@ David: This thread is becoming fairly scattered in it's content. Anyway, glad to hear you've sorted out your issues with iPage, though a web host that boasts "GREEN! Powered by 100% wind energy" would have me worried on windless days ;)
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@ David: This thread is becoming fairly scattered in it's content. Anyway, glad to hear you've sorted out your issues with iPage, though a web host that boasts "GREEN! Powered by 100% wind energy" would have me worried on windless days ;)
Certainly for most people Xara is much quicker, both hobbyists and professionals. You can design from scratch, preview as you work and have a finished webpage in xara much faster than handcoding. It's also a lot more enjoyable than hand coding all the html/css.
Well I think this version is SWEEEET! Great jobs guys! I'll definitely be upgrading to this version!
(Sorry I didn't read thru this entire thread) -
Questions:
1. since you've incorporated the stretchy background, do you still have to create individual "templates" for each size mobile device or just one design and it will fit to that mobile device?
2. if I purchase the WD11 upgrade from my current WD10 premium, will that deactivate my WD10 (I'm in the middle of building a huge site right now in WD10)? Can I install WD11 on another computer to make migration from WD10 goes smoothly first (and also learn)? I can not afford to break anything on my project.
Karen
I did not intend this topic for a lot of bickering. OK? I wanted to hear what people like and don't like about Web Designer 11.
If anyone wants to argue the merits of hand coding vs WYSIWYG web design then please start a new thread in the Off Topic Chat. Thanks.
KarenC - Yes you still should create a mobile variant for your site. Mobile sites but nature of the devices used, specifically smart phones and smaller tablets, should be simpler with larger type and less images. I can view complex websites on my smart phone if I am using WiFi or getting a very strong signal, but if I am not getting a strong signal, then if a site is taking too long to load I am off to the next site.
You can have as many older versions on your computer as you like. And I may be wrong about some older versions but I believe you can have two versions opened at the same time to copy and paste from one to the other if you like.
Looks great - as a owner of both Xara Web Design Premium and Designer Pro X10, I don't want to waste $45 on upgrading Web Design Premium when I JUST bought Designer Pro X10 a few weeks ago.
When do you think Designer Pro X11 will come out? I need the sticky objects, stretch objects/pictures and the new animation capabilities of Web Design Premium 11 and hope they come out very, very soon for Designer Pro X11 - anyone know an ETA?
Mike
I believe Designer Pro 10 came out in the beginning of July of last year.
That might be an indication as to when to expect 11.
BTW, I am a pro designer and programmer of websites for commercial clients and I use a wide variety of software depending on the job at hand.
However, now with the new responsive requirements from various search engines, Xara Design Pro X10 (and hopefully soon X11) has the most robust feature set for responsive design than any other software I own, Mac or PC. I also love the way X10 deals with breakpoints - much easier than many of my other software for doing this. Lastly, from a designer perspective, none of my other software can really do this with any sense of predictability. Designer Pro X10 is like using photoshop and coreldraw to create really good looking responsive websites.
Where it falls down is in forms (I refuse to use a form service/software when a simple form or a form with database connectivity is needed) - whatever is easier for the client - and believe me, they need easy.
I tend to use my other software to create the forms and then bring them into Xara as a HTML placeholder object. Not sure it's responsive, but so far, so good. I just make sure not to define any definite cell or table widths - I just set them as percentages and all is good, responsively.
I wish Xara Design Pro 10 had a few other features my other software has, such as newsletter capability (with subscriber user/group back end), closed-source blogs, podcasts, better social media integration and share links, better calendar with back end event handling, complete MySQL database handling and true form creation capability, but it contains 95% of what I need and the responsive features make it a must-have piece of software right now.
Right now i'll use the three main software packages I use either separately as needed or in tandem to make Xara-created sites more full-featured, but I truly hope in the future, some or all of what I need is included in Xara so I can use one software for all. From a design and responsiveness perspective, Xara Designer Pro X10 is a must-have.
Mike
These arguments about hand coding is more professional reminds me of people arguing that you're not a professional programmer unless you code in Assembler. My first language was Assembler and I coded for years in it, but I can tell you I much prefer higher level languages now. Likewise I hand coded HTML and CSS long before I came across XWD. I know which I prefer now. To me, it's all about efficiency. And I have been a professional programmer for 30 years.
= Steve
I've found that PDF import is much improved in WD11. I firstly imported the same pdf into a XD10 web page, and whilst it looked good within Xara it looked like a dogs dinner in web preview, with all the text misaligned. The same file imported into WD11 rendered correctly on web preview.
A good improvement. Well done!
Oh! I finally relented and upgraded to Web Designer 10 a week ago, despite my scarce resources! Is there any special upgrade offers to 11 for me, or must I simply accept that I missed out? Cheers, Rikko
Contact Xara support Rikko, they usually have a grace period for upgrading to a new version when you were unaware it was being released. I don't know what time scale they use.
Thanks Egg, I will drop them a line, Cheers
(I have just double-checked and my purchase was actually only debited 2 days ago on 21st May which I notice is only 1 day after the official release date of WD11 on 20th May. I have now submitted a ticket asking them to consider providing an upgrade to me).
Yep, you'll defo' get a free upgrade, Rik :-bd
► http://www.xara.com/us/web-designer/buy/Quote:
Period of grace: If you ordered v10 after 13th April 2015 you are entitled to a free upgrade, contact sales, do not order on this page.
Anyone had this problem?
In Chrome my web animations work but in Firefox my navbar text animations don't work but only the text - the block nav buttons on the home page work fine.. Not sure if it is iPage, me or WD11.
Site: Strov-Graphics
If I'm honest the site works how I want it to so I am not overly upset but I'm wondering if this is just happening (or not happening) for me?
