Xara Introduces NEW program for web design

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Based solely on the description offered by them, it immediately sounds like it may be a good fit for CSB users!!!
I am not a fan of html options in Xara Xtreme 4 Pro. Too limited. But since Xara has expanded that tool into it's own product, I hope to embrace this product. I have been an instant fan of other XARA products because of ease of use, low learning curve and FUN factor...Addictive quality!

Read the announcement here



You can download a full feature description here.  I "printed" a long web page to PDF for quick reference and reading.

First Xara tutorial on this product is here:   http://outsider.xara.com/tutorials/february09/


The program costs just $49 for US customers, £39 inc VAT in the EU.
Better still if you have Xtreme 4 or Webstyle 4 you can purchase Web Designer for just $29 or £23 inc VAT (this is an introductory 2 month offer).
(Since I have XXP4 and WS4, I will get the intro price now while I can get it!)

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Discussion about the new program on the TALKGRAPHICS.com website.

- can insert code into pages (like our CSB Insert HTML feature)
- does not have a way to do FORMS within the program. But you can build them and insert them just like in CSB.
(Jotform and the Coffeecup's form builder were mentioned as excellent ways to do this.

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Hi, y'all ....

After reading Sami's rave review of Xara Web Designer and getting way sidetracked with links and tutorials, I came back to look at Gary Priester's introduction at this link:   http://outsider.xara.com/tutorials/february09/

Guess what?? These particular pages don't present well in FireFox 3!!!!!  Most of the sentences in the paragraph portion are truncated on the right. And, in IE6, the text is so small it's unreadable (monitor is set to 1440x900). When choosing View/Text-Size to make the text larger, it has no effect.

Has anyone else noticed this??

I'm so eager to find a program that offers a nice interface, but this is not boding well for text appearance at the moment.

Hope everybody is doing well!

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Clarification.... Not a rave review from me.  Have never seen or used the program.
I am a big fan of some other XARA products and HOPE the Web Designer program has promise! I posted this at the beginning:

Based solely on the description offered by them, it immediately sounds like it may be a good fit for CSB users!!!

I posted about it because:
1) there is a discount to Xara product users
2) may be an alternative that would be pleasant to use (fun factor for imagination)
3) could have potential
4) can't be worse than some of the other options
5) price is decent
6) because I like other Xara products.

As to showing in FF3, I am looking at the pages now.  Other than choosing a small font in the design process, the pages look fine on my two computers.  Screen capture of PAGE 2 (greatly reduced).


In IE, you can not change the font size.
In FF3 you can choose to ZOOM IN the page which continues to render fine.
In FF3 if you ZOOM into the text only, the words are cropped on right side.

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Well..... maybe I went a little overboard with the descriptive "rave review"    -- but seeing as you were going to jump on the upgrade price, I interpreted that as eager-to-acquire.  That's not the point.... the point is, the very first page I looked at using this new product, with an "experts" signature on it, didn't render as readable. This doesn't make a good first impression. And then to have it in such small type on IE and not being zoomable.... oh my.

In looking at your reduced thumbnail, it's not the same page as what the link produces offered by Gary Priester.

===>  http://outsider.xara.com/tutorials/february09/

So, if a different author generated the two separate pages, perhaps there's user-error in producing the tutorial. One would think that the pages would be reviewed in both IE and FF before publishing.

If you view the above site on either of your machines - do you see that the text is truncating on the right?


Also, just a FYI, I got a "not found" error when trying to view the web_designer_features.pdf file mentioned below.

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Clarification # 2.   

The much reduced screen print above is of page 2 of the same tutorial, by the same person.
(2 is visible in the blue header)
NONE of the text is cut off in IE or FF when font is normal size.
As I mentioned:

In FF3 you can choose to ZOOM IN the page which continues to render fine.
In FF3 if you ZOOM into the text only, the words are cropped on right side.

If your font is being cut off on the right side, choose RESET option and make sure the checkmark is MISSING from text only, as shown here. 

THEN use the Zoom feature (Ctrl ++) and you will see the ENTIRE page will zoom normally, font is NOT cut off.
Webmasters can NOT control how individual people have their computers set (coloration, resolution size, font size, etc).

The page you referred to in your post is the FIRST page. Shown larger than the earlier screen print so you can see no words are being cut off when I visit.


As to the font size, I would have chosen a different size font to work in...that is a choice made by the webmaster.

