Page & Layout Designer 365?

[CharlieJeit]

Hi

I have been waiting patiently for Xara to release Page & Layout Designer 365 so I can upgrade to the latest goodies.

I currently use Designer Pro X11, but as all my web work has moved to Wordpress I can't justify the expense of upgrading to Designer Pro X365.

Page & Layout Designer seems to have become the modern product the old Computer Concepts "Document Processor" Impression aspired to be. I feel Page & Layout Designer 365 would be absolutely ideal for a stack of users out there who are fed up trying to do layout with Microsoft Office or maybe remember the old Aldus Pagemaker fondly.

Please Xara!

Charlie

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics

I'll send a note along to Xara and see if someone can comment on this.

[Rob-Xar]

Hi Charlie, thanks for your post and comments about Page and Layout designer :)

I don't know if there are currently any plans for Page and Layout Designer 365, we don't really have demand for it (this is actually the first post I've seen asking for it lol). Can you tell me though what sort of features you are after from the other programs (or any) that you would like to see in the next version of PLD? (if we do make one)...

[angelize]

I think there is no demand for it because it doesn't provide enough features to persuade enough users to switch from tried and true desk top publishing programs like Indesign or Page plus. And when Affinity Publisher comes out It would need to be in a position to compete with that. It needs things like master pages, better columns functionality, export to epub, etc, html5 Page flip effects, The ability to generate an embed code which would allow users to embed their publication into a website would also be beneficial.
Make it easier to do a large publication like a book with chapters, add the ability to publish as an ebook to Google books and Apple ibooks and maybe there would be more demand.

[Boy]

Well said!

[CharlieJeit]

OK - looks like I am out on a limb here re interest in Page and Layout Designer. Let me see if I can explain.

The Xara Products "Designer" page offers 4 products:

1) Photo and Graphic
2) Page Layout
3) Web
4) All of the above

Option 4 costs approximately 4 times as much as the other programs (with the Web program being the second most expensive).

I have bought every version of the premier product (with the exception of Designer 365) since before the Xara name existed and I like it very much. Now however I have moved all my Web work away from Xara, so don't need any Web functionality. However I would be very loath to lose the multi-page functions of Designer Pro. Logically therefore I should buy the Page Layout product. However the Page Layout program has not been upgraded to a 365 version and I don't want to waste my money on a dead end product. It is not that I want something different - I just don't want to spend 4 times the money buying a Web design program I wouldn't use.

Hope this makes sense

Charlie

[tonylondon]

I think there is no demand for it because it doesn't provide enough features to persuade enough users to switch from tried and true desk top publishing programs like Indesign or Page plus.

To true, Angelize. It seems to be a catch 22 situation. Xara hasn't put sufficient funds into developing PLD so nobody buys it. Nobody buys it so Xara can't justify putting the funds into developing it. (Although I did buy a copy once!) Like Charlie now, I rarely use the web features but I go on paying for the flagship program because, apart from the web features, Xara is so easy to use.

[iamtheblues]

... Like Charlie now, I rarely use the web features but I go on paying for the flagship program because, apart from the web features, Xara is so easy to use.

Well, no offence meant Tony, but Xara must be eternally grateful to people like your good self and Charlie among others. I cannot fathom why anyone would keep on shelling out hard-earned cash for a product that you only use a small part of, when money could be saved by buying the cheaper option that doesn't have the bits you don't use anyway. I have to admit to being somewhat bemused! Xara must be counting their lucky stars... unless of course they have some compromising photos...