Why did you buy Xara the first time?

[james_frost]

I also came down the Acorn route, but didn't find out about (Corel) Xara until much later.

I had an Acorn A3000 back in the early nineties and played around with !Draw lots (I was only about 13 at the time) and stumbled across a demo of Artworks on the cover disc of an Archimedes World magazine. It had a couple of demo pictures with it - one was the green apple with the water droplets dripping down, another was the blue MG and the other one I remember was a train of some sort. They were amazing at the time.

Then, about 7 years later, a couple of guys I was working with had CorelXara and showed me it. I had a play and discovered some of the same clip art from Artworks. It was still as good as I remembered it.

And now I've finally got myself a copy of XaraX for doing web work.

James

[houseofman]

I remember first purchasing Corel 7 to work in conjuction with AutoCAD. Being used to the speed of the CAD made Corel 7 annoying to use.

I came across some advertising (probably from Corel) that boasted about CorelXara's speed and that was all it took to convince me to try it. I remember that that first version I bought though, wasn't very stable but Version 1.5 improved on that a lot. I'm glad I hung in there.

Everything else I've learned since has been not been work but FUN. One day, if I can learn or absorb half the talents that comes form the likes of Gary, Dmagician, Ross and so many others, I will die a happy man <smile>.

[Delta Moon]

I knew there were draw programs out there, but I never knew how to get started with them. I would look at the interface, play a little, and decide they were totally useless. Still, I wasn't satisfied with cut and paste, as I always felt like a criminal using other peoples artwork, or I couldn't exactly make their artwork do what I wanted it to do.

When I found XARA, I found this forum at the same time. I went on and said "Hey, how do you get started with this thing, I have no idea what all those funny little pics are all about."

And then, the most remarkable thing, people unselfishly taught me how to use the contraption. Gary led me to a "beginners tutorial" which, by the way, I have yet to finish, but I think will be pretty easy now, so I may go back to it some day. If I couldn't make something work the way it was supposed to, I would ask. This service, to me, has more than repaid the fee for buying the program. While it's all there in black and white (or is it 1's and 0's), it is so much easier to ask.

I still tend to spend a lot of time trying to figure stuff out myself, but I am trying to break that awful habit and ask first, spend time later.

Then there's the artists. They are remarkable, but thier examples are illustrative of what is possible with this program.

O, I could go on and on, but hey, gotta go create. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

http://www.deltamoon.addr.com/deltaplate.gif

[d-sine]

Crumbs, that was a close one, I hadn't appreciated what I said could be taken two ways.. thanks Gary for digging me out of the "corel" hole [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] and I couldn't agree more with your comments, I think corel had every right to feel threatened, after all here was a "seemingly" unknown company produced a application in 3mb of file space that blows away their product in a few swift moves.

I think that it's a credit to the company (xara!), the product and its loyal user base that such a great application survived the corel saga and is now returning to the limelight once again. Maybe it's due to evolving in the acorn market that xara/computer concepts has learned to survive, they have learned to prosper with a fairly small (in pc terms) user base and make lots of quality noise [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

and hey, will someone open the door now, its cold outside this mansion at night.. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[michaelward]

My family and I bought our first PC back in mid-1995 (a 486-DX2 66Mhz, 540 MB HDD, 4MB RAM) from the now defunct ESCOM chain.

This PC came bundled with some strange software. OS/2 Warp was the default OS, though it could be changed to DOS/WfW 3.11.

CorelDraw! 4 was one of the apps to be bundled with the PC. Coming from a ZX Spectrum backround, I knew little about the PC. I fumbled my way through magazines and eventually established the fact that Corel Draw was the market leader.

I tried it, and whilst what I could do was interesting, and better than MS Paint, I wasn't too impressed.

One day I stumbled upon a magazine CoverCD (Computer Shopper, September 1995 - I still have it [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] ). On this disk were several demo videos's, some clip-art and the Xara Studio viewer app. I was amazed at the speed and simplicity that amazing effects could be achieved!

I was hooked, but being only 12 years old at the time, I could not afford the asking price.

HOWEVER, it turned up on a pirate CD that a friend had obtained a few months later (I'm soooo sorry Xara [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_redface.gif[/img] ). I couldn't contain my excitement when I found it, and my friend thought I was strange because he didn't know about Xara... that was all to change though [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

When version 2 came out, I had a part-time job and saved up to purchase the software.

