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	Xara X. The Layers Gallery




	The Layers Gallery provides a way to manage complex images. Layers can be made visible and invisible, editable and non-editable giving you the convenience to work on different sections of your drawing without having to work on the entire illustration at one time.

	Here is an example how you can manage your drawing by placing different elements on different layers. The objects on the layers correspond to the screen shot of the Layer Gallery in the previous paragraph. The guidelines go on their own layer, the basic shapes on the next layer up, the fill layer and the bevels layer on the top. Each layer can be made visible or invisible and editable or non-editable simply by checking or unchecking the check boxes next to each layer. The check boxes under the eye icon make the layer visible when checked, and invisible when unchecked. The edit check boxes, under the pointer icon, enable layers to be edited when checked and non-editable when unchecked. In addition, layers can be reorganized simply by dragging their title bar to a new location. Anything placed on the Guides layer becomes a red dashed outline. The Guides layer is also a non-printing layer. Objects on one layer can be copied (Ctrl C or Edit > Copy) or cut ( Ctrl X or Edit > Cut) and pasted (Shift Ctrl V) onto a new layer. (Use Shift Ctrl V to paste in the exact same area from which the object was copied or cut).


	How to Create a New Layer Creating a new layer is as easy as pressing the New... button. The New Layer dialog opens (shown here). Simply enter a name for your new layer and press OK . Repeat this to add as many new layers as you need.

To make a layer the active layer, click on its title bar. The title bar will become solid indicating this is now the selected layer. Any objects pasted from the clipboard will be placed onto this layer.

To edit a layer, right click on its title bar. A pop up menu appears (shown on the left) with the options to add a New Layer... (same as clicking the New... button), Copy... which creates a new layer with the same contents as the selected layer, and Delete, which deletes the layer and its contents. When the Guides layer is selected (the Guides layer is not available until you drag a guideline onto the page), you can create additional Guides layers, and you can change the color of the guides if desired. Properties... duplicates the options found in the Layer Gallery, you can make the selected layer Visible or invisible, and Editable or non-editable. In the Guides tabbed section of the Properties dialog, you can add new guides, specify an exact location for these new guides, and specify the color of the guidelines.

If you need to reorder the Layers, you can drag the layer's title bar to a new location. This places the contents of the selected layer above or below another layer.

Uncheck the box next to a layer under the eye icon to make a layer invisible and/or uncheck the box under the pointer to make a layer non-editable. Click the eye or pointer icons in the upper right-hand corner of the Layers Gallery to make all layers visible or invisible and/or editable or non-editable.

Sometimes, your editor (old grumpy sides) is vexed when pasted items don't show up when they have been pasted. Even after using the Ctrl F command to bring them to the front.

This often happens when working with Layers when you have pasted an object onto a layer that is not the top layer or when objects in the upper layer have covered the pasted object or objects.

If you look in the Arrange pull down menu (the top portion of which is shown above) you will see several helpful options for getting the object to the top layer without having to copy and paste from one layer to another (which you can also do). Select Move to Layer in Front or Ctrl Shift U (as in Up) and repeat for as many times as needed to bring the object to the front. You can see the other available options and their keyboard shortcuts.

TIP: You can use the keyboard shortcuts as shown to the right of the operation, if a keyboard shortcut exists. You can also use a combination of the Alt key and the underscored letter in each operation. For example Alt r opens the Arrange pull down menu. Alt f moves an object up one layer. Alt r + f opens the Arrange menu and moves the selected object up a layer.

RELATED TIP: If you want to get contents from one layer into another layer by the most direct route, select the objects you wish to move, click the title bar of the layer to which you wish to move said objects, and press the Move button in the Layer Gallery.

ONE MORE TIP: If like me, you sometimes wish the guidelines were visible instead of hidden behind objects on the screen, (sound familiar?) all you need to do is to move the Guides layer to the top layer. How hard is that?!

LAST TIP of the PAGE: There are two ways to make a layer non-printable. You can make the layer invisible, or you can move the layer to the Background Layers section (where the Guides layer resides).

Any questions? Use the form on the last page to send me your questions.