo editing with Enhance transparency
- Profile
- Bitmaps
- Handle/resolution
- Applying transparency to several objects
  - Mixing individual and group transparencies
  - Group transparency on blends
- Opacity Masks
Shadows
- The Shadow Tool
- Applying a shadow
- Changing the shadow color or fill effect
- Converting shadows to shapes
- Removing a shadow
- Applying a shadow to several objects
- Selecting objects using the Shadow Tool
- Copying shadows onto other objects
Bevels
- The Bevel Tool
- Applying a bevel
- Applying a bevel to several objects
- Modifying a bevel
- Removing a bevel
Contours
- The Contour Tool
- Contouring objects
- Converting contours to shapes
- Removing a contour
Masks
- To Create A Mask
- Soft Masks
- Operating On The Mask Shapes
  - Moving the mask objects
- Operations That Use The Mask
- Copying Shapes To The Mask Layer
Blends
- Blends
  - Uses of blends
- Using the Blend Tool
- Removing blends
  - Removing a standard blend
  - Removing blend from a curve
Live Effects
- Introduction
- Applying a Live Effect
Photo Handling
- Introduction
- Photo Objects
- Photo Groups
- Importing Photos
  - Optimization on import
  - Replacing photos
  - Replacing multiple photos at once
  - Using photos as fills
  - Initial Photo size
- Photo resolution
- Zero-memory Copies
- The Bitmap Gallery
  - Filling shapes with a bitmap
  - Setting a Bitmap Transparency
  - Deleting images from the Gallery
  - Setting the page background to a bitmap
  - Save
  - Bitmap Properties
- Embedded JPEG files
  - Extracting the original JPEG
- Blending & Merging photos
- An Example Using a Mask
- Photo display quality
- Saving & Exporting Photos
  - Example: To resize a photo and save as a new JPEG
- Photo Edit Attributes
- Editing the outline of Photos
- Cropping photos
  - Cropping photos with the Shape Erase Tool
  - Cropping photos with a mask
- Screenshots
  - Using Windows to capture screenshots
  - Screen capture utility
- Coloring photos
- Color Selection/Removal
- Integration with external Photo Editors
- Resize, rotate and position a photo within its frame
- Horizon Straighten
- Viewing a scaled photo at its full size
- Making a photo its full size
- Optimizing Photos and Bitmaps
- Converting objects or drawings to bitmaps
- Photo Documents
- Editing Photo Files
- Tracer
  - Trace mode
  - Passes
  - Remove noise
  - Minimum area
  - Initial and final color tolerance
  - Accuracy
  - Smoothing
- Opacity Masks
The Photo Tools
- Using the Photo Tools
- Common photo functions
- Enhance Tool
- Color Select / EraseTool
- Clip Tool
- Photo Tool Notes
- The Red Eye Tool
- Content Aware Photo Resize
- The Brightness Levels Dialog
- Panorama Stitching
  - Optimizing images
- Perspective Correction Tool
- EXIF Tool
- Photo Clone Tool
  - Clone Tool Infobar
  - Clone Tool Operation Summary
3D Extrude Tool
- Introduction
- Extruding a shape
- Extrude Tool InfoBar
- Textures & Photos
- Extruding Text
- Copying 3D extrude attributes
- Putting shadows behind
Web Graphics and Websites
- What Makes Photo & Graphic Designer Different
  - For The Professional Photo & Graphic Designer - A Rapid Prototyping Tool
- A Website In 6 Steps
- Website Toolbar
- Creating a website
- Using Templates, Clipart & Widgets
  - Adding New Pages To Your Website
  - Flash Clipart
  - Coloring Imported Clipart
- Previewing Your Website
- Photo Resolution - It's All Automatic!
