Html export is so goood

[Markku]

I've seen a lot of people downplay the importance of Xara's html export in these forums. This is my input to support this said feature and an expression of gratitude towards the developers.

I've been making web (and other) UI's professionally well over 10 years (and that is too long). I started with Photoshop, then switched over to Fireworks and now I use 95% Xara.

I use the html export feature solely to make web mock-ups. For me the html markup does not have to be valid by W3C standards or approved by the html developers. Only thing that matters to me is that I can easily and realiably present UI designs in a browser environment. Showing web UI's in a browser is by far the best method there is, period. It is so fantastic to be able to fake real html content so accurately with real text, links and even mouse-over buttons and pop-ups. And it is so nice to be able to click links to go through a series of pages and scroll the content like you would do with real live content. Regarding my work Xara has blurred the boundary between mere UI layouts and a walk-thru demo. Xara even brings joy back to tasks like doing layouts for boring and rigid systems such as Microsoft SharePoint.

Considering that Xara can also handle illustrations, multi-page PDF's, icons, photo tune-ups and now even web mock-ups, in most cases it really is a one-stop-shop for me.

I am all for Xara developers to continue developing features regarding web publishing, equally I would not mind them focusing their resources on developing vector tools. At the end of the day it is all going to benefit my work. After all it is all about drawing, be it drawing web pages or drawing people or cars.

A huge 'thank you' to Xara dev's for charging me so little for such a wonderful app!!!

[ss-kalm]

Well said, Markku. I wholeheartedly agree with you.

[gwpriester]

Good point.

[BobInce]

Yep, the HTML export is brilliant for prototyping, getting decisions and agreements on look before slicing up the images and making the real thing.

For actual production websites there are many obvious limitations, of course, but some users don't seem to want to recognise that.

[iamtheblues]

...there are many obvious limitations, of course, but some users don't seem to want to recognise that.

...or possibly they are quite satisfied with those limitations and are able to produce more than adequate web sites that still suit their particular requirements.
Saludos,
Bob.