-
I received this press release this morning and thought I would pass it along. WebStyle is a cool product (of course, it's from Xara) that creates a variety of elements for web pages using pre-designed elements which you can modify ten ways to Sunday and back again.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> A major upgrade to Xara's template-based web graphic creation software means that anyone can now create professional-quality custom graphics in seconds. No skill required!
London, England – August 21st 2001 - XARA announces the launch of a new and significantly enhanced version of Xara Webstyle.
Xara Webstyle 2 can be used to create top quality, fully customized web graphics. And there's no design skill or software expertise required.
Webstyle is template based - the user simply selects the type of graphic required from the hundreds of Webstyle graphic templates. The templates are designed by professional artists, which ensures the design and artistic quality of the original.
The real secret to getting the best on-screen quality is that the graphics are created from vector files and rendered using Xara's 2D and 3D vector rendering engines. All the individual elements of a graphic can be fully customized - including the text, size, color, font - with the quality remaining pixel perfect. This contrasts with the normal bitmap clipart collections where you can't change the color or wording or indeed even re-size without the image being distorted (which accounts for many of worst graphic offenses on the web!).
Webstyle uniquely solves the problem faced by practically every web site owner in the world; how to create professional looking original web graphics if you don't have the artistic ability or design skills!
Webstyle can produce eight classes of graphics - mouse-over or 'rollover' navigation bars, animated banner ads, 2D and 3D headings, buttons, backgrounds, bullets, dividers, logos - which can be customized to create an infinite collection of tailored graphics. In addition to hundreds of individual designs the program includes 40 'themed' sets of matching graphics. Advanced features include the automatic 'smart' resizing of buttons and NavBars to fit the new text and one-click addition of states for NavBars (Webstyle automatically creates and exports the necessary HTML and JavaScript).
Xara Webstyle does all this with no knowledge of jargon or graphics skills required. The underlying technology is leading edge - the resultant graphics (GIF, PNG or JPEG) are fully anti-aliased, palette optimized and color reduced - but the user doesn't need to know or understand any of the technology to achieve these professional results.
“We can all recognise good design when we see it, but if we're honest with ourselves very few of us have the real ability needed to produce it”, said Xara marketing director Kate Moir. “Creating good graphics requires an eye for design plus skill, time and patience. Not to mention a good working knowledge of illustration software and the intimidating subject of optimising graphics for the web. Absolutely none of this is necessary with Webstyle, which is why we feel we've created a killer app for web graphics”, she added.
There is now a free trial version available for download from xara.com and a CD will be sent to each purchaser with the complete set of Webstyle templates. Additional template packs will be offered to owners in future. List price of Xara Webstyle 2 is $69.00 (+ VAT in Europe). Win 95/98/2000, Me and NT4.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Gary Priester
Moderator Person
<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
burl me to beehives</a>
-
I received this press release this morning and thought I would pass it along. WebStyle is a cool product (of course, it's from Xara) that creates a variety of elements for web pages using pre-designed elements which you can modify ten ways to Sunday and back again.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> A major upgrade to Xara's template-based web graphic creation software means that anyone can now create professional-quality custom graphics in seconds. No skill required!
London, England – August 21st 2001 - XARA announces the launch of a new and significantly enhanced version of Xara Webstyle.
Xara Webstyle 2 can be used to create top quality, fully customized web graphics. And there's no design skill or software expertise required.
Webstyle is template based - the user simply selects the type of graphic required from the hundreds of Webstyle graphic templates. The templates are designed by professional artists, which ensures the design and artistic quality of the original.
The real secret to getting the best on-screen quality is that the graphics are created from vector files and rendered using Xara's 2D and 3D vector rendering engines. All the individual elements of a graphic can be fully customized - including the text, size, color, font - with the quality remaining pixel perfect. This contrasts with the normal bitmap clipart collections where you can't change the color or wording or indeed even re-size without the image being distorted (which accounts for many of worst graphic offenses on the web!).
Webstyle uniquely solves the problem faced by practically every web site owner in the world; how to create professional looking original web graphics if you don't have the artistic ability or design skills!
