Nothing but Problems with Xara

I have had nothing but problems with this program.

I cannot upload via Xara FTP as it errors out. I cannot export to create html files as it errors out and therefore I cannot upload from another FTP program.

I have had my website which I save in a docs folder disappear a few times.

I cannot preview more than 1 page as it errors out so I cant even check to see if links are working

I have spent about 6 weeks creating a 26 page website and feel that it was all for nothing.

I have never ever experienced errors like this before. It also has "lack of memory" consistently and I have optimized all images.

The program also freezes on me.

It is not my computer as my computer is working efficiently and has no problems.

Can my problems be solved or should I just forget it and start again with another web designing program?

Aside from getting off your chest, which always feels good - you have told us nothing useful about any of the errors in order for us to even begin to try and help.

I'd suggest you submit a support ticket with http://support.xara.com

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sledger

Aside from getting off your chest, which always feels good

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Now ain't that the truth?!

mystic_aussiega, would you be willing to either post your web/xar file here (its size will probably make that impractical) or upload the xar/web file somewhere to a private URL that you communicate to only to the intended recipient?

In that way the TalkGraphics regulars can look at what is causing your problems. There are too many reported errors for this to be the program's fault because, if this were so, other people would be reporting this and Xara would be inundated with support calls.

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Originally Posted by mystic_aussiega

I have spent about 6 weeks creating a 26 page website and feel that it was all for nothing.

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Don't feel like that - I can assure you that rarely, if ever, is a problem reported in this forum and not solved. :thx

When I try and send the error report, it freezes the program.

eg: I just tried again to preview the website, it froze with an error , it failed to send the error to you, came up with another internal error and when I click on that it says out of memory

I was able to copy the log as follows:

Revision: 28125
Product: 8 - WebDesignerPremium
GUID: e7f79271-ab09-407c-8c8d-9a0d2ea46037
VPL
Windows ver.: Unknown (0, 0)
Process mem. usage: 1640906752
Total Physical Memory: 3666767872
Avail. Physical Memory: 671232000

Exception code: c0000005
EAX: 00000000
EBX: 00000000
ECX: 00000000
EDX: 0001f278
ESI: 00000000
EDI: 00000000
EBP: 00296010
ESP: 00295d38

Processor: Unknown MMX SSE SSE2 (6.2a.7)

================================================== =======================

Yup, your system appears to be low on available memory.
671232000 = 640 Mb

If you have many photos in your 26 pages, optimised or not, these can easily amount to more than 640Mb while open in your document.
Can you try restarting your computer and temporarily closing all unnecessary programs running in the system tray, and include such bloat boats as any version of Nortons AV if you have it, and see if that helps?.

I'd also suggest you download and install MalwareBytes, update it then reboot into safe mode and run a full scan. You never know what little nasties have crept it.

Thankyou Frank,

I am trying to work out how to do what you suggest. I am looking for a cloud site to upload the file. :-)

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Originally Posted by Big Frank

Now ain't that the truth?!

mystic_aussiega, would you be willing to either post your web/xar file here (its size will probably make that impractical) or upload the xar/web file somewhere to a private URL that you communicate to only to the intended recipient?

In that way the TalkGraphics regulars can look at what is causing your problems. There are too many reported errors for this to be the program's fault because, if this were so, other people would be reporting this and Xara would be inundated with support calls.



Don't feel like that - I can assure you that rarely, if ever, is a problem reported in this forum and not solved. :thx

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I do have lots of photos as the website is a tourism one.

I have many, many times rebooted my computer with no luck.

I never had this problem when using MS Front Page, it was never out of memory and that was on a much older computer than the one I have today.

I am trying to find a site to upload the file as Frank suggested.

Thankyou for your response :-)

So does this mean that because I have a website with lots of photos that the program will not be suitable for me to use?

The difference between Front Page and Web Designer is that unlike HTML editors Web Designer saves your entire 26 page site in one single project file (name.web).
Rather like a multipage Word document or PDF file is a single file with everything embedded.
Web Designer is not a HTML editor, so you can't compare it with FP or Dreamweaver et al where each page is saved as a single .htm (all text) and the assets are linked.
Web Designer creates the html pages from your design and exports the assets to the index_htm_files folder only when you publish.. Until then, it's just a Xara .web file with everything contained. So, your system needs sufficient memory while all this processing is happening.

It's not that it isn't suitable, it's that you have to approach your designing differently.
It's a learning curve that needs approaching in a different way than you would with a HTML editor.

You might like to prepare your photos before bringing them into Web Designer, this will reduce the memory overhead if they are already the correct resolution for the web.

the photos range from around 60kb to a meg (all different sizes) so I need to shrink them? Can you recommend a program to do that for me and thankyou for your help by the way , I have been pulling my hair out over this and so want it fixed asap :-)

I just rebooted my computer and I have available ram: 3.41gb out of 8gb

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sledger

The difference between Front Page and Web Designer is that unlike HTML editors Web Designer saves your entire 26 page site in one single project file (name.web).
Rather like a multipage Word document or PDF file is a single file with everything embedded.
Web Designer is not a HTML editor, so you can't compare it with FP or Dreamweaver et al where each page is saved as a single .htm (all text) and the assets are linked.
Web Designer creates the html pages from your design and exports the assets to the index_htm_files folder only when you publish.. Until then, it's just a Xara .web file with everything contained. So, your system needs sufficient memory while all this processing is happening.

It's not that it isn't suitable, it's that you have to approach your designing differently.
It's a learning curve that needs approaching in a different way than you would with a HTML editor.

You might like to prepare your photos before bringing them into Web Designer, this will reduce the memory overhead if they are already the correct resolution for the web.

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also, can you let me know how many photos and what size of the photos are the limitations for this program?

Oh any application than can resie a photo and save it to a new file.
IrfanView for example, or Faststone Image Viewer (my preferred).

So if, for example you know the photos all need to be 640x480 pixels, open the originals and resize (or crop) them to 640x480 and save as a new file to a temporary folder and use about 20% - 25% compression (75% - 80% IQ) when saving.
Use these new files in your Web Designer page/s.


Also, remember that WD version 9 by default additionally saves HiDef versions of your images for Apple Retina screens, you can turn this off in Web Properties>>Website (tab). This may help lessen the memory overhead when publishing.

ok, thankyou, It is off to bed for me now as it 11.38pm my time but thankyou for your help and I will do that will all the photos tomorrow .... grrrrr.... its gonna be a big job as I have around 50 odd pics without counting but I have put so much time into this website and just want to get it online

Thanks again for your help.

hopefully this time tomorrow night I will be able to say that "finally" ... I have my site online :-)

Until some time ago I had difficulty to publish my web page directly from Xara. My web provider demanded an active FTP connection, and I configured this in my web browser without any result.
Then I found a solution that set active FTP in the registry and after I have done this everything work as expected.
The procedure with WebDesigner 9 Premium and Windows 7 is:

Go into the registry via regedit.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Xara \ WebDesignerPremium \ 9.0 \ Options \ Publish

Change FTPConnectionType to 1
(Default setting is 2, which is passive)

Good luck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mystic_aussiega

I just rebooted my computer and I have available ram: 3.41gb out of 8gb

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32bit applications cannot use the full amount of installed RAM (physical memory).
This is why the error message included the information:

Total Physical Memory: 3666767872 (3.4Gb)
Avail. Physical Memory: 671232000 (640Mb)

Try installing the 64bit version of Web Designer 9 Premium

Problems solved! Thankyou so very much, I really thought that I would have to start my website again.

Thanks again, it is appreciated :-)

:-bd Good news!