Gary, thanks for chiming in.

I do agree with you - I don't even OWN any Adobe products. Xara has ALWAYS been my go to tool for creating anything that I need in the graphics department. Whether it be a logo, a newsletter, a diagram, an illustration, etc, etc.

I was also THRILLED when they first announced it would do a website. I thought my prayers had been answered.

Then, I tried to use it in the real world and kept banging my head.

Consider these...

1. you don't tell the client you are using Xara for their website. Why? because it is guaranteed they have never heard of Xara and as soon as you say it or try to explain it you come off as some guy who is not following standards and is reinventing the wheel. If I went to a guy to get a new tire for my car and instead he told me he was going to put a TYRLL on my car I would flip out.

2. It doesn't matter how creatively easy Xara is... at the end of the day, no matter what you create - when the client wants changes you need to be able to do that in a fair amount of time. If they want a different menu, layout and color scheme using Xara is going to add hours onto the project instead of minutes.

Ultimately, I see it that there are two main issues that I have to overcome with Xara.

A. The content in Xara is placed there manually. Meaning that if a significant revision to the look is needed I have two options
- find a better template / design a better template and CUT PASTE THE CONTENT OVER
- rework the existing template while leaving the content in place (this could basically be like saying I want a different color coat so I'm going to unstitch this one, swap in new fabrics and stitch it all back together using the same string...

B. Site management - being able to pull out my phone while standing in a shopping line and fix the typo on page 5 of a clients website is incredible. Having to tell a client that I can't fix something until I get back in town because my laptop has the software that I need on it and I don't have that with me right now is not incredible.