Webstyle can produce eight classes of graphics - mouse-over or 'rollover' navigation bars, animated banner ads, 2D and 3D headings, buttons, backgrounds, bullets, dividers, logos - which can be customized to create an infinite collection of tailored graphics. In addition to hundreds of individual designs the program includes 40 'themed' sets of matching graphics. Advanced features include the automatic 'smart' resizing of buttons and NavBars to fit the new text and one-click addition of states for NavBars (Webstyle automatically creates and exports the necessary HTML and JavaScript).
Xara Webstyle does all this with no knowledge of jargon or graphics skills required. The underlying technology is leading edge - the resultant graphics (GIF, PNG or JPEG) are fully anti-aliased, palette optimized and color reduced - but the user doesn't need to know or understand any of the technology to achieve these professional results.
“We can all recognise good design when we see it, but if we're honest with ourselves very few of us have the real ability needed to produce it”, said Xara marketing director Kate Moir. “Creating good graphics requires an eye for design plus skill, time and patience. Not to mention a good working knowledge of illustration software and the intimidating subject of optimising graphics for the web. Absolutely none of this is necessary with Webstyle, which is why we feel we've created a killer app for web graphics”, she added.
There is now a free trial version available for download from xara.com and a CD will be sent to each purchaser with the complete set of Webstyle templates. Additional template packs will be offered to owners in future. List price of Xara Webstyle 2 is $69.00 (+ VAT in Europe). Win 95/98/2000, Me and NT4.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Gary Priester
Moderator Person
<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
burl me to beehives</a>
-
PC Pro out of England is offering Webstyler 2.0 on it's cover CD this month. I haven't gotten it yet, so I don't know the good/bad rating of their review (it's not on their website).
However, Issue 77 had a good review of Xara X by Tom Arah:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/TonyWtkns/pri....php3?id=36261
-
And all this VAT
is making Europe fat.
Shame it is that by asking some aunt Fedora, who lives in the States and who comes to Europe every Fall, to buy a European product for you, it is cheaper than buying it directly.
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet...
and you're working for no one but me. (G.Harrison)
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]
-
Gary,
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> A major upgrade to Xara's template-based web graphic creation software means that anyone can now create professional-quality custom graphics in seconds. No skill required! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Be an instant designer when you wake up tomorrow. No brains needed. No skills required. Beat all the educated, experienced designers, artists, craftsman in this world - just click here and submit your credit card data. We promise instant success, a wealthy, bright future. All 'how to be a millionaire in less than 60 days books' are fly shit compared to this application. You'll be da man.
Sad story, worst PR I've ever seen. And maybe time to leave this forum, because I belong to the skilled elite that doesn't seem to count anymore. Good Lord, I am an OLD FASHIONED designer, I HAVE A BRAIN, EYES and know how. Holy shit. Sorry that I have to apologize for my past.
Bye Xara. You couldn't update the plug-in for browsers, but but dedicated first priority to the development of a nobrainer tool. You sold yourself too cheap, lowering the true value of trained and skilled clientele - your flagship customers!
That's what I've missed the last years, but now I know I've been placing my bet on the wrong horse. This is a nightmare. Worse than a computer virus.
ciao & have fun,
jens (tired of all this European bullshit)
jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://jens.highspeedweb.net
-
Come on, it's horses for courses - just as many sneer at Dreamweaver instead of hand-coding every last dot in HTML... If it it gives Xara a good dose of revenue so that they can afford to invest in XaraX and give it the marketshare it deserves, all well and good.
It's the kind of tool your accountant can use to help knock up a small, consistent website, that moves on from red text on yellow, that enables him/her to provide some info to clients. Fine. He/she isn't going to pay me or you a fair rate for 10 days work - so they have to do it themselves.
www.thelondonhouse.co.uk
-
the software is geared toward those who are trying to make their own website to begin with and providing them with pre-designed templates and so I don't think it's competing with designers or graphic artists, nor can it. I think after a while you can distinguish the template websites from the artistically designed ones. I can see how the PR sounds insensitive to designers and graphic artists though.
-
Jay
Not everybody can be as talented as you are. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
Here's the bottom line.
