Page 112 - Xara Designer Pro X17

112 Object Handling

Live Copies

Live Copies give you a way of having multiple copies of an object that are linked together
so that if one copy is changed they all change. However each Live Copy can be
transformed independently, so for example you could have larger and smaller versions of
the same Live Copy, or perhaps copies with different rotations.

Live Copies are similar to Repeating Objects, but more powerful because you can have
multiple Live Copies on the same page and they do not share a common position in the
way that Repeating Objects do.

Live Copies are Groups

In common with Repeating Objects and many other advanced object types in Designer
Pro, Live Copies are a special type of group. The object or objects that constitute the
Live Copy reside inside a ‘Live Copy Group’. You can see this structure if you examine a
Live Copy in the PAGE & LAYER GALLERY where it’s called a “Live Copy Group”, but on the
status line when selected the shorter term “Live copy” is used.

Local and Global Edits
The objects inside the Live Copy Group are common to all the linked Live Copies. So if
you change objects inside the group those changes are reflected in all the linked Live
Copies. These are “global edits”, because all copies of the Live Copy get the same
changes.

However if you transform a Live Copy (move, scale, rotate or skew it using the SELECTOR
TOOL) the change is not applied to other copies. These are ‘local edits’, so you can
transform each copy differently if desired.
As with all groups, you need to select the object or objects inside the Live Copy to edit
them directly, so that the changes are reflected in all copies. Many tools will do this select
inside for you automatically if the object you click on is recognized by the tool. So for
example in the QUICKSHAPE TOOL, clicking on a Quickshape that is inside a Live Copy will
select the Quickshape inside, so that you can immediately start modifying it with the
QUICKSHAPE TOOL.

So for example if you have a photo as a Live Copy, any edits you perform with the PHOTO
TOOL on the photo inside the Live Copy group are global edits - all copies of the Live
Copy will get the same photo edit. But if you select the Live Copy, instead of the photo
inside, and make it bigger by resizing it with the SELECTOR TOOL, only that Live Copy is
resized. Other copies do not change in size.
Creating Live Copies
You can turn any object or group into a Live Copy. Just select the object and choose
"ARRANGE" > "LIVE COPY" > "CREATE LIVE COPY". A second copy of the object appears and
the two copies are ‘linked’ in that if either one is edited the other copy updates to match.
But you can move and transform the two objects independently, placing them on the
same page or on different pages.