Installing a Plug-In Filter
Here’s how to install the filter in Xara. Make sure Xara isn’t running, and then:
- Using Explorer, create a folder on your hard drive that you’ll use specifically for plug-ins you’ll use with Xara Designer. If you own Photoshop, resist the temptation to install the Displacement filter in Photoshop’s plug-ins directory. Why? Because you already have a displacement filter, but more importantly, don’t ever, ever tell Xara to look in Photoshop’s plug-ins folder and use the plug-ins you own in this folder. Some filters might work, other won’t, and still others will halt Xara. It’s always the smart idea to create a folder for third-party stuff and then direct Xara to fetch from there. Call it “Xara plug-ins” or something similarly evocative.
- Launch the DisplacementMap_Setup.exe file; click through the splash and the EULA agreement screens until you get to the Choose A Graphic Host screen. Click “Other Location”. Click the Browse button (the guy with the three dots on it), and then in the Browse for Folder directory box, direct the installer to put the needed filter files in the folder you created in Step 1.
- Click Install, and then click Finish.
- Go to the folder, and then open the Displacement Maps folder. There’s a lot of neat displacement maps in here you should try at your leisure, but right now, put Xarxonian-flag-disp.jpg, the file you downloaded earlier, in this folder.
- Launch Xara. Press Ctrl+Shift+O to go to Options. Click the Effects & Plug-Ins tab and then click the Setup button for Photoshop plug-ins.
- Click Add Folder, and then point the directory window to the folder in which you installed the Displacement filter. Click OK, and the location should be listed at the left of the dialog box. Click OK, and then click Apply and then OK to exit Options.
You’re good to begin the tutorial now, and you also know how to install third-party filters in the future.
