Page 108 - Xara Web Designer Premium

108 Object Handling

Type into the SCALE TEXT boxes and press "".
• Scalings below 100% reduce the object. 50 halves the size of the object.
• Scalings above 100% enlarge the object. 200 doubles the object size.

If LOCK ASPECT is set, you can type into either text box to resize the object by the
desired percentage. If this button is unset, you can enter separate values for both
the width and height.

Alternatively, type the required size of the object into the W or H text boxes.
If the LOCK ASPECT button is on, this scales the object and maintains the aspect ratio.
You can enter the size in any unit, such as 1 cm.
Scaling with the InfoBar buttons (or number boxes) always scales around the
transformation center. You can position this anywhere else in the object, as described in
Rotating objects.

Scaling groups
If you scale a group using its side handles, an attempt is made to scale it smartly rather
than just squashing all members of the group - we call this SMART TRANSFORM. This is
commonly useful when attempting to make a narrower ‘mobile-friendly’ website variant of
a wider website – you need to make wide objects like headers and footers fit the smaller
page width.
Take this footer group as an example:

The result you get should look something like this:

The text has remained the same size and the rounded corners have been preserved.

This works better for some groups than others, depending on the design and complexity
of the group. If instead you want a simple ‘squashed’ result, where each member of the
group is simply scaled, all you need to do is hold down the Alt key while performing the
drag.