Text boxes with transparent shadow edges

[Newbietoo]

Thanks Sledger,

...but that's not working for me. Also, according to the Xtreme Pro Manual, the Image A and B boxes are mutually exclusive...they're provided so you can toggle between them to compare different export settings, however it then only saves the "active" one.

I'm still getting an opaque image like the one on right, or if I select True Color + Alpha like the one on the left I get a totally transparent image i.e. can't see it.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Nostaw]

Truly, this forum must be ones of the best out there in terms of helping others.

Thank everyone, the PNG trick in IE7 was new to me.

[steve.ledger]

Thanks Sledger,

...but that's not working for me. Also, according to the Xtreme Pro Manual, the Image A and B boxes are mutually exclusive...they're provided so you can toggle between them to compare different export settings, however it then only saves the "active" one.

I'm still getting an opaque image like the one on right, or if I select True Color + Alpha like the one on the left I get a totally transparent image i.e. can't see it.

Thanks,
Patrick

I'm not using 3.2 so can't compare, but it appears you are missing a number of tabs on that export dialogue.

Are you using a white background 'object' for your image slices?
There should be no background objects.


Can you upload your file so people here can have a look and see what might be the reason for what you're experiencing?.

[pauland]

I've attached my test .xar file and a screengrab.

The rectangle is on one layer and my named slices are on the guide layer. I have selected the rectangle and used convert to editable shapes(I found that if I didn't do that it wouldn't slice the shadow). As has been stated elsewhere, you must shoose trueclour+alpha for the png options.

When exporting select the rectangle, shadow and slicing shapes.

I made the background green, but as you can see from the screengrab in the file thumbnails there is no green so the alpha is working.

Hope this helps.

Paul

(BTW there's no need to have invisible rectangles - put them on a guide layer
edit: Almost forgot - you can just export the named slices individually by using the name gallery arrow to the right of the file type)

[Newbietoo]

Thanks Paul,

I've just tried your drawing; I exported all the images OK but everyone is totally transparent, i.e. can't see anything. Are you using 3.2? I wonder if I have a problem here

Patrick

[Newbietoo]

OOPS!...scratch that last comment; I now have images...all I need to do now is figure out how you did it!

Thanks
Patrick

[pauland]

all I need to do now is figure out how you did it!

In layer1:

Create box
Add Shadow
Select box and "Convert to editable shapes"

Add Guide layer

In Guide Layer (select the layer):

Create slice rectangles and name them (all you will see are the red dotted outlines).

In the name gallery choose PNG with transparency+alpha for each slice rectangle.

Either export the slices individually from the name gallery, or..

Select rectangle, shadow and slices.

Then do "File->Export image in slices" with PNG and transparency+alpha options.

Paul

[Newbietoo]

So now I have it working...the scary thing is, I have no reason why!

I was able to make your drawing work and then I reproduced it exactly and it wouldn't work. I played around for hours and then all of a sudden it (the one I reproduced) did work. Through all of this I kept going back to the one you had done and it continued to work, so it was effectively my benchmark. Having got the reproduction to work, I then created a new drawing and started from scratch and that too worked.

Shut down Xara, started from scratch again and flew straight through it doing what I had always done and that worked too. I an unaware that I have done anything different to what I originally did following the advice in your initial post. In fact I have gone to some trouble now to reproduce whatever the problem may have been and cannot for the life of me get it to NOT work!

So I am none the wiser; I have no idea why for hours it didn't work, but now it does.

I suspect it's to do with the PNG export, not the Guides and Layers etc
it now just works. One for the X-Files I think

Thanks for all your help Paul, I really appreciate it

Patrick

[Newbietoo]

In trying to get it to NOT work, I tried it without editable shapes, without grouping the Objects, turning on/off various layers, selecting different layers prior to export, turning background on and off etc...I now just cannot get it to NOT work. I suspect actually that it must just have been the way I was holding my mouth!

[pauland]

I suspect actually that it must just have been the way I was holding my mouth!

Aha! we forgot to mention that bit.. ;-)