Page and Layer Gallery

The Page & Layer Gallery (formerly Object Gallery) lists everything in your document, from the pages and layers right down to each individual item on the page. It provides a way to select, hide, lock and re-arrange these items. The gallery is displayed open on the right hand side of the program window when you open the program.

Can I browse objects using the Page & Layer Gallery?

The Page and Layer Gallery allows you to expand layers as well as groups of objects within layers and select individual objects.

Please view the Page & Layer Gallery for more details.

How do I select multiple pages?

There are two ways within the Page & Layer Gallery to select multiple pages at once. First start off by viewing the Page & Layer Gallery in Pages view by clicking the Pages button at the top of the Page & Layer Gallery, this will make it easier to select multiple pages.

Holding down the Ctrl key then clicking the page thumbnails will allow individual pages be selected, so for example pages 1, 4, 6 and 8 could be highlighted.

Holding down the Shift key then selecting a page will highlight a block, or a range of pages. For example if you are on page 1 at the moment and hold Shift then click on page 4, pages 1, 2, 3 and 4 will all be selected.

How do I cut or copy multiple pages?

This will cut/copy the pages and add them onto the Windows clipboard, allowing them to be pasted into another Xara document, or elsewhere in the current document.

To cut or copy multiple pages either right click on a highlighted page and select it from the menu. The Edit menu also displays these options and this also responds to the standard cut and copy keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + X to cut, and Ctrl + C to copy).

How do I duplicate multiple pages?

Right click on a highlighted page and select Duplicate. A duplicate of each page will be inserted below the highlighted page.

How do I re-order multiple pages?

Select multiple pages in the Page & Layer Gallery, hold down the left mouse button and drag the pages in the Page & Layer Gallery to where you want them situated.

As you drag the pages the mouse cursor will update to indicate where the pages will be dropped.

How do I delete multiple pages?

Multiple pages can be deleted by right clicking on a highlighted page and selecting Delete Pages. Pressing the Delete key on the keyboard will also perform the same function.

In addition to this, if no objects are selected on the page pressing the Delete key will display an option to delete the current (single) page.

For advanced users, if multiple pages are selected pressing Shift + Delete will delete the highlighted pages without displaying a notification.

Performing an Undo will undo these changes if you delete a page by accident.

Dragging objects between groups

It is now possible within the Page & Layer Gallery to drag individual objects from within a group and move them into other groups or remove them from a group completely, as well as add individual objects to an existing group.

To do this, expand the Page & Layer Gallery by clicking the arrow next to the page thumbnail, expand the layer and find the group you want to edit (you can also select the object on the page and click Locate at the top of the Page & Layer Gallery).

Drill down into the group so you can see the individual objects within it, then with the left mouse button drag an object and drop it outside of the group sub-branch. This object is now no longer part of that group and is an individual object on the page. Similarly you can drag an individual object into an existing group following the same method.

There are certain objects that due to their type are exempt from this behavior and cannot be dragged into or out of a group. These include objects that are part of:

a shadow group
a photo group
a soft group
a multi layered soft group (this includes buttons, NavBars and photo popup objects)

Can I lock objects so they're no longer selectable?

Locking
You can lock objects within your document so they still appear as normal but are not selectable. An object can be locked from the canvas or from the Page & Layer Gallery.

To lock an object from the canvas, right click on it and select the Lock option from the menu displayed. To lock an object from the Page & Layer Gallery, click on the Lock icon (far right column) associated with the object you wish to lock. Note the Page & Layer Gallery allows you to lock groups, individual objects or an entire layer.

Unlocking
You can unlock all by right clicking on the canvas and selecting 'Unlock all on page' from the menu thats shown or remove the lock from the objects via the Page & Layer Gallery

How do I lock all but one object on a page?

There have been improvements to the usability of locking all objects on the page, in particular how to lock all but one (or more) object on the page. It is now very easy to keep a single object on the page unlocked while all other objects on the page are in a locked state.

For this example I shall open a new single page template document from Elements in Websites > Classic Websites > Website Themes > Free Example > Page 1 (double click on the thumbnail to open the document).

Select all objects on the page by pressing Ctrl + A.
Right click on a selected object and click Lock objects
Open the Page & Layer Gallery
Click the All layers/objects editable button - the icon with 3 open padlocks
Right click on the photo object on the left of the page and select Unlock objects (Soft Group)
In the Page & Layer Gallery unselect the All layers/objects editable button
The photo object on the page is now selectable and it can be edited in the normal way
All other objects on the page are locked, and this can be seen by expanding the MouseOff layer in the Page & Layer Gallery to view the objects within it.

What is the locate button in the Page & Layer Gallery used for?

The Locate mode is enabled by clicking on the Locate button available from the Page & Layer Gallery. With Locate mode enabled, clicking on any object within a page will cause the object to be shown as selected and highlighted within the Page & Layer Gallery.

When should I use Solo mode?

If you click any of the S icons in the column next to each layer, it will 'solo' this layer which means it hides everything else, except this layer. You can now work on this layer in isolation. Clicking the S button again will restore everything back to how it was before.

Likewise, you can click the S icon in the column next to a particular object from an expanded layer causing all objects other than those selected within the Solo mode to be displayed on screen.

The Page & Layer Gallery is cropping page names

The page names shown within the Page & Layer Gallery are cropped to fit the width of the thumbnail. Holding the mouse pointer over the cropped name will allow for the full name popup as a tooltip.

Object naming in the Page & Layer Gallery

You can now give individual objects names in the Page & Layer Gallery, to help find objects and to organize your designs. Change object names the same way you change layer and page names in the gallery - just click on the name while the object is selected in the gallery, or right-click on it and choose Rename object.