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Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Web Designer 11 has landed!
You can find an overview on our website @ http://www.xara.com/web-designer/whats-new/ and detailed info in the release notes @ http://www.xara.com/webdesigner/notes but the highlights are:
• Stickies – objects that stick in place as the page scrolls
• Stretchy background images that fill the browser width
• New animation effects available on mouseover, on click or on reveal
• Text enhancements including auto-correction (abbreviation expansion)
• This bullet point has BETA warnings all over it, but we think you’ll want to try it! cloud.xara introduces collaborative editing from anywhere on any device (yes, even MACs)
• Share & Sync your files via Dropbox or Google Drive
Gary Priester has had huge fun trying out the new animation effects and sticky objects in his First Look on the Xara Xone @ http://xaraxone.magix.net/WD11/. Plus we have a couple of demo sites @ http://www.xara.com/web-designer-examples/site1/ and http://www.xara.com/web-designer-examples/site2/ and for that matter the cloud.xara intro notes @ http://content.ixara.com/intro are a good demo of Stickies. Enjoy!
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Kate, it looks fantastic. I'd say it was a no-brainer upgrade for anyone who owns an existing version of Web Designer (unless they want to wait for the full-blown Designer Pro). It's a great price point for the newcomer to Xara that want a great web design program.
Congratulations to the Team.
A special mention for Gary and his example sites and the first look. Great job Gary. At last a very modern-looking website example with a really nice mobile adaptation.
Good job guys.
[ Gosh that arrived out of the blue! ]
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
I had a ton of fun putting the First Look together and I think I just scratched the surface of what you can do with the new features. I look forward to seeing how others use the new features.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
In Xara Designer Pro X 10 if I alter the colour, size, or font of say some Normal Text style then go to the dropdown menu (which shows a + sign after the style name to indicate a change of style) and click Update Style, all text takes the new attribute and the + sign disappears.
In Web Designer 11 Premium (trial Version) clicking Update Normal text to Match changes the text to the new attribute but the + sign remains against the style name. Is this the correct behaviour?
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Thanks for spotting this. Its been logged for investigation
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Really liking the new Web Animation feature added... But why does it use a square box as trigger point and not the actual shape of the selected item?
This seems to limit the functionality of this cool feature when used on irregular and/or overlapping shapes.
Hope I wasn't too quick with complaining?! I'm just thrilled Xara came out with a new product :D
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
@dutchim - I used a rectangle for my triggers but it can be anything, or nothing. Or an object that is the same color as your background so it is invisible.
Triggers are not necessary. Objects that use Web Animation > Reveal are activated as the area they are in appears in the browser. But a trigger object can give you more control over when the particular reveal action takes place.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
If I create a new animation in WD11P and create a circle and Ctrl+Shift+S to open the link properties and click on the Help button no help file is opened?
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Egg Bramhill
If I create a new animation in WD11P and create a circle and Ctrl+Shift+S to open the link properties and click on the Help button no help file is opened?
Good catch - the Help button does nothing.
Raised a Dear Xara... - http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...lp-not-working.
Acorn
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
The help file for Advanced Flash Commands still indicates that Ctrl+Shift+S opens an image of the Web Properties dialogue window where you can select the Mouse Over tab. This hasn't been the case for at least 3 versions, Ctrl+Shift+S only open a Web Link window in WD11P Animation (and XDProX10 for that matter) and only opens the Web Properties window without a Mouse Over in a WD11P in a web page. This section of the help file is totaly confused :)
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Quote:
Auto-correct / abbreviation expansion.
Where does that live? How do I find it?
Edit: Found it.
Quote:
Click on the Spell Checker / auto correction icon on the Text Tool InfoBar, to use the auto correction feature. Select Auto correction options... from the dropdown menu.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Click on the ABC icon that sets the spell checker and you will see an option there for Auto correction options. This will bring up the auto corrections dialogue and you can set additional options there.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Cheers Frances, found it in the help file just after I'd posted. Can't find a symbol for 53o (Degree). Any idea?
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
@gwpriester - I was not necessarily referring to the webpage you put together sir... which by the way is pretty sweet.
Maybe I'm just confused... But didn't we used to be able to have the clickable area of an object be the shape of this object?
Even in 10 (Designer Pro) it creates a square area where the object in question is. (Only the shape as clickable area is available with flash export.)
I thought for sure I had used weird shaped buttons before in the past with only the popup/link be triggered when having the pointer actually over this shape and not the smallest box surrounding this shape.
Please correct me if I am wrong
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Egg - Not sure if this will help but Alt + 0176 =°
dutchim - The Mouse-Over link is what I think you are referring to. That is now a Web Animation function (see attached).
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Yes it is... But in your example the mouse-over area is a square and not a circle. The corners also trigger the mouse-over effect.
I thought for sure we had the option of the mouse-over area being the actual circle as well besides a square surrounding the circle.
Hope I made myself clear
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Yeah, I see what you mean. I just tried this in Designer Pro X10 and it is the same behavior.
I suspect that given the amount of code generated as it is, it is more efficient to designate a hot spot based on a rectangle (just four coordinates).
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
No, clickable links are always rectangles. Only swf's can use the exclusive shape of an object as far as I know. Perhaps svg can do the same?
@ Gary. I think you can only pick from the Font Awesome image set and can't use Alt +
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
The link applies to the object. The button may be a circle, but the button bitmap (PNG) is a rectangle, as are all bitmaps. Transparent pixels are still part of the bitmap's grid.
