Page 101 - Xara Designer Pro X17

Object Handling 101

Other types of groups

Special types of group are used by some tools and functions to keep objects together
and/or to give an object some special behavior.

When you anchor an object to text for example, the object is placed in an Anchored
Group, as shown on the status line when you select such an object. Similarly when you
make an object repeating (see Repeating Objects (on page 109)) or make it a Live Copy
(see Live Copies (on page 112)) the objects are placed inside a "Repeating group" or
"Live copy group" respectively.

When one of these groups contain a single object, you can directly select that object
instead of selecting the group that encloses it. Look at the Status Line (on page 37) and
the Page and Layer Gallery (on page 181) to see this in action.

Soft Groups

Ordinary Groups as described in Grouping and un-grouping objects (on page 98) sit on a
single layer, they cannot span layers. SOFT GROUPS are an alternative way of linking
objects together where the objects can be across several different layers.

Selecting one member of a Soft Group also selects all other members of the same Soft
Group – even members that are on invisible or locked layers. This means when you
delete, move, rotate or otherwise transform one member of a Soft Group, all the other
members are similarly modified.

The status line indicates when a Soft Group is selected.

Soft Groups are useful for keeping closely related objects together. For example the
MOUSEOFF and MOUSEOVER states of a web button are Soft Grouped together, so that if
one state is moved or transformed, so is the other state.
Creating Soft Groups
To create a Soft Group, select all the objects that are to be included in it and then choose
“ARRANGE > APPLY SOFT GROUP” (or press “Ctrl+Alt+G”). Note that if the Soft Group is to
include members on invisible or locked layers, you’ll need to make those layers
temporarily visible and editable using the Page & Layer Gallery in order to select the
objects and Soft Group them.

An object cannot be a member of more than one Soft Group and Soft Groups cannot be
nested (soft groups as members of soft groups).

Removing Soft Groups
To disband a Soft Group, select it and choose “ARRANGE" > "REMOVE SOFT GROUP” (or
press “Ctrl + Alt +U”). The objects don’t get deleted, they are just no longer linked
together by a Soft Group.