Page 21 - Xara Web Designer Premium

Getting Started 21

that are in this group. Simply move the mouse pointer over each one to see a tooltip, and
click to select the tool you want.

If you select a modal tool from a flyout bar, that tool becomes the primary tool for that
group. So you’ll then see its icon highlighted on the main toolbar.
There are also some flyout bars on the toolbar at the top of the window. Again these are
used to group together closely related operations under a single icon. This makes them
conveniently accessible while not taking up too much space on the bar.

See Customizing (on page 495) for more information on flyout bars.

Objects On The Page

Whether you customize a template or create your own graphics from scratch, you can
rotate, resize and position anything on the page, anywhere you like. You can easily
resize the page to be any required size and add new web pages as required. Certain
features, such as changing color schemes, work across all pages simultaneously.
These are the basic types of page element:

• Text: Using the TEXT TOOL you can create anything from single word headings to
columns of text or even blocks of text that flow from one block into another. You can
also create bulleted or numbered lists. The TEXT TOOL InfoBar provides controls over
the font, size, line spacing and more. You can resize text either by using the SELECTOR
TOOL or by selecting the text in the usual fashion and choosing alternative point or
pixel sizes. Perhaps surprisingly you can even rotate text by any angle, and by using
REPEL TEXT UNDER (right click an object to see this option) you can automatically flow
text around objects on the page, such as photos.
• Graphics: Any type of logo, heading and most buttons that appear on your website are
graphics. Web Designer Premium is a vector graphics program which means you can
edit the shape, rotate and resize your graphic objects with no loss of quality (unlike
pixel photo editing tools such as Photoshop). And although there is no vector graphics
standard for web pages (for websites all graphics have to be either JPG, GIF or PNG
formats) Web Designer Premium creates the correct format and resolution
automatically. For example, if you want to create a colored panel to place behind your
text, you'd do this by drawing a rectangle or rounded rectangle object on the page, and
placing this behind your text. When you export your website, this is automatically
converted into a PNG graphic image of the correct resolution.
• Photos: There are few websites that do not contain photos of some sort. Xara Web
Designer Premium has a great range of photo editing tools. You can drag and drop
photos directly from your camera or File Explorer window onto the page, rotate,
enhance, crop, and Web Designer Premium automatically generates the correct
resolution JPG image. Replacing existing photos in templates is as easy as drag and
drop - and you can alter the size and angle of photos 'inside' their frame very easily.
You can easily create clickable photo thumbnails that pop-up an enlarged version and
optionally include gallery controls that allow your visitors to browse your photos or view
an automatic slideshow.