The Bitmap Gallery is one of Xara's most complex galleries. It contains a copy of every bitmap image created in, or imported into Xara.

If you have several pages open at one time, Xara displays a folder containing bitmaps for each open page with the current page indicated by the open folder icon. A description accompanies each thumbnail image describing the images file type, physical and file size, color depth, an animation properties, if any.

Once in the Bitmap Gallery there are numerous things that can be do with the bitmap images. For openers we'll explore the button functions at the top of the Bitmap Gallery dialog.

Insert Places a copy of the selected bitmap image in the exact center of the page. You can also drag a selected bitmap from the Bitmap Gallery onto the page to any desired location.

Fill Applies the selected bitmap as a Bitmap Fill to the selected object or objects.

Transp (Transparency) Applies the light and dark values of the selected bitmap image to the selected image on the page.

Delete Deletes the selected bitmap image from the gallery and also deletes any instances of the bitmap image on the page replacing it with the default gray Xara logo bitmap image. (NOTE: You cannot bring back a deleted bitmap by using Undo. Once deleted it is gone, history, toast—you get the idea.)

Background applies the selected bitmap image from the Bitmap Gallery to the page background creating an repeating pattern. This is useful for seeing how an image you intend to use for a tiling background image for a Web page will look on the Web page. It is also useful for creating anti-aliased bitmap graphics with transparent backgrounds that will appear over the same repeating background image on a Web site.

Help... Always the first place to look for context-sensitive information.

Trace... Opens the Bitmap Tracer dialog from which you can create a vector version of your selected bitmap image.

Plug-ins... Opens a pop up menu of installed plug-in filters (provided you have specified a location for your Plug-ins and have at least one plug-in filter installed). Once you have selected a filter and applied your modifications, a modified copy of the bitmap image is placed in the gallery directly under the original bitmap image.

Options... Opens a Find dialog in which you can search for a bitmap in the gallery by name.

Save... Opens the Export Bitmap dialog giving the option to save your bitmap image in any of Xara's supported bitmap file formats.

Properties Opens the Bitmap Properties dialog which provides information about the selected images file format, size, color depth and animation properties.

Preview... Opens the Preview Single Image dialog and displays the image actual size.