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Xara has three shape creation tools that all work pretty much the same: the
Rectangle, Ellipse, and QuickShape Tool. In this section we'll look at the
Rectangle Tool but keep in mind that you can use the same steps with the
Ellipse and QuickShape Tool.

To draw a rectangle, select the Rectangle Tool from the main toolbar on the left
side of the screen (it's the rectangle icon), (or press Shift F3) click once on the
page and drag. When you release the mouse button, the rectangle will be created.
By default, Xara applies a black outline and a solid black fill as shown above. You
can drag in any direction.
To draw a perfect square (or circle if you are using the Ellipse Tool), Click on the
page, hold down the Ctrl key, and drag. The rectangle or ellipse will be constrained
to a square or circle.
The size of the rectangle appears on the Infobar as you draw your rectangle. But
drawing a rectangle or ellipse to an exact size is not always easy. Here is a quick
way to draw to an exact dimension. After you create your rectangle (or ellipse) you
will see a Width and Height text entry box on the Infobar (highlighted here in
yellow). Just enter the desired width in the top box and the desired height in the
lower box and press Enter to apply the change.
When you select the Rectangle, Ellipse, or QuickShape Tool, you will see
several icons on the Infobar including 2 circles and a square with arrows. These
icons determine how the shape will be drawn. The default is Bounds Creation which
creates the shape extending from where you first clicked on the page. Radius
Creation creates the shape and rotates the shape as you are drawing it, from the
center of the shape. Diameter Creation, creates and rotates the shape from the
corner where you clicked on the page.
To draw a rectangle with rounded corners, draw your rectangle, then press the
Curved Corners icon on the Infobar.
To adjust the roundness of the corners, drag any of the inside control points with
the Rectangle Tool cursor. You can also select Curvature from the drop down list
on the Infobar, enter a numerical value, and press Enter to apply the change.

NOTE: If you resize the rectangle after you have drawn it, and apply Curved
Corners, the corners will probably not be perfectly round any more. This happens
because you have changed the original proportion of the rectangle. The way to get
around this is to resize your rectangle to the desired size, then draw a new
rectangle using the old one as a model. Now when you apply Curved Corners, the
corners will be round. Delete the old rectangle.

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To select, move, and rotate objects, you use the Selector Tool (the arrow pointer at the top o
Bar). You can also press F2 (Function key 2) to select the Selector Tool.

To select an object, such as the yellow square shown above, select the Selector Tool and clic
A series of small black boxes will appear to indicate the object has been selected. These boxes
Bounding Boxes or Resizing Handles and can be used to resize the selected object or objects
resizing on the next page.
TIP: You can switch between the current selected tool and the last used tool by pressing the S
your keyboard. This works will all tools except the Text Tool.

If you need to select multiple objects, such as the three shapes shown above, hold down the S
click on each object with the Selector Tool. When all objects are selected, you can release th
Another way to select multiple objects is to click the Selector Tool on the page, then drag a s
marquee rectangle around all the objects.

NOTE: All objects to be selected must be inside the selection rectangle for them to be selecte
different from Adobe Illustrator where you can just select part of an object to select the entire

TIP: To deselect part of a selection, press the Shift key and click the object to be deselected.
add to a selection by pressing the Shift key and selecting the additional object or objects.
To move an object, or a selection of objects, click and drag the objects to the desired location.
You can drag an object, or selection of objects, and drop a duplicate by pressing the right mou
you release the left mouse button.
To free rotate a selected object or objects, click once to select and click a second time to enab
mode. The bounding box handles change to rotation/skew arrow handles. The corner arrows a
rotate the object while the straight arrows are used to skew the selection. Drag the corner han
drag the center arrow handles to skew. When you are finished rotating or skewing the selectio
page to deselect. You can also press the Esc key to deselect. You can also enter a specific ang
of Selection or Skew Angle of Selection text entry boxes (highlighted in yellow) and press Ent
change.

The cross hairs in the center of object in rotation/skew mode is called the Center of Rotation.
this bulls eye to any place from which you want the object to rotate. For example, if you drag
Rotation to one of the tips of the star, then the star will rotate around that tip.

TIP: You can rotate or skew a duplicate by pressing the right mouse button before you releas
button, after you have made the rotation or skewing change.

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In this section we'll look at scaling a selected object or objects.

When an object is selected, 8 small black squares appear around the selection.
These squares are called the Bounding Box and the individual squares are called
Resizing Handles. If you drag any of the four corner resizing handles, you can
resize the selected object in the same proportions. In other words the aspect ratio
will remain the same. A square will still be a square when you finish resizing it.
If you drag the center resizing handles, you can scale just the height or width.
Hold down the Shift key to resize the selected object from the center.
Hold down the Ctrl key and the object will snap to multiples of the object's size.
For example, a 1 inch square will snap to 2 inches and 3 inches and multiples of 1
inch as you resize it.
There is a more precise method of resizing an object using the Height and Width
text entry boxes on the Infobar (shown in yellow). You can enter a value in the W
or H or % text entry boxes and press Enter to apply the changes.

The tiny black padlock icon (Lock Aspect Ratio) determines if the scaling is
proportional or non-proportional. If you want to change the size of a selected
object proportionally, the lock icon should be in the down position. In this mode, if
your object is 2 x 4 units and you enter 4 in in the W box and press enter, the
object will scale to 4 x 8 units.

If you want to scale the height and width independently, disable the Lock Aspect
Ratio icon. Now if you enter W 4 and H 6, the object will scale to that size. You can
also scale using the % text entry boxes.