Xara makes these forums avaiable for free. If they charged a subscription fee, most would not pay it. I have seen this happen on other sites, such as Colorize.com, efuse.com, Unleash.com.
Everybody wants and expects free content. Nobody wants to pay what it is worth.
So, Xara offers products designed to appeal to a range of design experience, from a lot to a little. WebStyle is designed for new users who want to add quality images to their web sites but do not have the time or talent to create these images in Xara or any other graphics applications.
The person who is going to use WebStyle to create graphics for his or her web site it not your competition. But by purchasing WebStyle, they do help to pay the bills and keep this site free.
If something this innocouous offends you, then I really don't know what to tell you.
Gary
Gary Priester
Moderator Person
<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
burl me to beehives</a>
-
Gary, did you know XaraWebstyle has a logo maker? For only $69 you can create your own professional looking logos. (For the record, I wasn't really that impressed with the logo section.) That's a far cry from $600 - 1200. Isn't Xara harming the logo designer market with this new product??? (For the record, I don't think so!)
XaraWebstyle seems to be a wizard for Xara. It is definately a useful product for those not interested in learning how to create their own graphics.
-
It's not flexible enough... I saw pages made with webstyle and all I can tell is that it's distingishable on the first look [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
I found one thing very sad about Webstyle. In previous Xara there was a wizard (which was not documented very well though) it was possible to make constrained texts, name objects etc and If you were form XARA Ltd. ;-) or some hacker, you could make your own templates in Xara. Now they disabled this function in XARA X (icon is still there in the icon palette though!!! ;-).
Webstyle could be a great professional tool if it was possible to make your own templates in Xara X.
Roman
-
Gary, I truly understand the concept of 'free' content, 'free' everything - though I would ** LOVE ** and prefer to pay for it.
What I consider an offence is the plain fact that XARA struggles to broaden it's user/customer base. Great, but this is the wrong way.
Just imagine this worst case scenario (and believe me, I've been through this several times in similar situations):
I contact a client to offer my design service. In the second meeting he's going to ask: just curios, which application do you use? My answer: Xara. Silence for 2 minutes. Then: OK, I've seen WebStyle, so you want to tell me to pay THAT MUCH for your services if I can get if with an app for just $ 69? Come on, gimme a break. WebStyle doesn't require any skills, so why in this world should we honor your services...
It's what I call the appreciation of value, which doesn't stop at the developer's door...
The PR, the wording is a slap into the face of professionals who have to feed their families with their job and profession - and yes, some of us DO have small customers, they have to because they have to survive. Remember that not every designer is in the lucky position to work for Sony of America, DaimlerChrysler, Boing, GM, or any other global corp.
Is there a 'quick dentist' kit on the market? No, because it's required that you need a certain kind of education and a certain level of experience. But every asshole can call himself a designer or artist, just because he purchased one of these click-'n-go apps.
Many clients value you on the basis of the apps you are using - we had this thread several weeks ago (Adobe, Macromedia & co...). Xara is not considered to be a professional tool, because it's too cheap. If they would add a price tag of US$ 599, the media would jump on it and claim it to be the challenge for the established corps.
But even worse, now they churn out a product for nobrainers with a lousy PR campaign, promising heaven for accountants, bookkeepers, dentists, stocktraders - you name it.
It's the underlying perception that bothers me: hey dumbass, you don't need to call a designer, we've got the tools for you: cut out the professionals - profits galore (like in international trade: cut out the middleman - you don't need his experience anymore - a biz model that's doomed, but it's too late to step back, because most of the highly specialized companies already folded down).
I just installed two so called 'professional' software packages, just in case a customer should ask which software I'm using - and by no means I will ever mention XARA again - promised! The risk to be valued on the shabby image is too high. I simply don't want to be connected or affiliated to a kids software - see the point? In addition I'm so tired of justifying the tools I'm using...
Something else: I have many excellent (proven and working) ideas how to turn this forum and the XARA sites into highly profitable marketing tools - but no, they are not free.
XARA could easily turn it's web presence into a gold nugget at the end of the rainbow, supplying their customers with orders from all over the world and making a profit on the commission. But what are they doing? Running CHEAP - the ultimate European way of damaging a reputation.
