Undecided about upgrade

[Tabvla]

I am thinking of upgrading from Xtreme 5 to Designer Pro 6, with the main incentive being the upgrade price which represents very good value.

However..... comments about the GUI, both on this Forum and my own "first impressions", has left me undecided

The large icons, color scheme and the general impression that this is still a "work-in-progress" is a real concern. The GUI is literally in-your-face and if that becomes a constant source of annoyance then it does not do too much for your creativity.

It would be helpful if Forum Members who have used the new GUI for some time could provide their impressions of what it is like to work with after a few weeks.

TiA

T.

[steve.ledger]

My impressions now are the same as they were minutes after installing Web Designer 6, and I looked forward to what is now DesignerPro 6.
I love it.
Suits me and my work very well and on dual 24" LCD's I do not find the icons too large at all. Remember, on dual monitors you can easily pull all the tool bars off and have them floating on the other monitor

[JimR]

I have grown to like the dark interface, it is simply faster to find icons as they present themselves better with the new simpler icon design on the darker background.

Working on different monitors, the icon size issue is a little more complicated. On small laptop screens they are big, on the 21" screen I'm using right now they are perfect and on my main 24" widescreen monitor I think they are a bit small. (Steve beat me to it!)

With the new 6.1.1 update, the worst bugs seems to be ironed. I'm not usually upgrading until at least one major version update has been released but V6 has a decent amount of important features that made me upgrade right away (sketch mode, GNOMRA, new layer functions just to name a few)

Upgrade recommended

JimR

[tomh]

I first saw the new interface on Web Designer 6, so have been using it for a few months. I didn't like it much at first, largely because I'm well past 40 and, quite frankly, as eyes age dark text on a light background is much easier to read over long periods than light text on a dark background. However, if you press Ctrl Alt Shift S you can get the old format. In the end I decided to stick with the new one and, after calibrating my screen properly for colour, contrast, and brightness, I quite like it.

I have been using Xara for 10 years and have never missed an upgrade, largely because the price and extras on offer are too good to miss. I've never regretted it. This is the case also with Designer Pro 6. I haven't had it long enough to use it much, but so far I think it is easier to use than Xara Xtreme. There is little point in me going through the new features in detail, but you can see from the promotion that these are considerable. Also, Xara have made most of the material on CD available as a 380 MByte download. So you don't need to wait for the CD before getting down to serious work.

In short, my advice is upgrade now.

[Pixelpusher]

Like Steve, I'm using dual 24" monitors and as an Adobe CS5 user, the color scheme matches more closely to what I'm accustomed to in Adobe. Darker is in. Perhaps if the screen is too dark for you, try adjusting tour monitor settings to get a more suitable look.

By the way Steve, how did you get the color selector layout that appears in your screenshot?

[handrawn]

well there's the rub

CS5 is probabbly the best of the bunch - XD6 new interface is actually a lot darker...


Tabvla - my advice is try it for the duration of the trial - what others think is based on their preferences/monitors/workingconditions/eyesight/ and so on and your descision should be based on yours I think...

[steve.ledger]

SJ

It would be helpful if Forum Members who have used the new GUI for some time could provide their impressions of what it is like to work with after a few weeks.

How do you personally find the DP6 darkui to work with, assuming that you use and prefer it of course?

[handrawn]

Hi SL

my paragraph 3 of post #6 is in reply to paragraph 3 of post #1 - sorry if this is not clear

I have no comment to make on paragraph 4 of post #1, so I have not made one ...

[knuteicebear]

My impressions now are the same as they were minutes after installing Web Designer 6, and I looked forward to what is now DesignerPro 6.
I love it.
Suits me and my work very well and on dual 24" LCD's I do not find the icons too large at all. Remember, on dual monitors you can easily pull all the tool bars off and have them floating on the other monitor

Are you by any chance left handed? :-)
The reason that I ask is that every other person that I have ever seen that uses dual monitors uses the left monitor as their main monitor and has the toolbars on the left. Not that you have to do it one way or the other, but it does make me wonder!

[steve.ledger]

Are you by any chance left handed? :-

I have hands on both left and right sides

The example screenshot was just an example workspace only, I don't use Designer Pro6 in this way at all.