Problem with Xara menus and Netscape.

[dalel]

Xara Ltd. - You drew the line in the wrong place.

http://talkgraphics.infopop.net/1/Op...&ul=1101906325
Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll

[Sheff]

Carl...

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>However as with any company we have to stop at some point and say enough:
After all if Company-X supplies you with a square wheel would you expect all the car companies to alter cars that support every other wheel just for this exception <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

About conforming to standards...

I appreciate that you try to conform to official standards, but that fact that Webstyle doesn't work with Opera (and Netscape) prevents me from buying it. Xara X should be able to export an EPS file that can be opened and edited by other applications. Animations from Xara 3d should have alpha as an option.

Webstyle just seems too expensive for what little it does. The only feature that appeals to me is dhtml menus, but it doesn't work right in browsers other than IE.

I wish you would apply that standards philosphy to Xara X and Xara 3d. I think Webstyle functionality should be part of Xara X. A proper function dhtml menu would be better that the Xara X navbar. I've never used Xara X's navbar function.

At least let us know to what degree Xara X is a priority. It seems to me that this is the most active Xara forum. It seems like the bulk of Xara's user base uses Xara X. It seems like Xara X is the cash cow and it seems ridiculous that is has been ignored for so long. The only reason I come to this forum anymore is to check if there's a new version out yet. The growing number of Off Topic posts should be evidence enough that there really isn't much to say about Xara X anymore.

You create some good software, but it's all just a bit shy of being really practical, and then forgotten.

With 2+years of Xara X 1.0d, I would hope some progress has been made to make a new version realistically competitive with Adobe and Macromedia.

I would hope that another two years don't need to go by to add seemingly basic things like multiple pages and CMYK to Xara X and sequential image export with alpha to Xara 3d. Single pages, animated gifs and static SWF just doesn't cut it anymore and hasn't for a long time.

You need to make software that is better than what's out there. You need to make it so I don't need to use other software packages to complete tasks that Xara should be able to complete.

Please read this

When it comes to Xara X and the rest of the vector world, Xara is the square wheel.

Sheffield Abella
sheff@sheff.com
www.sheff.com

[roman]

After testing...

DHTML menu demos Works in IE5.5 & Mozilla

Doesn't work in Opera6 (but their DOM practically doesn't work to the standards and everybody know that). In Opera you have only possibility... to have all layers pre made and placed and just switch them on/off.

Doesn't work in NN4.7 (it's not surprise for me.. that browser is too outdated although it has quite good implementation of DOM and menus probably could be optimised for it)

Anyway i'm with the man from Xara. The line must be drawn. I'm a developer and I myself think DHTML menus are one of those bad habbit html pages are growing from time to time as they aren't compatible and cause only problems. (that doesn't mean I'm not doing them myself ;-). Other examples uncompatible fonts, browser dependent javascript tricks, various plugins requirement, flash pages, etc. If one wants to use such fancy feature one must count with the incompatibility.

Roman

PS: Sheffield, you are dragging this discussion to your favourite direction...

[Sheff]

It's not my intention to drag down the discussion.

But I'm tired of feeling like an abandoned Xara X user while their other less useful programs get all of their attention.

I can appreciate what a developer has to draw a line about which browsers to support, but as a consumer, I still wouldn't buy Webstyle.

Sheffield Abella
sheff@sheff.com
www.sheff.com

[RAMWolff44]

Sheffield has always played the devils advocate in getting people to really think with well thought out arguments but the square wheel analogy, well I just don't agree with that one.

I have tried and own copies of Corel Draw (gross me out man!!), MediaChance' RealDraw Pro (good but needs work) and Serif's DrawPlus (could be a good competitor but there are some key issues that still make XaraX the clear winner for productivity) and that's when I had MY epiphany in this area of bashing XaraX, which I never thought I bashed it, per sey, but I did have some very strong doubts about it's future and voiced them as many of us did, but I don't want to go into that, Roman and so many others are so much a part of our family here and it's a shame that they don't want to attend because of discussions like this, so enough. Then our dear Kate stopped in to give us the low down that XaraX is going forward so all we can do it wait.

In the mean time use the program for what you can use it for, export it and finish it in another program and then export the finished product to something that meets your business needs. That's all you can do for right now. Or try working with Corel Draw and pull out your hair and cuss for an hour when things that come easily in "XaraX Land" are not so easily forthcoming in Draw!!

Just my 2¢

Richard http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

---Wolff On The Prowl---

[Sheff]

to carry forward the analogy of the square wheel from the first post in this thread. Xara is a square wheel in the sense that there aren't that many users as compared to other apps (round wheels).

The comparison would be valid if Xara wasn't useful, but it is. I have tried to use CorelDraw and Freehand as a supplement to Xara for multipage functionality, but both of those programs choked. I tried to generate a PDF from Freehand, and that bombed as well.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, the best results for me come from printing multiple pages from Xara one layer at a time.

If I were to come up with a different analogy, Xara is more like a small swiss army knife whereas CorelDraw, Illustrator and Freehand are a spork, hatchet and butterknife, respectively.

Sheffield Abella
sheff@sheff.com
www.sheff.com