Arts & design galore! Have fun & pls tell XARA to think about repositioning the nobrainer product without slapping their flagship customers into the face. The story goes that some of the old fashioned professionals carry something in them that's called pride.
jens
Before I forget: we had a thread here about image viewers. I sent Kate (XARA marketing) a mail to contact ACD Systems so they can integrate a viewer for XAR files in their apps - they are very successful with their apps, very professional - meaning this could be a real boost and promotion for XARA. Guess what happened: I didn't even get a reply. Arrogance? Blindness to visions? Don't ask me for the reason. Let XARA crawl where they belong - in the kids art market. Seems to be their stone hammered objective.
jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://jens.highspeedweb.net
-
I agree that Xara's PR department seems to have very strange ideas. I agree that they are surprisingly putting great ideas into grave and trying to earn easy money. I think that we should worry about XARA and not about ourselves ;-).
Read my previous post, don't you think it would be great to have possibility to make your own templates for this childish tool? I think it would. Pity they put WIZARD into grave together with Flare.
You use Xara because it's the best software you have, even when it's so childish. I don't tell my custormers what software I use, and mostly they really don't care. I always try to talk plain words trying not brainwash customers with desingers slang bafflegab consiting of names of the tools and techinques used.
Many companies use the name of software as a proof of their skill (WE PHOTOSOAP6&ILL9 GEARED, WE GOOD [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img], but good designer shows his portfolio instead. By telling tell your customers that you use the industry standard you will get the majority of paying customers - exactly the same way as Xara PR tries to get with their promotional text about Webstyle2.
Roman
And hey cheer up d/l webstyle and check it... I'm going to do it right now [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] .
[This message was edited by Dmagician on August 22, 2001 at 02:42.]
-
Hi Jens,
I feel you are being too harsh in your reaction.
Because I don't see any problem in cheapo webdesign-packets at all for us.
We've been talking about prices lately. A customer that won't pay your price won't pay half your price as well. Because he is simply NOT YOUR CUSTOMER.
I hear this every day: "But you can buy <name of webeditor> for <low price> in every megastore. Why would you charge me so much for a webpage ??"
I tell them to the face that I can afford Excel, but that does not make me an accountant.
I also can afford a hammer, but that does not make me a blacksmith.
Or your own example: I can afford a drill, but that does not make me a dentist.
There is ALWAYS somebody cheaper than me. Sometimes FAR cheaper. Still, I get as much jobs as I can handle.
You are selling YOURSELF, not your software. If the customer trusts, that you can do it he will pick you.
And if this customer is a penny-pincher, both of us just won't get it.
You are a far better designer than I am. My main focus is the concept. Marketing if you want.
They can't take that away from me with Webstyler. And they can't take your abilities away with it as well.
There will always be people that go the cheap way. Be Webstyler or not.
Even Adobe tried their luck with ImageStyler two years ago. It's now history.
When I started my company, more than three years ago, I charged a lot less than I charge now.
Those days, two offers out of three came to an order.
Nowadays 1-2 out of five offers are accepted. But I make more turnover than before, and I have the time to deliver much higher quality and better service.
I never can and never want to compete with students, me-too designers and Webstyler-owners.
But most important: Why would you leave the forum because of that ??
Your contributions are very much appreciated and we are all Xara(-X) users, aren't we ??
Let's hush up on - what's the name - and concentrate on XX, like we did before.
Your friend
Wolfgang
P.S.: I remember a saying from a TV-technician when he was asked why the bill was so high:
"One replaced transistor: 2 bucks, knowing which: 50 bucks" [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
-
Sorry to see your so upset, Jens.
But we really do not see WS2 as infringing or competing with your skills/offerings in any way.
Its target market is truly toward those with no artistic skill whatsoever (or very little, or simply no time). The group is mostly made up of those that want to put their own personal site (or a very small business site) together. In other words, people that are not in the habit of paying someone for design work.
And you really shouldn't be selling yourself on the products you use. A painter doesn't go on and on about the brushes he uses, he simply presents his work and lets it speak for itself. Besides, every company in the market has dabbled in the low end. Adobe with ImageStyler, PageMill, and Photoshop Lite is a good example. And they don't seem particularly hurt from the experience.
