Versions & panoramas

[Teedee]

The proliferation of the various packages and their cross-over is quite confusing.

I have Xara Extreme 5 and Xara Web Designer 7 Premium (like these very much). These, plus Windows Live Photo Gallery, do most of what I want: design my own personal & simple websites and process photos, mostly to use on my websites. I build panoramas quite a lot (generally three to five & sometimes more photos).

WD7 Prem does have a pano builder but appears to be a cut down version (How cut down?) and recommends upgrading. Unlike Microsoft ICE (part of Windows Live Essentials) it requires the photos to be in the correct order and may be able to handle fewer photos. It does do a nice job of what it does. What capabilities does the upgraded version of Xara Pano have and is the upgrade the same as that in Pro?

Where does Photo & Graphic Designer (& pro) fit? I can find other comparisons not including WD7 Premium.

Do the Pro versions include anything like Photosynth - allowing you to take, say, 30 or more photos including close-ups and to synthesise all so you can pan an object and zoom in/out on specific areas? For example, I would like to photograph a gully and zoom in on various rock art features and flora & fauna in the gully and to use the finished study on my website???
Thanks
td

[gwpriester]

Hello TD

So many questions.

Photo and Graphic Designer have more drawing features than Web Designer and less features than Designer Pro. Kind of a Designer Lite.

The set up you currently have with Xtreme 5 and WD 7 sounds very good. You get most of the drawing tools with Xtreme and the latest web capabilities with WD7. So you're set there.

Designer Pro 7 has all the drawing tools, plus all the web design tools. It is also more expensive but worth considering if you want to do everything in one program. And I am pretty sure the full version of the panorama tool as well, though I think it has to be installed separately.

I used the full version once or twice for a tutorial and you can do a lot of things with it including panning up and down and you can save your output in different formats. If you want more features and more power then that is the way to go and you can probably upgrade to Designer Pro 7 for not too much since you own Extreme and WD7.

[Teedee]

Thanks for those answers Gary. A couple of supplementary please.

Where does Web Designer 7 PREMIUM fit in there?
Somewhere you can upgrade the Panorama Tool - there is a link but it just takes you to the general For Sale page & I cannot see the Pano Tool. Where is it please?
Is the upgrade tool the full monty that you get with Pro?

I will look more seriously at Pro tho it is substantially more expensive ($200 upgrade) & has a lot of things I do not use.