Broaden Xara X's appeal

**gbredon** · 26 July 2005, 10:02 PM

I use Xara to supply a base level drawing to be used in Powerpoint but if I need to animate part of that drawing e.g. move one of its lines then I have to use Powerpoint's drawing and animation tools to accomplish it.

Also I often use Xara to import drawings into Word. I would find a drop and drag clipart gallery very useful for that i.e. drop into as well as out of the clipart gallery. Also It would be nice to be able to use the Windows Copy/Paste functionality. This is currently possible but the quality of the image deteriorates when pasted.

rh · 28 July 2005, 05:08 AM

Adjusting the background of a drawing is a complete pain and a complete mess. Not to mention totally confusing.

It should be simple and straightforward like all the other software packages.

**jclements** · 28 July 2005, 06:16 AM

Hi RH:

I am sure there are many of us who aren't sure by what you mean by adjusting the background of the drawing.

Can you explain?

If you mean when you change the page size, it doesn't center the new page borders relative to the previous page borders then I agree, it is a nuisance.

**james_frost** · 12 August 2005, 03:23 AM

Haven't stopped around here since X1 came out, and I come back and find news about X2. Good stuff.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my thoughts on the question from a web developer's standpoint.

I use Xara for all my (graphical) web design needs and have done ever since I rediscovered Xara 1.x after having used artworks on the arch.

What I don't use it for (when doing web stuff):

== Rollovers and imagemaps ==

I've never touched that stuff with a barge pole - I'm a big advocate of using CSS and XHTML for my web designs and avoiding tables like the plague, so as far as I'm concerned these features are completely redundant for me. I produce the buttons in Xara where applicable but always hand code the rollover behaviour.

== Webpage text ==

I quite often get annoyed with the text handling in Xara when producing web mockups - nowadays I resort to mocking up the text in HTML and screen grabbing it as a bitmap to stick it in Xara, which is horrid! For me to get a realistic mockup I need the text to look as it will in a browser, and for this it needs to be antialiased in a similar way to the browser. Xara is particularly bad for small text (8pt, 10pt) where Xara produces noticably less clear text than you get in a browser. A couple of other minor bug bears with the text - lack of "underline" (drawing lines under text when mocking up hyperlinks is particularly tedious!) and not being able to set the text bounds after adding text.

== Anything bitmap ==

I've yet to find a streamlined bitmap editor that I like (and that is sensibly priced) for tweaking the web graphics i produce in Xara. I used to use PSP but that is far too over-featured for me these days (any suggestions for a good streamline bitmap editor that costs around Â£50-100??) I'm in agreement with lots of people here - XPE is fine as it is for simple photo manipulation for "casual" home users but IMO should stay just that.

It would be nice to be able to integrate your choice of bitmap editors with Xara like many have said - i'm always impressed when I see people working with CorelDraw and Photopaint on how easy it is to switch back and forth.

Regards,

James

**amoore** · 15 August 2005, 09:38 AM

any suggestions for a good streamline bitmap editor that costs around Â£50-100??

See if PhotoBrush will do what you need. http://www.mediachance.com

I just went through weeks of photo editing, trying to retrieve some usable images from user group photos. For some images, XPE was all I needed. Some things I had to do in PSP or a noise filter app. But, OTW, I found I got the most use out of PhotoBrush for editing. Final cropping was all done in Xara, so I could be sure of consistent dimensions.

**bluehat** · 09 October 2005, 05:47 AM

Is there a redeye correction tool? I'm trialling the software. The first thing I looked for was a tool to do this but nothing is obvious.

**John Rayner** · 09 October 2005, 06:15 AM

hi bluehat,

Welcome to Talkgraphics... I usually just createn oval/circle the size of the red eye, then just sample the pupil color that isn't red with the eyedropper... simple sweet and fast. Xara X1 and particularily Xtreme is capable of ever so much more... My avatar in the upper left hand corner is a quick example of what can be done quickly in Xtreme.

**AntonM** · 09 October 2005, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by bluehat

Is there a redeye correction tool?

It's in XPE.

**bluehat** · 10 October 2005, 03:19 AM

Re:redeye correction tool.

I couldn't see anything in XPE (that is short for Xara Photo Editor, I suppose?)though that would be the obvious place for a one-click tool to eliminate redeye; like in standard simple photo editing packages. Its a pain to have to do it long hand but thanks for the tip on how to do it long hand.