And to be point blank honest, we need a lot more product to sell than just Xara X if we want to stay in business and continue development. Granted, Xx is a great product, but it can't pay all of the bills...especially between releases.
Oh, and just a note. I do appreciate the advice on ACD. For your information, Kate averages around 500 emails a day...and is in the middle of product release. Granted, she should have at least dropped a note to you, but please understand that we are all intensely busy at the moment...and Kate, doubly so.
Regards,
Thomas
-
Jay
I am not unsympathetic with what you are saying.
You and I have been in the design and advertising business long enough to see many changes. The most major of these changes was the introduction of "desktop publishing" software. Suddenly every non-trained designer was a designer. And we all groaned when we saw some of the junk people were putting together themselves and proudly showing the world as their creations. (Ugh). But did desktop publishing software put the good designers out of business? Only those who could not adapt to the new way of working.
When my wife and I had our graphic design company in San Francisco, a lot of our bread and butter work went to untrained designers who could underprice us. I cannot say this did not hurt our business for a while.
But as the saying goes, only the strong survive. And if we are good designers, we repackage our services and we survive. We find higher end services and products to offer our clients that they cannot do themselves.
Stock art and photography was a tremendous threat to all illustrators and photographers. Until they realized the potential of selling one image for $100 50 times makes just as much money as selling one image one time for $5,000. And unlike the one time image, multiple use images can be sold over and over and over and over.
Illustrators started putting together collections of images to market only as stock images.
Xara did not invent the market for inexperienced designers. It has been around for 20 years now. They just have the marketing sense not to put all their eggs in one basket. If Xara increases their profitablility by selling more diverse products to more people, Xara X will ultimately be a better product and we will reap the benefits.
As a Xara X user, I do not feel neglected by Xara. They have produced what I honestly feel is the best drawing application available. And now they are looking to expand their market beyond our relatively small group of design professionals and serious non-professional users.
This is just good business.
Gary
Gary Priester
Moderator Person
<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
burl me to beehives</a>
-
Well said by the responses that it's not the software but what you make of it. There are plenty of "freeware" in addition to the range of software at all price levels. No one will judge a great design as being "cheap" simply because the designer used GIMP (freeware) instead of photoshop. I've seen masterpieces made with crayon on paper as well as on artist who reproduced a Michelangelo on the sidewalk with colored chalk. I can only doodle with crayon and chalk. It's what you can do with your tools, not the tools themselves.
-
I agree it's the "output" not the product used. I'd like to think that some of the users of WebStyle will discover that the "output" doesn't quite do enough for them, look for more, and discover the wonderful world of Xara.
Mickie
-
Jay,
Webstyle is really for people like me: an accountant with very little artistic ability and even less time. I certainly hope you're secure enough in your work that you don't feel threatened by wannabes like me. I've seen your work, it's fantastic! I wish I could dream as well as you draw.
Also, if we were to follow your logic completely through, none of us would ever buy a copy of Xara3D. Instead we should find a more difficult way of creating these stunningly beautiful and easy 3-D effects in XaraX.
Carry on.
.joroho.
-
For what it's worth...
Masque came on the Xara Gallery forum's scene recently with an image of balls made from straw emerging from the ocean, leaving a hole in the water from whence they came. It was absolutely stunning. I knew that I would never, never be able to create such an image.
When he explained how he did it, I was struck by the fact that the actual creation of the image was not as difficult as I had guessed. This doesn't mean that Masque isn't talented. Quite the opposite! He showed great skill in the construction of the image, but his real talent showed up in the composition. His imagination put Xara to use in a way that most people would never have thought of. Xara just made it easier for him to assemble his vision. As far as that goes, so did the bitmaps he used and the PC he used.
If we view new technology as a threat, we miss the point and we miss new opportunity.
~Dave!~
[This message was edited by Ross Macintosh on August 25, 2001 at 14:04.]
-
I never though a discussion about the graphics software we all use day in, day out, for our everyday work could turn out to be so entertaining !