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Xara offers three different drawing tools: The Freehand and Brush Tool, the
Shape Editor Tool, and the Pen Tool. In this section we'll look at the Freehand
and Brush Tool, Xara's most intuitive drawing tool. In the next page, we'll explore
the Shape Editor Tool.

Xara's Pen Tool is similar to Adobe Illustrator's Pen Tool and is used for creating
Bezier curves and lines. Most Xara users just use the more intuitive Freehand and
Brush and Shape Editor Tools.
To draw freehand lines, select the Freehand and Brush Tool, or press F3, and
start drawing on the page.

The Smoothness slider, just above the Selector Tool, automatically smoothes the
line as you draw. By default it is set to 50%. Lower settings add more control
points and produce a more accurate line while higher settings reduce the number of
control points and produce a smoother, simplified line. As long as you have not
switched to another tool, and your line is still selected, you can adjust the
Smoothness slider and see the effect it has on the line. Once you switch to another
tool, however, this capability is disabled.
In Xara, only a closed path can be filled. There are exceptions to this but for the
sake of this illustration, we'll stick to this assumption. To create a closed path, the
last control point has to be placed on top of the first control point. In the example
above, the line was started and ended at the top of the shape . When the cursor
appears over the first control point (the spot where the line began) a + appears to
indicate the path is about to be closed. When the path is closed, the default fill,
black, is applied. Closed paths may be filled with any of Xara's numerous fill types.
The Freehand and Brush Tool can also be used to apply an "Existing Brush" or
an "Existing Stroke Shape" to a path. The two examples at the bottom of the
illustration above demonstrate this. When the Freehand and Brush Tool is
selected, two drop down lists appear on the Infobar (seen on the top left of the
Infobar above). The first drop down list, Select an Existing Brush, contains a
selection of predefined brushes, which you can apply to a path or any shape with
an outline. The second drop down list, shown above, is the Select an Existing
Stroke Shape list and contains a selection of stroke shapes. Both brushes and
stroke shapes change with the line Width. Experiment with different line widths

In addition, you can create your own custom brushes but this is not something we
will cover in this section. Refer to Brushes > Creating Custom Brushes in the
Xara Help menu (F1).

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Xara's Shape Editor Tool is a multifunctional tool used for both creating lines and
shapes and for editing these lines and shapes.

To draw a series of connected straight line segments, select the Shape Editor Tool
or press F4. Click the Make Line icon on the Infobar (shown above) (or press L ) .
Click on the page where you want to begin and then click the end point of the first
line. The line will appear with the second click. You can continue to add line
segments by continuing to click on the page. To end the line press the Esc key or
select another tool.
Xara makes it easy to turn these straight lines into elegant curves. With the lines
and the Shape Editor Tool still selected, just drag the line segments with the
Shape Editor Tool into curves. The lines become elastic like rubber bands making
it easy to achieve soft curves.
If you select the Make Curve icon (or press C) the line segments become curves as
you click control points on the page. This is not as intuitive as the straight line
method, but once mastered, it is a very quick way to draw shapes with smooth
curves. To create a closed path, click the last control point on top or the first. Or,
select either the first or last control point and press Enter to automatically create a
straight line connecting to the two points.
Each control point, whether created with the Shape Editor Tool or the Freehand
and Brush Tool can be modified to be a Cusp or a Smooth join. A Cusp Join
comes to a point while a Smooth Join is rounded. You can toggle between one join
and the other by selecting a control point or points with the Shape Editor Tool
then pressing z or s. If you select two points of a curve and press the Make Line
icon or key in i the curve will become a straight line.

If you click on a curve control point, a lever-like line appears with small red squares
on either end. This is a Bezier Curve control handle and is used to edit the curve.
Each red box can be dragged to alter the shape of the curve and is the best method
to fine tune a curve once the curve has been created.
When a control point or points have been selected, three additional icons are
enabled on the Infobar. Reverse Paths reverses the direction of the line or path as
you can see with the arrowhead line. Delete Points deletes a selected point or
points. Break at Points breaks the line or path at the selected point into two lines or
paths.

Bonus Section - Path Commands

Xara has path combining operations that are common to most drawing programs.
There are two of these operations: Join Shapes and Combine Shapes. Combine
Shapes has 4 separate operations.
Join Shapes (Arrange menu), creates an single shape with transparent areas
where the shapes overlap as you can see with the yellow rectangle which is behind
the joined shapes. The joined shape takes on the attributes of the top most shape,
in this case, the red circle.
The first of the Combine Shapes commands (Arrange menu) is Combine
Shapes... Add Shapes. This command creates a single combined shape and as
with all Xara's path operations, takes on the properties of the top most object, in
this case, the solid green fill.
The second command is Combine Shapes... Subtract Shapes. This operation
removes the top shape from where it overlaps the bottom shape. The top shape
disappears after the Subtract Shapes operation has been performed.
Intersect Shapes creates a shape of the overlapping area and the two selected
shapes disappear after the operation. Combine Shapes... Intersect Shapes is a
good method of masking a photo or other image inside another shape. For
example, if you place a star, or text selection over a photo and use Intersect
Shapes , the photo will be masked into the shape of the star or the text.
The final operation is Combine Shapes... Slice Shapes. The area where the top
shape overlaps the bottom shape becomes a new shape while the bottom shape
remains but is now two separate shapes. The top most shape disappears.
You can also use a line or path to Slice an object or in the example above a group
of objects. The line or path disappears and leaves a group of four objects. Ungroup
the objects and apply color or a fill.

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