WYSI-not-exactly-WYG (XXP4)

[AntonM]

Or am I doing it wrong? (Before I go any further, I freely admit that artistically I am a rank amateur with scant experience of creating web pages, but I am a great and loyal Xara fan of many years standing.)

I attach (top image) a screen capture of a Xara file made to see if the WYSIWYG claim is really true -- done more so that I could say "Wow, how cool is that!" than as a serious test of any kind -- and (bottom image) a screen capture of the resulting HTML export as displayed by FireFox 2.0.0.14.

The major difference is that the outline of the large text across the circle in the XAR file is not reproduced in the HTML file (and, to be honest, I would have been amazed if it had been).

Nevertheless, it's pretty damn impressive, but (unless I'm doing something wrong) Xara cannot, hand on heart, claim that it's WYSI-exactly-WYG, as per the nice lady in the movie.

I'm very happy to be shown wrong, as I would really like to be even more amazed!

[-=Drifter=-]

I got the same results when I just created the same example and viewed it in IE7Pro. However, if you FIRST convert the text with the yellow lines to editable shapes, then it exports and is viewed correctly, with the yellow outline.

[AntonM]

However, if you FIRST convert the text with the yellow lines to editable shapes, then it exports and is viewed correctly, with the yellow outline.

Yes, correct, but the movie doesn't say or suggest that you may have to implement one or two fixes/workarounds/whatever to get WYSI-exactly-WYG -- it's actually quite explicit.

[handrawn]

I guess its what you see is what you get - provided you ask it to do something HTML can actually do?

This said by someone also with no real expertise in this area you understand ....

[Charles Moir]

Compared to the standards of other web authoring tools - it is a awful lot more WYSIWYG than anything else I know.

However the documentation of the HTML Website feature does make it clear that browsers do vary and that particularly their text handling is unpredictable. And that if you want real WYSIWYG for weird fonts (I take it that putting a yellow outline on a font is a weird font) that you should group the object to force it to be a graphic.

So in this case just select the text object and type Ctrl+G - and then it will be perfect WYSIWYG.

[AntonM]

Thanks Charles -- that's understood. I totally agree that XXP4 is much more WYSIWYG than other tools, and I've been hoping for something like this for a long time.

[handrawn]

Got to add so have I - it will give me a chance to do this sort of thing for myself - thanks

[ss-kalm]

And that if you want real WYSIWYG for weird fonts (I take it that putting a yellow outline on a font is a weird font) that you should group the object to force it to be a graphic.

As far as I am aware unless it's converted to a graphic, HTML itself would not let you add the yellow border anyway. Grouping it doesn't seem to be a difficult option to give WYSIWYG

[PatentGuy]

I guess its what you see is what you get - provided you ask it to do something HTML can actually do?

I think this is a key point. Working backwards, I don't think you can hand-code a text-based html page to look like the first image. Using standard html code, I do not believe that fonts can be outlined. (You could do it with some creative programming, but it would be difficult to make it work for all browsers.) To create the first image in html that works with most browsers, I would have to use a graphic of the text. But, I don't like using graphics/images for text because images are not search engine friendly.

This is a case where you are asking Xara to do two things: make a WYSIWYG page and use text. Unfortunately, in some cases they are mutually exclusive, so the software had to pick one option. As a web designer, you have to be aware of browser limitations and your design objectives (which is more important: pretty graphics or searchable text). Sort of like printing a color image on a black and white printer and saying it is not WYSIWYG because there is no color.

[haakoo]

FF is known for its handling text diffirently then IE
You can use images as headers(looks better and you can use effects on it)
There's also the alt thingy that must be used and this alt thingy is search engine friendly

Hans