I'm just going to nip out and get some popcorn. Please, don't stop for me. I'll sneak in at the back, quietly, when I return, so that I can enjoy the rest of the show.
-
Very surprisinly I won't add more wise opipnions to this thread I think all important has been said. I'm rather going to tell my experience with demo of Webstyle 2 [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Design: A little bit more futuristic. Still quite okay, just I think the Arrow back which stayed from the previous version is not very ergonomically placed.. I had problems to find it even I knew from previous Webstyle that it's there somewere.
Minuses
a) What is logos about when I didn't find way how to place mine own into the design ? ;-)
b) Banners adds? Banners which persuade you to click on them must have a fresh idea, creating them from template wont help the purpose of banner.
Plusses:
a)NavBars and complete templates for websites. (Pity it's not possible to import mine own made in XaraX ;-))
Conclusion.
I found it less persuasive than demo of Webstyle I. Lack of decent backgrounds, too few examples and less variety than in previous demo version. Still it brings a couple of nice new features and also it has a slightly better concept & organisation.
If Xara releases template maker, the Webstyle2 would rock like Lego Technics. Now it looks like a Lego-Duplo.
Roman
-
2 flames ...
As a good designer you should just laugh when looking at those ads. After 20 years in the software business I still have to see the software that makes me unemployed due to everybody being able to click together her/his own.
And just blaming "Europe" only sounds frustrated, not professional.
Even if the software would make anybody produce good results which I highly doubt, as it is not only technical skills making a good designer, your wining would be inappropriate.
In that case you simply would have adapt to changes like the people who did newspapers and books years ago with letters ....
Greetings,
juergen
PS. I have those days as well, I kill orcs and goblins then [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
-
I had a question which I hope someone could answer on this WebStyle... Where do the templates come from? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]
Curious, as I've really been thinking of selling basic web page templates myself. Would love to know if there was an avenue to sell them via Xara. Are the designs bought outright, or do you get a commission on sales?
Thanks!
Push yourself to notice the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Irene M. Kraus
www.design-comp.com
-
I find it understandable that Xara Ltd. develops webstyle. I also find some sympathy for Jens' position. He made a big impact on me when in the thread on his S&P shaker design he wrote of marketing strategies. Following his thinking there, Xara Ltd. positioned itself from the onset at a low pricepoint that reflected a desire for marketshare over establishing it as a high-end product and direct competitor to the mainstream graphics software. I don't know how successful the pricing strategy has been but I do know that years later, the program hasn't established itself as a serious professional tool. Of course we know the product is high-quality and a superior tool. Those facts haven't helped the product be recognized. It remains, sadly, a relatively obscure program. It deserves better but can be considered a product of its marketing.
I have no doubt that successfully marketing software is a difficult business and I do wish Xara Ltd. much success. Given Xara Ltd.'s investment in developing Webstyle how might it best market the product? How does Xara X fit into that marketing strategy?
It seems to me it would be very wise for Xara X to provide (via patch?) capability for xara x to create webstyle templates. Also provide a way, as Ikraus has suggested, for independant developers to market their templates. Let such developers add value to the program by increasing the pool and variety of templates. I believe doing so would expand Xara X's market to those (besides us) who'd see opportunity in developing templates. Practically every avid user of webstyle (users who develop multiple sites with it) would likely end up buying the 'template maker' which IMHO should be Xara X.
Something to think about...
Regards, Ross
<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>
-
Ross, I think you've got some good constructive ideas ... it could be a win-win for both Xara and skilled template designers.
-
Hey, you know we've sold Webstyle since 1998. Let's hope the Webstyle 1 owners didn't think we were selling out to the professionals when we released Xara X!
We like to think of ourselves as a company that provides solutions for anyone wanting to create graphics, whatever their level of skill and ambition. We also like to think that we provide the best possible solutions at both ends of the market. One target market is as legitimate as the other to my mind and we'll give them equal effort.
Perhaps more to the point of this thread, I don't think you need to be worrying about loss of custom. Let's face it, the majority of people out there simply don't have the design skills to produce good web site graphics - they could try some DIY or they could bodge some stuff out of a bitmap collection. On the other hand they could pay $69 for Webstyle and produce an infinitely more professional result, but we're still a mile away from the sort of people who might pay what it costs to have a designer produce a truly made-to-measure, unique site design. Even with my boundless confidence in Xara products I don't think you'll notice the impact among your client base.
