Is Xara Web Designer capable of this ?

[ozeegers]

Hello,

I am designing a new site for our association and use Wordpress. I've spend a lot of time tweaking everything, positioning the flags for different languages, getting the javascript navbar right in all browsers.

I still have a lot of things to do when i came across Xara Web Designer.
I must say it looks very appealing, but i wonder if i can recreate my site with it ?

Could you please take a look at the following points:

- can i imitate the javascript navbar with a Xara animation (flash) ? Or can i hook in the navbar with a widget ?
- The background is build up with a background image for the header, body and footer and the images is repeately displayed. Is this possible ?
- Is there an easy way to create a bilingual site or do i just have to duplicate the site and translate and update links ?

thank you so much for your help, i hope everything can be achieved so i can buy Web Designer and finally finish my website with less trouble and effort !

the site is: http://www.orthopedie-ronse.be/orthopedieronseonline

[ab29]

Do you mean to do a static web pages site, or a dynamic web pages site, with news or a blog and so on ?

[ozeegers]

Do you mean to do a static web pages site, or a dynamic web pages site, with news or a blog and so on ?

No, the site can be static. I would like to be able to create:

- background with image that repeats itself to the sides.. I don't know how to explain this better.. Best example is the site
- navbar that has some sort of animation. Question is if my current navbar can be simulated with some Xara Animation (flash) ?
- I have to create the site in two languages. In wordpress this is an advantage since you don't have to care about the links. But i understand that to create this in Xara WD you just copy the site and change links ?

thank you for your help,

Olivier

[covoxer]

- background with image that repeats itself to the sides.. I don't know how to explain this better.. Best example is the site

Yes, you can have a repeating background image. It's also aligned with the page content so it can be even more complicated than a simple vertical tile.

- navbar that has some sort of animation. Question is if my current navbar can be simulated with some Xara Animation (flash) ?

You can create some flash animations in WD but I'm afraid you can't do exactly the same effect you have on your current page. And yes, you can use many of the 3rd party code snippets with WD.

- I have to create the site in two languages. In wordpress this is an advantage since you don't have to care about the links. But i understand that to create this in Xara WD you just copy the site and change links ?

If you create your site as a single WD document, all internal links are dyamic. That means that if you create a copy of your first language WEB file, edit it to different language and change the page file names, you can export it and all the internal links would remain correct (pointing to the new language pages). You'll only have to add links to the main page of every language. You wouldn't need to alter any links in future if you'll only modify the content of the pages (text, graphics or layout).

[ab29]

Sir, your navbar is a jquery cross slide, so it is totally possible to integrate it into your WD work. I will show you a little later in the day.

[ozeegers]

Yes, you can have a repeating background image. It's also aligned with the page content so it can be even more complicated than a simple vertical tile.

OK, in the meanwhile I found in this thread (http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=37035) a way to solve this. This uses a very large background image. That for me was a solution but my background is composed of three parts: header, container and footer. The size of the header and footer is fixed but the size of the container part varies with each page. Could you please explain your way of achieving this ? Thank you so much.

You can create some flash animations in WD but I'm afraid you can't do exactly the same effect you have on your current page.

I've received a reply which states JQuery Slide effects can be achieved so I'm very curious about the way to get this done !!

And yes, you can use many of the 3rd party code snippets with WD.
If you create your site as a single WD document, all internal links are dyamic. That means that if you create a copy of your first language WEB file, edit it to different language and change the page file names, you can export it and all the internal links would remain correct (pointing to the new language pages). You'll only have to add links to the main page of every language. You wouldn't need to alter any links in future if you'll only modify the content of the pages (text, graphics or layout).

OK! So that makes it already much less effort! In Wordpress it would take quite the same actions I think. Thank you so much for your help, i appreciate it!

[ozeegers]

Sir, your navbar is a jquery cross slide, so it is totally possible to integrate it into your WD work. I will show you a little later in the day.

I'm waiting anxiously for your next post

[covoxer]

OK, in the meanwhile I found in this thread (http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=37035) a way to solve this. This uses a very large background image. That for me was a solution but my background is composed of three parts: header, container and footer. The size of the header and footer is fixed but the size of the container part varies with each page.

You can not have separate areas in your page (unless you use my tweakset), but it's not that bad. To create design that looks exactly like your current site you would need a separate background image for every page. But this bitmap can be just 1 pixel wide, making it a few hundered bytes only (for your main page it is 380bytes PNG).

[ab29]

well this is will be for another day, because i didn't have time for now, but in fact, it uses the lavaLamp jquery menu.

[ozeegers]

well this is will be for another day, because i didn't have time for now, but in fact, it uses the lavaLamp jquery menu.

yes, the images that are fading are made with a crossslide jquery item.. i'll wait for your post, thank you