Select the Slides Overview at the top of the Slides list on the left. The editor zooms out so that you can see all slides. When you then click on a slide you can perform the following operations on it, along with all its contents:

•Drag from inside the slide to move the slide.

•Drag the corner handles to resize the slide.

•Drag the green rotate handle below the slide to rotate the slide.

•Select Slides Overview and then use Arrange Slides menu in the Size & Background section of the Properties pane on the right to arrange the layout of the slides on the canvas.

•Hold down SHIFT to manipulate in fixed increments.

When an animated Xplain is played the contents will be rotated and zoomed for each slide so that the slide fills the display window the right way up. For example, if you rotate a slide through 90° the Xplain will rotate through 90° at that slide to show it. Similarly, smaller or larger slides will be zoomed to fit the display window.

The arrangement of your slides is simply how they are organized on the canvas workspace. When you select Slides Overview in the Slides list on the left you can move around and arrange the slides either manually or automatically.

Slide arrangement is only important if you are animating your slides

When the slideshow plays, HelpXplain moves the canvas containing the slides so that the slides move into view in the browser window. If you are going to animate your slides their arrangement on the canvas will affect how they move in the animation: Slides in a single row will move horizontally only. Slides in multiple rows cause the animation to pan down to the next row as well as moving.

If you don't animate your slides their arrangement isn't important. HelpXplain will switch between them without transitions and you will not see the movement between the slides.

Arranging your slides automatically

Select Slides Overview in the Slides list on the left. Then look in Size & Background in the Properties pane on the right and use the Arrange Slides option to arrange the slides on the canvas in a variety of different ways. This affects how the slides move in the browser window when the slideshow is played, when the canvas is moved behind the browser window to show the slides.

Arranging your slides manually

You can also arrange your slides manually with the mouse in Slides Overview if you want to achieve special animation moving effects.

Select a slide in the Slides list, then click on the element inside the slide to select it. If the element is covered by another element you can hide the top element by selecting it in the Objects list on the left and then clicking in the Visibility (eye) column to the right of its name.

Exact increments and snapping to borders:

Hold down SHIFT while moving, resizing or rotating to use exact increments and snap to the borders of other elements. The snap grid is defined in the View menu:

Cropping images:

You can crop images but not shapes. Select the image, click on the Edit tool (pencil) icon in the top right corner, then drag the corners of the image to crop frame and click on the check icon to finish. You can also drag the image inside the crop frame to change its position without moving the frame.

See the section on Picture Tools further below for the alternative powerful crop tools available there.

Resizing:

Drag the handles on the sides and corners of elements adjust the size. Hold down SHIFT to maintain the aspect ratio and resize in fixed increments. The increments are defined by the grid set with Snap Objects To... in the View menu (see above).

When resizing images you can always return to the original size and aspect ratio by right-clicking and selecting Size > Reset to Original Size in the context menu. The Size menu is also available in the Home tab.

Rotating:

Drag the green rotate handle projecting from the bottom of the image to rotate the element.  There are tools to rotate in 90° increments in the Home tab.

Flipping horizontally and vertically:

Select the element then select horizontal or vertical flip tool in the Home tab.

The format painter in the tools group at the left of the ribbon menu quickly copies the style of one element to another:

Procedure

1.Select an element, then click on the Format Painter tool to copy the element style. The mouse cursor switches to the painter tool.

2.Click on another element with the painter tool mouse cursor to apply the style.

•Single click on the Format Painter to apply the style to a single element. The mouse painter tool then switches off.

•Double-click on the Format Painter to apply the style to multiple elements. The mouse painter tool remains on until you click on the tool in the toolbar again.

In addition to all the standard editing options, HelpXplain also has a set of additional powerful image editing tools that become available as soon as you select a picture in the editor. Then the Picture Tools tab is shown in the ribbon toolbar.

General brightness, contrast and saturation

The Brightness, Contrast and Saturation tools are standard image controls that are applied to the entire selected image.

Effect Lenses

Effect lenses are like shapes, but they apply a filter effect to the part of the image below the lens. They can be applied to a part of the image or to the whole image. Select the Effect tool on the left to use them.

Multiple effect lenses: You can stack multiple effect lenses on top of each other. For example, you could create a cartoon effect with one lens and then add a blur lens on top of that to blur the cartoon effect.

1.Select Effect on the left, click on the Effect Lenses tool to open its menu, then select the lens shape or the Entire Picture option.

