XaraXone Xara Tutorials Page 1
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As always, we will be using Pixels as our units of measure. Right click on the screen and select Page Options... from the pop up menu. In the Units tabbed section, select Pixels for the Units and 0-255 for the Color Units. In the Grid and Ruler tabbed section set the Major Spacing to 100pix (key it in exactly like this please) and the Number of Subdivisions to 10. Press OK to close the dialog and apply the changes.

NOTE: You will notice from time to time I apply arbitrary colors to objects. I do this to make the objects easier to see. If I do not specify a fill for an object, you do not have to apply a fill or outline color.

When I show an ellipse or rectangle that has just been created, that has no fill, it is because I have set the fill to none before I exported the illustration. By default, all ellipses, rectangles and Quick Shapes have a black outline and a black fill. There is nothing wrong with your copy of Xara.

Leroy Stanley's Printing TIP: Printing the Xara tutorials and WebXealots cuts off some of the right hand side of the page. Here is how I get around this problem. In Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, select Page Set Up (File pull down menu) change the margin settings from 1" all around to .25" for the left and right margins, and .300 for the top margin. You must leave the bottom margin at .70 These settings will remain until you change the settings again.

We are going to create a grid of evenly spaced circles. While we could do this using Snap to Grid, here is a method that is a lot more accurate.

Right click on the page and select Options from the pop up menu (you can also select Options from the Utilities pull down menu).

In the Editing area of the General tabbed section, change the X distance to 40pix. This will move a duplicate object 40 pixels to the right. Change the Y distance (up and down as in nodding YES) to 0. Press Apply.

Create a single 20 pixel circle. With the circle selected, press Ctrl D (Duplicate) 9 times to create a row of ten evenly spaced circles.

Next we want to create a duplicate row that is offset 20 pixels to the right and 20 pixels down. Change the Duplication Distance values as shown and press Apply. (Apply applies the changes and keeps the window open).

Select the top row of 10 circles and press Ctrl D one time to add an offset duplicated row.

Now we want to duplicate the first two rows in the downward direction only.

Change the Y (up and down) distance to (minus) -20pix and the X distance to 0.

Press Apply.

Select the two rows of circles and press Ctrl D six times.

Change the duplication distance back to your normal setting and press OK to apply the changes and close the dialog.

Marquee select all the circles (drag a rectangle around all the circles using the Selector Tool) and from the Arrange pull down menu at the top of the screen, select Join Shapes.

Make a duplicate of the circles and set it to one side. We will need it later in the tutorial.