Cheers
David
Hi David, I can confirm that FF animation works after a fashion but the animation is very jaggie compared to Chrome. See screen grab.
Can't say I'm a great lover of any of Xara's new animated buttons.
EDIT What version of FF have you got installed?
Yes I noted that too - did the text navigation on the other pages even work? I'm not overly concerned as the main importance of the website is another outlet for the infographics, I'm posting them everywhere!
I'm sure I'll load up one day and there will be 'Web Designer Pro 11 has an update' box-out. Nothing works perfectly first time.
Thanks for your help
David
WEBSITE LIN I assume should read WEBSITE LINKS?
It's cut off in every browser.
Navigation worked fine in FF for me.
FF's rendering engine isn't the same as Chrome/Safari/Opera/Maxthon or other webkit based browsers.
David I think you had too much fun with Web Animations :D Personally I think you've overdone it. It becomes very annoying very fast.
PS: There is no Web Designer Pro.. 'Premium' yes, 'Pro' no..
Steve that was me typing fast whilst watching Penny Dreadful :D Also I think you're right and I'll probably drop the animations from the window transports. If fact I'll do it now.
Cheers Steve - best bet is don't add stuff I can get carried away with :eek:
David
The strechy text buttons don't stretch in FF David.
Must agree with Steve ;)
Can you tell me if the new version has provided a rotating banner widget? There was a lot of discussion back in Jan-Feb regarding how to incorporate a rotating banner with Xara. The punch line was that there were work-arounds, but, not an integrated method of creating rotating banners. Would love to upgrade to the new X11, but, would like to have a simple rotating banner widget included in the product.
If you mean a spinning banner, then no. But the new version is full of Web Animations which you can apply to any element.
Has anyone tried looking at Gary's demo on a tablet? I am on holiday with only my Dell Venue 8 pro. I don't have a mouse, so I can't figure out how to see the animations. One tap does nothing, double tap enlarges the page and swipes move the page
Only Click/Touch animations are supported on mobile devices.
There's a tab in the Web Animation dialogue for setting Click/Touch animations.
So if Gary didn't use any of these, you'll not suffer them on a mobile device :D
Haven't tried on a tablet. I don't have one. But I have tried on my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone. The animations displayed are a different set from those on my laptop (only 9 rather than 15, and no text animations) but they all work with a single tap.
Site looks good on a phone.
bobp
No, I'm referring to a banner ad that works like the xara photo sliders, but, has the option of going to a different website if you click on the photo. The "rotating" part is that it simply puts up different banner (rotates through the banner ad list). This is pretty common on websites these days - you'll see different banner ads each time you visit a site. If you peruse the forum discussions back in Jan-Feb you'll see some discussion on some xara solutions, but, they really don't have the click-through capability.
Ah, I understand 'rotate' to mean to move in a circle round an axis or centre :D
What you describe are known as Slideshow Widgets in Xara parlance.
There is Cycle Slideshow 5 and Cycle Slideshow 6 which do what you need.
Hi, KAren,
I understand you have the template from the demo site from Magix Premium 10? I have been looking for it as well. So surprising they don't put it on as a standard... You have the files? How will I be able to get them from you?
Your feedback is highly appreciated :)
For others: Yes I do know it is flexible but the base of the demo 10 website is excellent and saves me allot of time....
What software is the Dell Venue running? All the touch animation effects work fine on my Samsung Tab 4 tablet and on my iPhone.Quote:
Has anyone tried looking at Gary's demo on a tablet? I am on holiday with only my Dell Venue 8 pro. I don't have a mouse, so I can't figure out how to see the animations. One tap does nothing, double tap enlarges the page and swipes move the page
It runs Windows 8.1 Gary.
Steve: so the cycle slideshow 5 and cycle slideshow 6 allow you to click on a photo and open a new tab to a different website for each photo? Some of the x10 photo sliders would only take you to one website, no matter which photo you clicked on. If the Cycle Slideshow 5/6 have this click-through capability that opens in new tabs then that should work for a simple rotating banner ad solution. Thank you for your feedback.
Yes, each photo can be linked.
However the Open Link field is greyed out so they will open in the same page. The work-around it to add the target to the syntax in the link field which means using quotes like this
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea" Target="_blank"
Tried a dummy page with slideshow5, setup different links for each of the 5 photos. They did go to the links I set up, but, not in a new tab. Tried your syntax and it opened the same page (not the target) in a new tab.
Can I load Web Designer Premium files into Designer Pro X10 and eventually X11 (when it comes out)?
I figure if I upgrade Web Designer Premium 11 today, can I load my work into Designer Pro X11 and go from there or are they two very separate programs?
Mike
No the two programs are much the same, with Designer Pro being the top package. You can open .web or .xar files freely between either.
Will Designer Pro X10 strip out the new features of Web Designer Premium X11? Say I create my website in Premium X11 and then load into Design Pro X10 for graphics work - what will happen to the sticky features and full page backgrounds, animations, etc? I ASSUME they would be either stripped out or ignored and then when loaded back into Web Designer Premium X11 it would be all messed up - right?
Mike
That's correct. But why would you want to load it back into DPX10? You will get a warning stating "this file was created in a later version and somethings will be ignored" or similar. I did a quick test created a reveal object in WD11 and saved. Opened it in XDPX10 and got the warning. Saved it as a .xar. Reopened it in WD11 and the reveal was still functioning, so it appears to retain later versions enhancements.
I think the example full-width sites are great, but where can I see to build one? I now have Ver11, but haven't yet seen a step by step tutorial showing how to create a site with full width bacground, etc. like the examples shown.
Bob I'm not sure if there are any tutorials yet.
The attached will show you a few of the basics.
It takes a lot less code to add a rectangular hot spot vs a complex (not rectangular) shape.