Xara X is the tool we use to create the Webstyle templates. Unfortunately there is an interim stage where the graphics are altered to work as Webstyle templates. We had hoped to cut out this stage so that everyone with Xara X could produce templates. err, we failed. We're going to try again.
Kate
.................
Kate Moir
http://www.xara.com
http://www.buyfonts.com
-
Hi Kate. You probably talk about Wizard Properties that one which can be still found in button palette wehn customizing toolbars. I wish Xara good luck with bringing it back alive in next version of Xara. It was a great idea.
-
I said it before and I am going to say it again: Xara Ltd. never did a very good job when it comes to marketing. Sorry Kate.
A product, as superior as Xara X and even before CX should (and could) have a better position in the market already.
And I am totally with Ross when it comes to templates for Webstyle.
Why is Winamp the standard for MP3 playback??
Well it was among the first and it is still pretty good.
But I believe, one of the foremost reasons for its leading role can simply be said in one word: SKINS.
That, the full documentation of skin-creation and later even tools for it were a big boost for its popularity if you ask me. Hell, even I tried to make a skin once.
Same goes for Paint Shop Pro with tubes and others.
Of course we are talking of good software here. If it was not good, skins or tubes would not have made it any better.
But its this ADDED FEATURE to make it superior above the rest.
Now, I don't need to squadron about the quality of Xara X here, but X3D and - I am sure - Webstyle are excellent pieces of software too.
Now, you get a CD with dozens of designs with Webstyle. Fine.
Given that the number of buyers is greater than the amount of templates, it's just a matter of time to come across multiple sites with the same layout.
But if I could design my own templates (without the need of secret Xara inhouse-software), Webstyle could simplify the process of creating webpages based on MY (hopefully professional) design.
Talented people would take the chance and design templates of their own.
They would spread them for free or sell collections of them for little money.
All in all, the number of templates would be powers of the ones on the CD, there would be pages like webstyletemplates.com and respective sections on skins.org (I guess this is the URL?).
A community would form and people would buy Webstyle to use the templates and Xara X to create them.
In other words: popularity for free !!
But hey, not with Xara Ltd.
They rather keep the secret of template-making for theirselves.
They "try" to incorporate this feature, but give up before it is finished. Who would want more than the supplied templates anyway ??
And maybe Xara can sell a CD with more templates later on ...
Sorry, but it seems, Xara Ltd. WANTS it to be a nobrainer tool with limited use.
I would never touch Webstyle anyway, but I would LOVE to design templates for it. Be it for fun or fame or money.
Gotta stop this now ...
Wolfgang
-
Correct Dmagician, the wizard was for creating Webstyle templates. Despite the disappearance of the Wizard UI we did implement the necessary code within Xara X to make that half of the equation work. We still have a lot of work to do within Webstyle.
We're not blind to the potential but eliminating the interim mark-up stage is a very challenging task. Unfortunately.
Kate
.................
Kate Moir
http://www.xara.com
http://www.buyfonts.com
-
Jens, cool off a bit! That Xara wants to sell to the do-it-yourelf-dentristry market too is no threat to Real Professionals. Since I think you are one of those - shut up. And please do NOT abandon this forum - I need at least ONE friend here! ;-)
K
-
I was about to nominate Jay for the Klaus Nordby Premature Exit Award [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
Gary
Gary Priester
Moderator Person
<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
he tub mob relieves</a>
-
I suppose that the rest of the proces is made with a logical (thus simple) scritping language. Shouldn't be hard to use it for someone who know basics of programming.
-
Kate - I had no doubt that Xara Ltd. already understood the potential of facilitating template creation. Nice to see Jens also seeing potential in it. His 'skins' analogy is a good one. Another is the successful community that has grown up around Maxis software's "The Sims" game and its unique sharing concepts (now copied by other games companies).
