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Showing the Colors. Several of you fine readers requested part two of last month's tutorial, How to Get A Head in Xara. And I was prepared to grant your request when the tragic events of September 11,
2001 occurred. So instead, I decided to work out some of my sorrow and frustration by creating a patriotic flag, flying over a fiery sunset. And while I am a resident of the USA and have chosen to illustrate the Stars
and Stripes of our national flag, feel free to use this technique to create a flag for your own country.XaraModules
Cross Fade
will show you the progression of this tutorial. (You will need to be connected to the Internet to see the cool effect). Although this is a short tutorial, there are plenty of techniques so users of all levels can learn something and yet new users should be able to sail though with, dare I say, flying colors.
The Cross Fade animation is one of 9 Xara Modules in the Photo Edits and Effects
collection. You may have seen the snow falling on the palm trees image a few months ago, this is another part of the same collection. I created the effect (constraining myself to only flipping in one direction—there
are about 9 different directions in which the page can flip) in about 5 minutes. No kidding. It's this easy:
- Upload the images you want to use to the
Xara Modules
site.
Select Cross Fade > Create > New.
Add the images you want to use and determine which way the images will flip (or use the default setting as I did).
Save and Publish.
Xara Modules gives you a line of script which goes into your HTML page, and which plays the JavaScripted action when your visitor visits your web page. I think you can probably think of at least a dozen creative uses
for this and some of the other 8 cool effects. All modules come with a free 15-day trial period. If you don't like the effect, you don't pay for it (of course you can't use it after 15 days if you don't pay for it).
Each module runs under $3.00 US per month or $29.00 a year. If you buy the entire package of 9 effects, however, you pay only $4.95 US per month or just $49.00 a year. You save this much not having to pay for these
tutorials alone! And, I need not remind you who makes these free tutorials free. Eh? So do me and yourself a favor and pay a visit to the Xara Modules site. There is some really cool and fun effects that will add spice to your web site. |
