Page 231 - Xara Web Designer Premium

Text Handling 231

Inserting & Editing in Text
To insert a SmartField into your document, make sure you are in the TEXT TOOL, place
the text caret where you want to insert the SmartField, then right click and choose
"INSERT > SMARTFIELDS… select the Field you want to insert, and click the INSERT button.
If you want to insert multiple SmartFields you can keep the dialog open, move the text
caret to a new position and then select and insert another field.

You can select SmartFields in text just as you select ordinary text, and apply text
attributes to them in the usual way. You can’t place the text caret in the middle of a
SmartField - it behaves as a single object in the text, similar to how embedded objects
(on page 203) work.

If you want to edit the value of a SmartField, you can right-click on it in the text and
choose EDIT SMARTFIELD from the context menu. The SmartFields dialog opens showing
the DOCUMENT SMARTFIELDS and the target SmartField is pre-selected, so you can edit its
value and it will update wherever that field appears in text of the current document.

Updating SmartFields
The UPDATE button in the SMARTFIELDS DIALOG checks the current values of your
PERSONAL SMARTFIELDS against those in the current document, and updates the fields in
the document if they differ. So use this to update existing documents if you have
changed your PERSONAL SMARTFIELDS since the document was edited.

Linking to SmartFields
You can create a link to a SmartField that contain URL's in the UTILITIES > WEB
PROPERTIES > LINK dialog. This will allow you to enter custom text such as "Click here"
but still use the value in your SmartFields to an email address or website link.
Alternatively, you can create a pair of SmartFields where one specifies the text to be
shown, and the other that specifies the URL to be applied. To do this, add :text and :link
to the end of the SmartField name. For example, you could enter website:link and
website:text. Xara will link these two together, so whatever text you enter in website:text
will link to the website:link URL.

Synchronising Text using Soft Groups

In some designs, you may find you need multiple text objects to always show the same
text, but perhaps using different styles. Normally when you want to change the text
shown on these objects, you’d need to edit each one individually.

By adding such related text objects into a Soft Group, you can ensure that they will
always show the same text. To add the related text objects into a Soft Group, first make
sure that they all already have exactly the same text (otherwise they will not become
synchronized). Then select them all using the Selector Tool. Then select "ARRANGE" >
"APPLY SOFT GROUP" ("Ctrl + Alt + G").