But, you can get tricky and place a rectangle inside the circle and apply the link to the rectangle, then softgroup the two.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Thanks for clearing that up guys
@steve.ledger - Not a bad workaround even though not perfect.
I always forget about the soft groups.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Steve, you're trying to square the circle now ;)
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
You could also fill any odd shape with small rectangles to create an array of soft grouped objects with a single link. Then set the softgroup to 100% transparent.
It might not be pretty and I wouldn't use it all the time, but it's useful when you do need it, for example to isolate an odd shaped area in a photo to a link.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
That's a great workaround Steve. I like that.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
So the secret is a square after all!
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
@Egg: I found a degree symbol using windows character map Once the symbol is copied to the clipboard in CM just click to place a cursor in the replace with field in WD11 and ctrl + V to paste and click Ok.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Frances - I think Egg was asking how to add it to the Auto Correct list.
Egg - Here's what you can do though it seems a bit fussy. Create the degree symbol in Wordpad then copy the symbol. In the Auto Correction Options dialog, create your shortcut, e.g. deg then in the Replace With box, paste the degrees symbol. I just tried this and it works.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Gary I was doing exactly that.
Just use the Arial font and Character Map and copy and paste into the replace with field of the auto correct options. It works well I've done it to add a degree symbol to mine.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
With regard to the precise mouse-over/click areas, circles, cows heads and the like.
Relying on precise areas for clicks is a really bad practice for the modern web, which has a high proportion of users using a mobile device for browsing. Fingers don't do hover or precise placement.
Mobile wants larger click areas, not precise ones.
Just saying.
[ technically - matching clicks/mouseovers/touches to a rectangle is far more efficient in processor power than a precise shape ]
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Agreed, it would be silly for mobile versions.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Demo sites look great. Modern and professional. Excellent work.
Great gift for a hobby web-designers.
Congratulations to the development team. =D>
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Has anyone published an existing WD10 website using WD11 without alterations other than using WD11?
I have. It did not like that very much and seemed to not recognise the fonts and mouse-overs used, so much so that I had to republish using WD10. I'm using iPage as a host and I sometimes get publishing problems but not often.
Perhaps it's just my website - it's not important and I think I had the same problem with WD10 at first.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Nope, I've tested numerous old .webs from as far back as v8 in v11 without any issues at all..
Test refomatting is the only slight change necessary and has never made things worse, just better for modern browsers.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
I posted about my problem with links and everything.....and the ******* problem went away as soon as I did that.
This appears to be a problem with iPage that the changes seem to take a while to take effect or something. But the good news is it appears to be nothing to do with Xara.
I'll get my coat....
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
No idea why this is happening Dave.
On the first link the pasteboard is purple and the page is yellow.
I get a forbidden on the 2nd link so I can't comment.
One thing to try, I don't know if it will work or not. Delete all the html pages and the index_html_files folder.
Ensure you've got upload only changed pages UNTICKED. Upload an see what happens.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Hi Egg,
I tried to take down or edit my post but you're just too quick! This appears to be a 'propogating' problem with iPage it changes things really slowly, whether it's cache or something I don't know but I was on the Stat-Shots site and suddenly it auto-refreshed in my browser formatted okay! Go figure as my sister-in-law often says.
Incidentally all of those shirts on Stat-Shots were created from scratch by me using Designer Pro X with loads of blurry black and white and colour match-day photographs my only reference (except for the Xmas shirt which I found online) - it was hard work but I'm fairly proud of it because that is now a permanent record of the Wildcats jerseys and logos (nearly all of those created from scratch too) that has never existed prior to my obsessions! :D
Anyway, as usual, thanks for your quick response and you must always remember that when you see a post from me, moaning about a problem, I am 70% pure idiot.
Cheers
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
When I set the Web Animation Mouse-Over effect for an element on the page.
Then
When Click/Touch on a mobile the animation happens as well even though it is set to do nothing.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Quote:
That can be used for professional development?
Rapid prototype to show to the client. Probably. But no more.
I suppose that depends on the designer, no? And of course the complexity of the website, Web Designer is better suited to smaller to medium size websites. Web Designer is a tool, and a tool is just a tool. In the almost 20 years I have used Xara products to create print work, logos, brochures, magazine advertisements, and websites, I have never had one client who asked what software I used. What matters is the results. And if a client is more hung up on what software you will be using, then that is not a client I will ever accept work from.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Since I am not really in the loop anymore, how long does it usually take until the full Designer 11 Pro will come out?
I upgraded to 10 Pro literally days ago, but I hope the new one will bring tables and most of all new vector design tools and if so I will upgrade again immediately.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
I hope the new one will bring tables and most of all new vector design tools
People have hoped this for years. I wouldn't assume it will happen.
I have no idea if there will be table support or not, but it's a big mistake to make plans on the basis that any software product is going to add new features if they haven't been announced beforehand. Xara doesn't normally announce forthcoming feature additions before release..
There are workarounds for tables. It's not ideal, for sure.
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Re: Just Launched - Xara Web Designer 11
Hi Wolfgang,
From my Xara products list I d/l'ed the trial of WD10 on almost the same date a year ago, as I've just d/l'ed the WD11 trial, so that was a year. I d/l'ed XD Pro X 10 two months after the release of WD10, so on that timescale XD Pro X 11 is due for release in two months time.
I doubt XD 11 will include tables, it's mainly a web based request. My guess is if it isn't in WD11 it won't be in XD11 either.
Might be totally wrong of course.
As for new vector tools we all live & hope :)