I am not recommending it to anyone (yet) before I even use/test it. (not my style!!!)
I merely said that I will immediately get the product because I get the discount and I enjoy using the other Xara products. Wanted to offer that SAME opportunity to others that feel the same way.  Even if I do not use this for a CSB replacement, I will get use out of the program in other ways, or as a supplement to other web building products.  And since I KNOW I will get use out of it, I would rather spend less now than wait till the price goes up!
 
(I have bought other web building products that had great promise during trial but with time the bloom fell off the rose. I have closed those programs and keep them only for reference, IF I get a question about them. And those were certainly more $$ than this tiny program that has promise from a company that produces OTHER products I like)

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Hi, Sami ~

View/Zoom/Reset had no effect on the text line not truncating, so I checked my Firefox font settings, and my default font size is "16". I just reset it to "12" hit reload, and Preister's page renders as designed.

However, because my monitor resolution is 1440 x 900, leaving the font at "12" now renders samisite (and all the others I view regularly) as unreadable as the IE version of Preister's page. Which, for these old eyes, is not acceptable.

FWIW Department.... I don't think it's very good coding..... if you view the source you'll notice that each line of text is a div with a class of "tl", (text line, I guess); and the leading is controlled by a "top" function, incrementing 14px with each new line.  Is that crazy code or what??  What happened to <p> ??

Anyway, just sharing my observation here, not barking at you, that's for sure.  Back to real life.

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Unfortunately webmasters have no control on monitor settings or font settings for their visitors.  If so, they could design a page that would look the same for EVERYONE no matter what equipment is used.  Too many variations.   
 

At least in FF, if you have the default text settings set, you can use the ZOOM for the entire page to see it all the text larger!   
 

EDITED:  ADDED CHARLES MOIR, XARA COMMENTS ON THIS ISSUE:
"Yes we position every single items with pixel accuracy - including every single line. It's the only way to ensure accurate WYSIWYG and consistency across all browsers.

There is no zoom problem if you use modern browsers (IE7+, Firefox, Opera) as they use full page zoom - which is much better all around anyway - then everything scales in proportion like normal zoom (like Xara zoom) so you can zoom in on graphics and photos etc - the page layout is maintained.

The last two browsers to do the old 'text resize' instead of zoom, Safari and Chrome, are adding this feature soon.

We do confirm to web standards - the pages pass the W3C validator, which is more than an be said for most websites. Supporting features such as CSS, and to some extent text blocks, would break the WYSIWYG nature of Web Designer, which is it's main benefit and reason it works the way it does.

We do not expect users to see the HTML let alone 'tweak it' as you say. Any more than you might 'tweak' your PDF file by editing the text of the actual file. It's a archaic, backward and ultimately doomed technical left over from the early days of the web (just as editing PDF files is - a long time ago people did have to edit their PDF files by hand and had to use embedded tags for DTP layout - until decent WYSIWYG software came along to make it unnecessary). So our goals are to make it unnecessary to ever have to do anything with the HTML, and to create a product that's as WYSIWYG, as simple, and with a much design freedom as modern DTP software, except that it creates web pages.

There are a lots of way you can tweak the HTML, and we're not stopping you doing that, (John has shown lots of nice little script changes, for those that are into it) but we wouldn't do things that compromised the simple WYSIWYG nature of the product.

But we are continuing to look into ways in which we can offer text blocks in an accurate WYSIWYG way, as well as style support for future versions."

Haven't had a chance to look at the code yet.  Or try the program.  Will this weekend (maybe Sunday...?)
I am GLAD for your insights, the time you have taken to discuss your observations.
Any you have please post them!  On any of the products we have listed or SHOULD BE listed!   

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I know why you like Xara Web Design that much...

Is for that bright and nice purple color when open the program for the first time on the Read Me First page ...
 




check your PM

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Oh...GOODY!!!   
Something pretty to look forward to! 
I bought it, installed it but did not get a chance to open it last night.

I have WORK that must be finished tonight and tomorrow. Then Sunday I can play for a bit (I hope!!!)
BUT, now that you have told me about that, I WILL Have to open it tonight for a FEW minutes!   

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I played with XWD on Sunday for a while.  It is really got alot in it.
Rick sent me an email (can't be on samisite while he travels in China). 
Says he likes it so much, he may use XWD instead of his Dreamweaver.

I won't leave CSB for it at this point, but I am impressed with what it does offer.