can it be done with Xara?:magazine done totally in XX

[behzad]

Can a magazine be done totally in xara?
with the page feature and new text feature?

[David O'Neil]

No spell check, so your magazine may not be totally perfect

[masque]

Type in Word (Open Office etc. freely downloadable) import text to Xara if like me you are unsure about spelling/typo skill. Otherwise there is no reason why you can't do it in xara.
Derek

[handrawn]

Hi wabbit

Merry Christmas!

I'd just add - don't try and do it all in one xar file - unless its a very short mag.
Break it down into sections - especially if it contains a lot of hi-res bitmaps.

[behzad]

Thank you guys, and happy Christmas to you all.

[remi]

It's also not possible to let text flow around objects (for example vector drawings on a page) with Xara Xtreme. And if you want to design large documents, you'll prefer to use a DTP software with a feature to link large images, instead of import them into your document.

Remi

[behzad]

Good point, yes it has its drawbacks.

[amoore]

Personally, I wouldn't try to do anything more than a 4-page newsletter with Xara. And by "4-page newsletter", I mean a document that has what look like 4 pages, printed 2 up on each side of a single sheet.

Is a magazine possible in Xara? Probably, but the amount of manual labor could be staggering. Leaving aside the issue of laying out individual pages (which you can certainly do in Xara), here are just a few issues to consider:

- Page numbering: you'll have to do it by hand. Even on a 4-page newsletter, you'll probably want page numbers. On anything bigger, leaving them out is not really an option.

- Running heads &/or footers: you'll have to do them by hand. Xara has no automated capability or master page function. You'll not only have to lay them in by hand, you'll have to maintain them by hand, section after section.

- Text styles: Xara's "copy attributes" approach does work very nicely for small documents. On a larger document, or one with large amounts of text, pargraph styles are much more efficient. If you don't have a lot of text formatting, then importing formatted RTF may be sufficient for you. OTOH, RTF is a notoriously bloated file format, so between RTF and graphics — especially if you use a lot of photos — your Xara files could be huge.

- Table of contents: you'll have to create it and maintain it by hand. A good DTP app would do it for you, assuming you set up your document properly.

- Imposition: you didn't say anything about how you would distribute your magazine. If you're only distributing by pdf, then imposition isn't an issue. You simply create the pages and print to pdf. If you're physically printing it in any way other than letter-size single side or duplex, then you have to think about how the pages in your magazine fit the sheets on which they're printed and how you have to set them up so they come out in the right order.

A good DTP app will save you a lot of time and effort in a longer document like a magazine. OTOH, doing it by hand is a great way to learn the mechanics, so it could be worth the work (at least for an issue or two).

[behzad]

Great input Amoore, your right It was not made for this kind of work. I guess that is why there is indesign or else illustrator could do it too.

It was a question I had on my mind, not an actual project as of yet.

[w00dy]

I use Serif Pageplus X2 for newsletters, it's not that expensive and there's usually some offers around for the previous versions, Versions 10 and 11 regularly feature in eBay and they're pretty solid. There's also some Serif freebies here: http://www.freeserifsoftware.com

I use Xara at home but teach the Serif suite in college and IMO, Xara is streets ahead of Drawplus X2, it's Serif equivalent when it comes to serious stuff. In terms of speed there is simply no comparison! Xara flies! Each new incarnation of DP X2 seem to play catch up with XXP's previous release. having said that, the kid's like it wizard driven nature but pro's don't tend to be wizard orientated.