THE XARA XONE | XARA.COM | THE XARA CONFERENCES

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.

To see a tutorial on Xara Basics visit Workbook 20.

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.

Naming Conventions. I use bold face to indicate the names of tools, galleries, keyboard shortcuts, and dialogs. Items such as unnamed icons and drop down lists, which have names when you let your cursor rest over them for a moment, are displayed in italics.

The Infobar is the context sensitive menu at the top of the screen and changes to reflect the options for the selected tool.

Some of the tool icons have changed in Xara X1, and this may cause some confusion for new users. If you are using an older version of Xara, click here to see my Rosetta Stone for translating the old buttons into the new.

New Users? I have created some quick start mini-tutorials to get you though the basics. Workbook 20, Workbook 30, and Workbook 31 cover the main things you need to know to get started.

Select the Rectangle Tool (M). Draw two rectangles to the sizes shown above (shown in pale yellow and pale orange).

Select the Shape Editor Tool (F4). Click line segments to create two similar mesa shapes as illustrated above. Click the last control point on top of the starting control point to create a closed shape (the cursor changes to display a + and the shape will fill with your default color, usually black). I have changed the fill colors to make it easier to see the area in which we are working.

NEW USERS: If you need help drawing with the Shape Editor Tool see Creating a Closed Path in Workbook 44.

Use the Shape Editor Tool to draw the shapes shown in purple. The shapes do not have to be exactly like these. Just make them as close as you can. Ctreate two new shapes (shown in brown) for the far mesa.