Xara Designer Pro X9 Released

[gwpriester]

Mr. Jeweler - Actually I tend to agree with you that a 30 day upgrade window is a bit narrow.

Especially when Xara/Magix run these specials to sell off the last of the old product and then, surprise, surprise, come out with a new version.

[handrawn]

yeh Gary, agree with that

@ED - thanks for the vote of confidence, the days when I could upgrade willy-nilly are gone....

[DigitalJeweler]

Mr. Jeweler - Actually I tend to agree with you that a 30 day upgrade window is a bit narrow.

Especially when Xara/Magix run these specials to sell off the last of the old product and then, surprise, surprise, come out with a new version.

EXACTLY!

It just feels like you're getting screwed. When I've spent thousands on a lot of pro software, that doesn't happen.

The point I was trying to make that no one seems to get is that not charging for minor upgrades does not mean that the company doesn't grow/make money or invest in product development.

[Inspector]

Hi...I downloaded the new version, and wanted to go through it with Gary Priester's "First Look", but I can't seem to get past the "Before we start" page linked to in post #4.

[steve.ledger]

Section tabs along the top of the page.

[Know1]

The good:

• 64-bit.
• Dropping a color on a grouped object and getting a list of all the named colors in the group so you can select what named color you want to change is awesome, it works great. These are the simple but effective features I wish Xara would spend more time on creating. Improve the basic features we use constantly.
• Page numbers, finally.
• You can publish a perfectly accurate WYSIWYG web version of your print documents. I can see myself using this.
• Automatic higher quality images on retina displays for your websites. Since this is difficult to achieve yourself with a workaround I'll put it in the 'good' category.
• This also applies for the Google Analytics support.

The average:

• Font embedding should be interesting.
• You now have some useful options when you right-click on one of your open document tabs.
• Multi-column text. It was already very easy to do that yourself.
• Being able to insert a column break in your multi-columns.
• Automatic text flow to a new page.
• The 'Photo healing', 'background erase', 'new masking tools' features are interesting but I would still use dedicated programs for those tasks.

The bad:

• It is annoying not to see ANY improvements in the vector tools. I still for some reason think of Xara as a VECTOR program.
• The upgrade policy has been changed; you now no longer have the same upgrade price if you want to skip versions. This was one of the things I liked about Xara.
• You still need to fix that text fly-out menu with a regedit fix to make it always stay open.
• There are too many fly-out menus on the left by default, there is plenty of room and the Shape Tool really deserves its own spot by default. In v9 the fly-out menus do stay open for a bit if you move your mouse off them which is nice.
• I don't understand why the Share menu should be prominently visible at the top instead of hidden somewhere, make it a button in the export menu. This isn't an iPad app.
• The live effects button is now located under the photo fly-out menu even though a lot of effects work just fine for your vector graphics.
• The amount of feather distance you can apply to an object is still very low.
• The trial version wanted to install something called Simplicheck by default... great.
• Why was the last version called X and not 8? Now Designer PRO X9 is newer than Designer Pro X.
• But most importantly, no vector improvements.

I'll just echo what's been said about ZBrush. I've bought ZBrush in January 2006 and the updates to the program are always amazing. Someone on ZBrushcentral.com said about the 4.6 release "Pixologic doesn't seem to understand the concept of a minor point release", and that's certainly true.

[zaphodeist]

You still need to fix that text fly-out menu with a regedit fix to make it always stay open...the Shape Tool really deserves its own spot by default...The live effects button is now located under the photo fly-out menu

XaReg2 will fix the text fly out menu

Windows >> Control bars >> Button palette - alt+drag to add or remove buttons

[pauland]

Right about the upgrade policy - I have an apology to make.

When I wrote my comments, I read upgrade policy in the post, but actually had free trial wired in my head and my 30 day comment was made with that thought in my mind.

It was the wrong thought and my comment was the wrong comment for that reason. I apologize.

Now for the real comment.

30 days as a free-upgrade window. It's entirely reasonable - Xara has no obligation to do it, regardless of the facts that company XYZ offers a more generous window and that company ABC doesn't offer any free-upgrade window. I'm not going to research a list of company policies, but I think 30 days grace was the norm for a long time, probably still is, even if there are exceptions.

If I were Xara, I'd probably go for six-weeks as the free-upgrade cut-off, but no more than two months. Six months as a free-upgrade window is way, way too long.

I think Xara are probably building themselves a problem over this for the future ( some would say now) because they are building a portfolio of products with similar sounding names ( that keep changing) under the Xara and Magix brand. It's as though the marketing department took a shotgun to a pile of product pamphlets and picked product names from the fragments. The issue is that users across the board (new and old) are now confused about which product is which and that's going to translate into confusion about upgrades. It already has. Xara/Magix are making a complete mess over their branding and product names.

Adobe has been criticised over their pricing, etc, but at least the product names are not confusable.

Confusion aside, I think that most of the talk about free-upgrades seems to gloss over the impact on the Xara/Magix bottom-line. I'm sure that some marketing whiz will know that the size of the window will have some kind of monetary impact - it's a question of knowing the sweet spot. I realise that some users think longer is better for the free-upgrade window, but I suspect that would impact income, while for a small number of users they might be annoyed enough to not upgrade in the future. I think that "annoyed user" category may be genuinely upset, but whether they are upset enough to cut off their own nose and not upgrade in the future is another matter.

If I bought a product and they upgraded it 32 days latter and I missed out, I might feel a bit peeved to not be getting the latest version for my money. I might be just as annoyed with myself for not doing a bit of research before ponying up the cash and I might feel a bit sillier still by not downloading the trial version and using it free for 30 days, and then perhaps upgrading - a simple move that would extend the free-upgrade window to two months.

Ultimately Xara should make the free-upgrade window long enough for most users not to feel taken advantage of, but not so large it affects their bottom line.

30 days may be frustrating and could be longer, but I don't think it's unreasonable. The line has to be drawn somewhere and someone is always going to be frustrated when they just go over it.

Have a think about six weeks or sixty days Xara, it might ease the issue at minimal impact to the bottom line.

[angelize]

The new FX button isn't available in the buttons palette. All the rest of the buttons from the photo tools flyout are there but not the FX button.

[steve.ledger]

Yes it is F, you can alt+drag it from the Photo Tools flyout in the button palette.