- Text
  - Web Safe Fonts
  - Text Panels
- Page Size
  - Changing The Page Size of Templates
- Exporting a Website
- Stretchy Objects
- Groups
  - Converting Text To Be A Graphic
  - Soft Groups
  - Synchronized Text
- Links, Buttons & Navigation Bars
  - Link to Anchor
  - Link to File
  - Changing Button Text
  - Mouseover (Rollover) Buttons
  - Adding New Buttons
  - Button Bars (NavBars)
- Using Shadows
- Repeating Objects
- Layers, Mouseover (Rollover) & Pop-ups
  - Mouseover Effects
  - The MouseOff and MouseOver Layers
  - Mouseover (Rollover) Buttons
  - Creating Your Own Mouseover Buttons
  - Layer ordering in website documents
  - Moving Objects From One Layer To Another
  - Pop-up Layers
  - Pop-up Photos
- Web Properties Dialog
  - Link Tab
  - Page Tab
  - Website Tab
    - Website Link Colors
  - Mouse-over Tab
  - Image Tab
  - Placeholder Tab
  - Publish Tab
  - Re-publish changed files only
  - Publishing
- Creating Buttons, Banners And Other Web Graphics
- Publishing Your Website
- Embedding Movies, Flash And Other Widgets
Animations
- Introduction
  - What Flash can and cannot do
  - The 6 core types of animation
  - What you can't do with Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 Flash
- Core Principles
- Your First Animation
- Exporting a Flash File
  - Previewing a Flash Object in Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013
  - Inserting a Flash Object in Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013
  - Inserting using a different web authoring tool
- Exporting animations as AVI
- Creating animated GIFs
  - Opening an animation document
  - Creating the animation
  - Exporting the animation
- Animation properties
  - The Frame tab
  - Flash Options
  - GIF Options
  - Animation Loop and Speed
  - Preview in Browser
  - AVI Options
- The Animation Frame Gallery
  - Copying Objects
- Photos
  - Non-JPEG Bitmaps
  - Bitmap Quality
- Animation Frame Rate and Tween Steps
- Cropping, Clipping and Animation Size
- Animation Speed
- Animation smoothness
- Rotation
  - The Rotate command
- The Name Gallery
- Groups
  - Group Transparency
- What Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 features does Flash support?
  - Non-moving Objects
- Color Transforms—Animating Color Changes
- Transparency
- URLs in Flash
- Advanced Flash Commands
  - Accelerating and Decelerating
  - Stop and Goto Commands
  - Clickable Buttons & Mouse-over Effects
- Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 Flash Animation Summary
Printing
- Show print borders
- Selecting and setting up a printer
  - Properties button
  - Network button
- The print dialog box
- Print Options: Output tab
- Print Options: Print Layout tab
Importing and Exporting
- General notes on exporting and importing
- Import and Export Supported File Formats
  - Import formats
  - Export formats
- Importing files
- Exporting files
- PDF Export
- JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP export dialog overview
- Dreamweaver integration
- Other bitmaps Export dialog box
- The Designs Gallery
Working with Templates
- Replacing photos
- Adjusting a photo in its frame
- Editing photos
- Changing text
- Changing colors
  - Editing theme colors individually
  - Page background color
- Changing The Page Size of Templates
- Adding Pages
- HTML Web Sites
Customizing Photo & Graphic Designer
- Changing the blank template document
- Options in the Utilities menu
- General tab
- Grid and Ruler tab
- Internet tab
- Mouse tab
  - Mouse button function
  - Magnetic Snap Radii
- Page Size tab
- Backups Tab
- Effects & Plug-ins tab
- Photo Editing
- Scaling tab
- Tune-ups tab
- Units tab
- View tab
- Control bars
- Gallery docking and undocking
- Restoring the default control bars/galleries
Menus and Keyboard Shortcuts
- Introduction
- File menu
- Edit menu
- Arrange menu
- Utilities menu
- Share Menu
- Window menu
- Help menu
- Key shortcuts
More about Xara Group
- About Xara Group Ltd.
- Other Xara products
Legal
- Xara Customer End User License Agreement
- Copyright
- Acknowledgements

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