Xara 5 Downgraded? Button and Navbar tool missing!

[gandg]

Anyone noticed that the Button and Navbar tool is missing from Xara Xtreme Pro v.5.0?
It's such a usefull tool and I am using it a lot. I can't believe that it's removed from the new version.

I am a Xara user since Xara Webster (many years back) and I have all the Xara Xtreme upgrades since v.2.0. I have bought Xara Web Designer. I have even upgrade to version 4 and version 5 without first downloading the trial.

I think that this is the first time that the newer version comes with missing functionality.
I have post a ticket at support.xara.com and the response was that "this was taken out for Xara xtreme version 5". And they pointed at the tutorial: http://outsider.xara.com/tutorials/march09/ which, as you can see, can not replace the functionality of Button and Navbar tool.

If you feel that the removal of the Button and Navbar tool downgrades the new version of Xara, please post here and even open a ticket at support.xara.com.
Maybe this way we will be able to persuade xara programmers to give us back the Button and Navbar tool

Best Regards,
George Stathis

[steve.ledger]

Welcome to the Forums gandg..

If you feel that the removal of the Button and Navbar tool downgrades the new version of Xara, please post here and even open a ticket at support.xara.com.

Definitely not.

You may keep version 4 installed as well as version 5 and retain use of the navbar tool as you wish

[Soquili]

The old Button and Navbar Tool was deprecated several versions ago.

A search on the forums should turn up the topic and the reasons Xara removed the tool from the Tool set.

[gandg]

Dear sledger, you are right, we can have both version 4 and 5 but it would be better to keep only the latest version and retain all the functionality.

Dear Soquili the Navbar tool button was not installed in the default toolbar of versions 3 and 4 i think, but it was there and it was possible to install it from Window->Control Bars->Button pallete.

Can you please point me to the url of the topic where Xara explains the reasons why the Navbar had to be removed?

Thank you very much for your responses,

George Stathis

[gwpriester]

George

The new website creation capabilities in Xtreme and Web Designer are so much stronger and more efficient that the button bar tool is really redundant.

I have heard from a handful of users who miss it, but most I have communicated with never used it in the first place because it was such a chore.

[steve.ledger]

Dear sledger, you are right, we can have both version 4 and 5 but it would be better to keep only the latest version and retain all the functionality.

Well George, this is what 'deprecation' is and probably why new versions are released. If everything was to remain exactly the same there would be no need for new versions now would there.

Here's a link for you:
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showpost...0&postcount=15

[Soquili]

Hi George,

I have not located the thread I was thinking about. A google search returns 218 hits. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...m&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Rather than look at each of those, I will summerize.

The Navbar tool was difficult to use and prone to errors.

Simple changes to a working Navbar could and often did result in a nonfunctional navbar.

Beginning with Xtreme 4 the ability to create navbars was greatly simplified and has been improved in Web Designer and Xtreme 5.

[covoxer]

Well, sorry about this.
This feature was introduced in XaraX and was still present (on the toolbar) in XaraX1. But it was deprecated since then. Starting with Xara Xtreme, it was removed from the tool bar to avoid it's use.
It's been 4 years since then and completely new and much more powerful html features were added so it has to go now. We can't keep it forever.
Unfortunately, such dead end features sometimes happen. Another example is XPE which was meant to be a new basic feature. But with time it became obvious that LE and integrated Photo Tool are better way to go, so XPE is deprecated now.
Same is true for the NavBar tool. It just didn't match the expectations. There were few users happy with it and a lot of people complaining how bad and unintuitive it was. So we rejected this approach and gave those who used it a whole 4 years to adopt other techniques.
Also you have to understand that we can't just leave it as is. With every new version of Xtreme, there is a lot of changes in the source code. These affect all tools and features. And it takes programmers time to keep the old code working correctly in new releases. We did so for 4 years and 4 releases just to not let our users down. But we can't afford doing so forever.
I hope you'll find new HTML features useful as they allow more freedom in creating not only navbars, but very complex interactive effects combining pop-ups and rollovers.
Feel free to ask if you want to know more about it.

[wuerthne]

George, I cannot disclose more details, but if you did find the old NavBar tool useful, I think that you will really love Xtreme 6...

[StevenWWinters]

I think that you will really love Xtreme 6...

Oh no! Let the upgrade speculation begin.

I'm personally glad that Xtreme is alive and well!!! :-)