Page 120 - Xara Designer Pro X17

120 Object Handling

Tip:Always design for the smallest page size, it's easier to enlarge a format than to shrink
it.

Tip: Don't fill up your text boxes - leave room for content to flow.

Push objects

Push objects are mainly useful in page templates, to help maintain the design of a page
as text is extended or contracted. Push objects are not allowed to overlap with other
push objects and so if one extends or moves so as to encroach on the space of another,
it ‘pushes’ that other object down the page out of the way. And if a push object is pushed
off the bottom of the page, the page automatically extends to accommodate it.

To make an object into a push object, right click on it and choose PUSH... from the context
menu. The PUSH dialog appears.

Select the Push checkbox to turn on Push for the selected object(s). Then you can
optionally change the top and bottom margins. By default the top and bottom margins are
locked together – just click the lock button if you want to set them independently. The top
margin value determines how close another Push object is allowed to get to this one,
before this object will move down out of its way. So it stops other Push objects coming
too close. Similarly the bottom margin value specifies how close to another Push object
below it, this object is allowed to be before it starts to push that object out of the way, It
also defines the minimum distance that must be maintained between it and the bottom
edge of the page (the page will extend when required) because often you don’t want the
object to be right up against the edge of the page.
The EXTEND SIDES field allows you to make the Push object behave as if it was wider
than it actually is. This means it can be made to push objects below it (or be pushed from
above) even if there is some horizontal separation between the objects. So for example a
100 pixel wide rectangle set to push with EXTEND SIDES set to 50px, will behave as if it
was 200 pixels wide in terms of its push behavior.