It really showed Draw up in every sense, and it has been the cornerstone of all my graphics design over the years.

I've grown up with Xara, and I hope to grow old with it as well... long live Xara!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

(You know, I somewhat like the fact that Xara isn't mass-market - it makes me feel like I'm part of some exclusive club [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] )

Michael Ward
http://LeighCenturions.net

[amoore]

I'm an editor/tech writer/publisher who, until the last few years, has needed graphics apps only to manipulate clip art and flesh out page layouts.

I was just starting to learn Professional Draw at home (I think that's what it was called), when CorelDraw 4 came bundled with a Ventura upgrade. Draw 4 was all I had in the office where I spent most of my time, so Pro Draw fell by the wayside and then vanished when I couldn't get an upgrade.

I went from Draw 4 to Draw 5, struggling through what I needed to accomplish, but never really getting a handle on the application. Somewhere I read about an app called Xara that was supposed to be a "Draw killer", fast, small and easy to use with superior anti-aliasing. All I knew was that it was in the UK, and I had no handle on how to locate it to get a look.

Lo and behold, it turned up as CorelXara. As far as my boss was concerned, I had Draw, so I didn't need anything else. When I had to start concocting a web page and producing some sort of web graphics, Draw became even more of a struggle, and then proved incompatible with apps written for Win95 rather than Win3.1. By then, I was onto i/us, thanks to people in my Ventura user group.

One day, I was told to produce a banner ad "by tomorrow" and got nowhere trying to use Draw. My boss was out of town (where he couldn't say no). I downloaded Xara and had the banner complete in less than 2 hours from the time I first opened the program. Needless to say, Draw didn't last long on my machine after that. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[traceyp]

When I met him, my partner was, and still is, a big fan of Acorn PCs (specifically the BBC B) and Computer Concepts software. Sometime later he upgraded to an Archimedes 420 whilst I went the PC route (after having used an Acorn Electron for a few years - which I've still got!). In due course we bought him a copy of Artworks - what we've always thought of, as effectively, the beta of Xara Studio. Now some 12+ years later, we are still unashamed to say that we still have an Acorn RiscOS PC (albeit a second-hand machine) which is used very regularly, primarily for creating (using Impression Publisher DTP from Computer Concepts) two club newsletters each month and, when requested, off-road motorcycle sport programmes. These days my partner also has a PC as well and we've still got the Archimedes as well!

Incidentally, I first heard about Xara when it was called Xara Studio but no way could I afford a copy. However, being a member of the Ventura User Group (as was) a copy of CorelXara came up for review and providing I was lucky enough to be given the job of reviewing it, I could keep it! I jumped at the chance and have never looked back since. My first copy was, I think, version 1.1 (I've still got it somewhere) but have every intention of keeping up with new versions.

Tracey

[gwpriester]

The question was raised, by Simon, how do you get Xara into the hands of the design professionals?

That's really a tough problem because 1) most design professionals don't care one bit about software or computers and 2) the learned on Illustrator or FreeHand--but mostly Illustrator, and they know how to use it and do not want to learn another product.

This same "consumer insight" presented itself several years ago when John Gylense, the Mac guy at Corel, was trying to figure out why the Mac designers were not swarming to DRAW 8 for the Mac. Seems that although they were very impressed with what DRAW could do (imagine how impressed they would be by Xara?) they knew how to use Illustrator and why Illustrator could not do, they didn't do either.

So, my advice is get them while they are young!

Steve Newport from Canton, OH is a great example of this. Steve is 15 and not predudiced by any software. He learned and mastered Xara quickly.

My recommendation would be to get Xara into the design schools; buy them a few PCs, and give them the all the software they can use and have someone show teach them how to use it. The teachers won't because they know Illustrator and are part of the problem. But once the kids see what Xara can do and the other applicaitons can't, they'll go with Xara. And when they get jobs, they'll bring Xara with them. Even if they have to bring their own PCs.

And the next generation of design professionals will use Xara. Only the old-timers will be using Illustrator.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
Be it ever so humble...</a>

[Truroneil]

My daughter-in-law kept telling me how good it was and what Ross MacIntosh could do with. Not that struck on Corel Xara, but when I got Xara X and the two cds, it was a different world. Use it rather than Corel Draw 5 for most things now. Neil

[roman]

Gimme me the link to some nice Illustrator gallery comparable to at least xaraxone monthly featured artist (which Is quite good) or to xara.com gallery. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

I might smile but I mean it!