time to renew

[handrawn]

I took the advice of acorn the ineffable [no that does not mean what it sounds like, if you don't know what it actually means look it up ]

so here I am nearing the end of my pro+ year sub and what have I got to show for it... some good stuff but nothing for me that is not now in xdp 18.5; and so, as he advised, I weigh up 122 GBP for another year of pro+ or 74 GBP for upgrade of my xdp15 to 18.5

despite my irritation with magix I don't think it's a difficult descision

[Acorn]

I took the advice of acorn the ineffable [no that does not mean what it sounds like, if you don't know what it actually means look it up ]
so here I am nearing the end of my pro+ year sub and what have I got to show for it... some good stuff but nothing for me that is not now in xdp 18.5; and so, as he advised, I weigh up 122 GBP for another year of pro+ or 74 GBP for upgrade of my xdp15 to 18.5
despite my irritation with magix I don't think it's a difficult descision

handrawn, you are right in that possibly twice a year, MagiXara will stutter up a set of upgrades to match XPro+.
In the last year there has been nothing worthy of an immediate "must have" hat merits XPro+ for the hobbyist who is not using the full breadth of XPro+ with the adjutant of Xara Cloud.

I have awaited genuine transformation within Xara to deliver properly-tested and bug-fixed features and to rework those half-attempts it could call an upgrade.
Instead, Xara has completely disappear from TG and has not even advised the latest XDPX/XWD(P) version release to 18.5.
Still no PDF Help Manual.
Still no promised UI changes.
Still no feature fixes, apart from the undocumented jQuery update to v3.60 and the associated slider changes (most of which seem to destroy any existing slider configuration) [@Initiostar's solution to add the same slider with default images, Preview and Save and then remove it, probalby will be the way through for us].

I can afford to stick will XPro+ and the lack of Magix' interference is still a delight.
The downside?
No new Xara Hosting uplift.
No EXIF or other removed Magix features have been replaced.

Acorn

[handrawn]

In the last year there has been nothing worthy of an immediate "must have" hat merits XPro+ for the hobbyist who is not using the full breadth of XPro+ with the adjutant of Xara Cloud.

not much for the professional who does neither websites nor cloud either

I am surprised pro+ has not yet replaced the magix features lost

[Egg Bramhill]

I am surprised pro+ has not yet replaced the magix features lost

Over a year and no replacements .... says a lot.

And what's the situation re Anna / Rob ???

[Boy]

I believe Anna has left and Rob mentioned a while ago he was going to make work of the long list of bugs and niggles we put together for him.

[handrawn]

ana has left afaik - rob is always busy

[behzad]

I have found that our design industry including that of web design has shriveled up like a dried up plum because of covid. Not only clients do not have money to spend but they have found that a website that caters to their needs are available through templates which are hosted by many many online businesses such as GoDaddy, shopifty, etc.. that they will not cough up money for us to build a xara website. Building a xara website for me has always been easy as far as interface, basic functionality but when your looking at e-commerce, online booking etc... One is better off going to the mentioned above platforms. I will not spend my time reinventing the wheel when wordpress has all that plus more with a drop of a plugin.

So Whatever Xara wants to bring to the game is at least a decade behind what is out there. Not sure how long Xara will last. Their attempt to going cloud was to revive Xara, even that now may be problematic for them to keep up. I am glad right now I am on a break and can sit back and watch how different companies unfold to the new age. It seems there is still lack of feedback from Xara and most likely they are spreading themselves thin over the + department. Time to get the popcorn out and see how this all plays out. My suggestion to handrawn is just to get the Magix one on sale, like I did and wait it out.

[iamtheblues]

Recent Xaran software has been a big disappointment as far as I'm concerned. So much so that I have reverted to Xtreme Pro 5 as my go to software, which fulfils my vector needs (such as they are) these days. No web intrusions make it a joy to use (just like the old days).

[bwood]

My Pro+ will expire in Nov. Although it was very hard to find exactly when it expires. Needed help to find it.
I’m fairly happy with Pro+. For my needs of non profits.
I think one must remember that a good Wordpress site with a shopping component could cost as much as $35 US a month. That adds up.
But points above are well made. The photo grids are still a mess, and the slide shows have not been reworked at all. That’s a disappointment.
As for cloud services, for those totally into the social media thing, and many, many businesses are there’s a raft of templates for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, all with branding elements, so that’s an advantage.
If Xara were smart I’d contract or bundle something with https://xaratemplates.com/.
Pro + I think would be far more attractive with that addition.
-Bill

[Boy]

If Xara were smart I’d contract or bundle something with https://xaratemplates.com/.
Pro + I think would be far more attractive with that addition.

Until recently Magix had that bundle on offer for a few months. Together with a serious discount, I upgraded. Perhaps the offer will be back later this year.