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I'm fairly new to Xpress 8, but have used Xpress since version 2 or 3. What I would like some input on is why they have moved nearly all the font attributes from below the font pull-down menu in the messurements palette to that stupid f-menu? Just makes everything slower. Is there a way to get them bak under the font pull-down menu?

And also, now that the picture resize/rotate-anchors are there it is impossible to resize the picture frame without first scaling down the image to get to the frame anchors, or you have to change back and forth between the picture content tool and the item tool. Very frustrating! I spoke to Xpress support and they said that by holding down the command key you temporarily hide the picture anchors. But what happens then is that the picture is resized along with the frame and in most cases I don't want that. Has anyone found a quick way to toggle between the picture anchors and the frame anchors?

 Help with these issues would be most appreciated! :)

 Regards

Ole

 Hi and thanks for the quick reply!

On my first question you misunderstood the question. I don't want to disable the font previews. Seeing what a font looks like is very handy.

 And I am aware of the shortcuts to the different tools in the tool palette, its just that since the shortcuts don't involve either the control- or command key (I use a Mac), it is sometimes easy to erase text by accident. Lets say you have some text marked, and you want to move a picture frame, so you press v without deselecting the text box you were working in. Now all the text that was marked is replaced with a "v" :(

But thanks for the "double-click" tip! :)

 Regards

Ole:

Lets say you have some text marked, and you want to move a picture frame, so you press v without deselecting the text box you were working in. Now all the text that was marked is replaced with a "v" :(

Hold the command key and you can drag a box without having to switch to the Item tool. If you want to switch to the Item tool, tap the Escape key twice and then hit the V key.

Yes, holding down the command key works for moving the picture without having to change to the item tool, but as mentioned I want to RESIZE the picture frame. I wrote "move a picture frame" instead of "resize a picture frame" like I wrote in the first post. Sorry about that.

Anyway, in my opinion a command + shift shortcut to get the item tool which would hide the picture anchors and allow you to resize the picture frame without resizing the picture would solve this issue nicely. That way you could have one shortcut for resizing the picture frame and the picture at the same time (just command key) and one for just affecting the picture frame (command + shift). Though preferably the other way around.

 Have also tried to change the "v" shortcut to "control + v" using the mouse and keyboard pref pane in OS X, but no success so far.

 Thanks for your help so far guys!

 Regards

 OK, let me see if I understand what you want to do. You have a text frame with some portion of the text selected (assuming you are going to edit this bit of text somehow), and you want to be able to resize a picture frame (not the text frame), by using the old shortcut to change to the item tool because tapping V will replace the text that is selected with the letter V instead of selecting the selection tool like you want. Is that correct?

 If that's correct, you can just click anywhere on the picture frame while holding the command key, release the command key, and the picture frame will be selected, with all of the handles ready for you to resize it. When you are done, you just have to click back on the text frame and eveything you could have done before you moved over to mess with the picture frame will be ready for you to continue. The text will still be selected, and you will still have the text selection tool active.

Have I misunderstood you again?

 Nice one AD! That worked like I wanted it to. Thanks a lot! 

  Hi migman! Yeah that's right. And the problem I was having with the shortcut for the item tool  (holding down the command key), was there in Xpress 7 as well, but as there were no picture anchors on top of the frame anchors, it wasn't really an issue in that version.

 Thanks!

 Any thoughts on the measurements palette question guys?

Probably a long shot that there is any way of getting the text attributes icons back to Xpress 7 layout or something like that right? Can't imagine why they did that. I have always thought it handy to be able to see what styles were applied by looking at the little icons an toggling them (Or using shortcuts to toggle them).

Wow, I'm not on 8 yet, but I took a look at 8's measurements palette.

Why they would change this quick visual reference is beyond me. Now you have to drop a menu to see it? Stupid!

It's not like they needed the space to put something else there. It's just wasted space now, and one more unnecessary menu to drop. What possible advantage is gained by this change?

 I hadn't really noticed this before, but now you've pointed it out, it is bizarre. What is achieved? Absolutely nothing.

Hey ampegg66 and Emma!

Couldn't agree more. Hopefully they'll let you put the most used icons (styles) back next to the B and I in the next update. But I'm not holding my breath.

Have a nice weekend!