(An aside: Jens did you ever see Xara's zy.com system - it is like webstyle but uses an online engine. Seems to me it has great potential for partnering with other ISP's - there's a hint-hint in there for you and your partners).
I think creating custom templates could be useful for professional web developers to use for their own sites. Likewise they'd be great for people contributing to office intranets. Everyone contributing to the intranet using the same official template to maintain corporate identity.
Anyways - I'm glad to read that Xara Ltd. hasn't abandoned the idea.
Regards, Ross
PS - Klaus - you have lots of friends and admirers here. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
-
... your favorite graphics software developement company. I bought WebStyle 2 today after receiving an email from XaraClub. I only tinkered with WebStyle 1, and will probably only tinker with WebStyle 2. However, I see any source of income for Xara is beneficial in the long run. At $69US for full product or $29US for upgrade, it's a bargain.
Soquili [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
-
I have stated in other messages I have posted that I am NOT a graphic designer, never will be - but I do my best. For me, XaraX is the best and easiest tool I have for what I do and it has got me out of a spot or two as well.
Whilst Jens is free to express his opinion, I really do feel he is out on a limb here. The only one he is thinking about is Jens. He's not thinking about the likes of myself and others like me who are NOT graphic designers. We need help our graphics and any tool which is going to help me produce graphics which are at least acceptable will be welcome.
As others have already said, Webstyle won't interfere with his work if he is half the artist he believes himself to be. Jens appears to have a fair belief in his ability and good on him and I envy anyone with that ability - Jens and people like him should consider themselves extremely fortunate. But please Jens, don't come down on the many more of us who are not blessed with your skill and ability. I wish I were a graphic designer, but I'm not. I have to do the best I can with what little ability the good Lord has bessed me with. If that means purchasing a copy of Webstyle, then so be it. I can't afford to employ someone such as Jens otherwise nothing would get done - I can't afford to purchase his services, so I have to do it myself as have many in my position.
I'm certainly not ashamed to say I shall have a look at Webstyle - but whether I purchase a copy is another matter as I'm not exactly flush with money and probably never will be. Nevertheless if it looks worth it I shall get a copy.
Tracey
-
The product on the PC Pro cover disc is the full version, unrestricted, for free (except for the cost of magazine).
-
Smorg - Are you sure? I wonder if it was a mistake.
Regards, Ross
<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>
-
-
What made Jens angry (in my opinion) is how he, after years of hard work and study, interpreted the false promises made in the publicity:
"...means that anyone can now create professional-quality custom graphics in seconds. No skill required!" Seen from a minimal distance, one has to be extremely naive to even consider the thought that some program could replace years of experience.
But:
It is never what one reads or hears, nor what is written or said, but how one interprets that causes reaction. (Plain English can be so charmingly impersonal...)
Like climbing a mountain, only to discover that there was also a train going up to the platform you arrived at... If, at that moment, you did not do the climbing for personal developement but for arriving up there, you'll certainly have to cope with a certain disappointment.. BUT: you learned how to climb and you can go where there are no trains or "cheat ways" (sorry for this expression.)
There will always be occasions when a particular skill is needed that no machine or automatic process can compete with.
If you don't work against time, time often works for you.
-
If Jens is still upset it would be my opinion that the reason is that people seem to think he's worried about loosing work to webstyle users. I don't think that was ever his concern yet almost everyone in response to him has focused on that.
I think what Jens was saying is the association between Xara X and WebStyle weakens the credibility of Xara X as a professional tool. Continuing on with how I think Jens was thinking, if Xara Ltd. wants to position Xara as at least an equal to the professional tools market leaders then products like WebStyle work against that. One message in the WebStyle marketing copy is that Xara Ltd. doesn't repect the work of pros.
In my opinion it *is* important for Xara to watch that it doesn't shoot itsef in the foot. As stated above, allowing creation of custom templates in Xara X that work in Webstyle could bring the two products together. WebStyle would then become a useful tool for professional. Indeed if Xara Ltd. teamed up with SWiSH and bundled a template-creating Xara X with WebStyle and SWiSH - into a suite IMHO they could really get noticed. (I'm not talking about one bloated application with all those functions - just a marketing suite).
Regards, Ross
<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>