If you select a shape you can move it around and resize it like any other shape, but only inside the current image. You can't move effect lenses outside their image.

2.Choose the effect type and adjust its settings with the controls on the right end of the toolbar.

3.To edit an effect lens later, first choose Effect mode on the left, then select the lens.

Lens Types

Crop:

When you choose Crop in the Picture Tools it initially activates HelpXplain's normal crop mode for the image. See Cropping Screenshots above. However, when you select the Crop mode you will also see a menu of shapes in the Image Tools toolbar that are used for HelpXplain's powerful Crop-to-Shape feature.

Crop-to-Shape:

Select the image you want to edit, select Crop mode and then select one of the shapes in the menu in the Image Tools toolbar. The image will be cropped to the shape you choose. This is also non-destructive. The original image is always there in the background.

Difference to image with picture fill:
The Crop-to-Shape effect initially looks the same as loading an image into a shape with the Picture Fill option. However, when you use Crop-to-Shape the picture remains fully editable and the full image is still there in the background. Crop-to-Shape can also be combined with other Picture Tools effects, such as 3D view and Effect Lenses, which are not available for shapes.

3D View

This mode allows you to "bend" the image to give it a 3D perspective look. You can choose from a number of predefined 3D effects or perform a free transform. If you have applied any effect lenses they will be included in the transformation.

1.Select the image and select 3D View on the left.

2.Choose one of the predefined transforms in the toolbar or just drag the corners of the image.

3D View forces PNG export:

Note that images transformed with the 3D effect must be exported as PNGs with alpha transparency. All other formats will be converted to PNG to make this possible.

Select a slide in the Slides list, then click on the element inside the slide to select it. If the element is covered by another element you can hide the top element by selecting it in the Objects list on the left and then clicking in the Visibility (eye) column to the right of its name.

If the Properties pane is not visible on the right, click on the icon above the top right corner of the editing window to display it.

Fill:

Fill is only available for shapes, not for pictures. Edit in the Fill menu in the Properties pane on the right. If you have selected a theme you can choose the outline setting defined in the them.

Gradient Fill defines a transition from a start to an end color with optional transparency.

Picture Fill fills the shape with a picture. You can select pictures from the current project or one from disk. See the Picture Tools section further above for the alternative Crop-to-Shape option that allows continued editing of the picture.

Outline/border:

Edit in the Outline menu in the Properties pane on the right. If you have selected a theme you can choose the outline setting defined in the theme.

Change Shape changes the shape of the current element, including pictures, which then fill the chosen shape. Press CTRL+Z or click the Undo tool in the program title bar (left end) a couple of times to back out and remove the shape.

Transparency/opacity and shadows

The Opacity & Shadow menu in the Properties pane adjusts the transparency of the selected element and allows you to apply a drop shadow.

You can adjust the direction, width, softness and color of the shadows. Colors other than black or gray will usually look a little strange.

Shadows in animated Xplains:

Displaying and animating shadows in web browsers is very processor intensive. It's generally best to disable them when publishing unless you are sure your intended audience will be using modern hardware. (You can disable shadow export when publishing.)

Save entire canvas as a HelpXplain project for later editing

By default, selecting Save in the File menu or the quick toolbar in the top left corner will use the .xplain format that saves the entire canvas with all the slides on it. This stores all the components on the canvas and allows you to change and edit all the components in later sessions.

If you think you will want to edit your image components again later you should always save a HelpXplain version. Static images merge all the components into a single image and you cannot edit the individual items on their own.

Save an individual slide as a static image

In addition to this you can also save individual slides as static images that include everything visible in the slide:

From the right-click context menu:

1.Select the slide in the Slides list.

2.Right-click on the slide in the Slides list and select the Export Slide submenu.

This gives you the following options

•Copy to clipboard (you can then insert the bitmap image of the slide to other programs).

•Save as a Picture (PNG, JPG, TIFF or BMP) in which all elements in the slide are merged into a single image.

The Clipboard is particularly efficient if you are using the image in a program that accepts pasting. For example, in our Help+Manual documentation tool you can insert images from the clipboard and save them to a file simultaneously. If you select an existing image in Help+Manual and paste a new image over it, it overwrites the existing image file. This makes updating existing images very fast.

From Save As... in the File menu – saves all slides:

•Select Save As in the File menu and then select Static Images.

This this will save all the slides in your Xplain as a series of static images. You can also save as an editable Xplain, an HTML slideshow or a multi-page GIF image. The last two options take you to the normal Publish screen.