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Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
For existing Xara Xtreme owners here is a list of some of the smaller fixes and improvements in Pro ;
• Name gallery improvements
Improved so that it shows more detail on the fonts used in a document, using the full font name as shown in the font gallery. It also shows variations of a font as a separate selectable font name, as well as the font family (e.g.. “Arial Bold”, “Arial Italic”, “Arial Regular”.) It shows at a glance which fonts have had to be synthesised and which are not installed.
• Improved clipboard compatibility with MS Office and other apps
e.g. You can just copy anything in Xara and paste direct into Outlook and it embeds a JPEG
• Print dialog completely re-designed
• Document Info dialog improved
• Error handling improved so that in the event of a program crash you’ll normally get the chance to continue and save your work.
• Automatic zoom out when importing photos, so the whole image is instantly visible
• New ‘100% zoom’ operation added to zoom toolbar and key short-cut of Ctrl+Shift+1.
• Improved support for using Xtreme with multiple monitors
• Improved support for accented characters, Unicode and non US keyboards
• Frame (animation) gallery order reversed, so it now shows first frame at the top
• Line width now shown in pix if the page unit is Pix
• You can now set the coordinates origin to top left corner increasing downwards.
• The main toolbar should automatically show small icons on small screens
Dragging a file onto the title bar no longer opens MDI windows
• Copy / Paste attributes on text now works more reliably. You can more easily create 'text styles' using small snippets of text.
• The line width shows widths in pixels if your page units are pixels (the list of widths will be improved before the final release)
• New option in Grid & Ruler to allow the ruler origin to be top left and coordinate values to increase downwards
And the most significant feature improvements of the lot:
• The caret in the text tool now blinks !
Plus there have been dozens of smaller fixes.
As some of you may realise, most of these smaller improvements have been requested on the TalkGraphics forums. For the day-to-day user they are significant improvements.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
YES YES YES HOLY MOTHER OF KAZAN YES!!!!
sorry
got carried away
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
That sounds all really good! :)
The dozens of smaller fixes... do they include the "two-screens-with-different-resolutions-bug"?
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Here's one change I've noticed that's not mentioned above is that sizes in Xtreme are now maintained on export as .swf to Flash. I think this will save hours of work for those who use Flash.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mikalele
The dozens of smaller fixes... do they include the "two-screens-with-different-resolutions-bug"?
Yes. :) You brought it up recently in the forum, so your post reminded me to chase it up. As a two-screen user I was a proponent of getting this one fixed.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
YES! Thank you Xara Team!
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Charles Moir
• Improved clipboard compatibility with MS Office and other apps
e.g. You can just copy anything in Xara and paste direct into Outlook and it embeds a JPEG
I noticed in Word, you can also double click pasted objects to load Xara and edit the shape. The shape updates automatically in Word on closing Xara. Shame I didn't have this a couple of months ago - it would have saved me hours of exporting. :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Charles Moir
• Error handling improved so that in the event of a program crash you’ll normally get the chance to continue and save your work.
This is the best change of all - no more lost work! I can crash it for fun now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Charles Moir
• You can now set the coordinates origin to top left corner increasing downwards.
• New option in Grid & Ruler to allow the ruler origin to be top left and coordinate values to increase downwards
This should please a few people!
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Nice job Xara - relieved to see that the feet are out of the mud!
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Charles Moir
• You can now set the coordinates origin to top left corner increasing downwards.
Unfortuntely I don't have a windows computer handy, so I can't check this myself, but does this change apply to the main page co-ordinates and the way that invidivual objects are represented? i.e. with this turned on is the X/Y location of an object on the page also represented by it's top-left corner?
I would imagine that it would be the case, but before I sign the check to get the new version of Xara (sight unseen), I'd like to be sure. ;)
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Odat,
It works as you describe. Set the origin to the upper left corner and the Y values to increase going down.
The top left corner of the object is the location coordinates.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
That's just really sweet! I do a lot of work mocking up GUI's and such for various projects using Xara, and this feature is finally going to make that as easy as pie!
Previously I had to export the image to some raster format and then use PSP or what have you to open up the resulting image to determine locations, or else whip out the calculator and do the math. Neither is an overly appealing option, but the drawing tools and ease of use of Xara made it impossible to pass up for the task.
Between this feature and the new multi-page functionality, I think this update is already well worth the price of the upgrade, not even including the better text handling and all the other neat little fixes and do-dad's.
I think today's workday is going to be a loooooong one while I sit around moping that I can't play with the new stuff! ;)
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
I had to pinch myself to decide I wasn't dreaming!
I can't believe that AntonyF knew all this and kept it all a secret!
That's an impressive feat. I would have busted a gut trying to keep quiet while people in the forums were bitching about some of these exact things!
Congratulations to all at Xara!
---
Will
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Some tips:
One of the new features is that you can paste objects in word and then double click them to edit in Xara. However, when you copy text from Xara and paste into Word, it still pastes it as a text object. But, if instead of standard paste, you select “paste special” from the edit menu, you can select unformatted text and paste your text that way. Of course though, you lose the formatting, by definition.
When creating linked text boxes of flowing text, it seems that you can’t change the properties of just one box of text (which makes sense – as text moves if edited to different boxes). However, the old technique of pressing escape in a bunch of text to select it all without highlighting does not therefore work (as escape does not select multiple objects). You have to go into a text box with the text tool, and press ctrl+A to select all related text.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Has a release date been set yet?
Before Christmas, maybe!?! :-)
Thanks
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Has a release date been set yet?
Depends entirely on how many serious bugs we or you find. We think this version is pretty stable, but there is a lot of new stuff in there. We'd hope for release in a few weeks.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Charles Moir
Depends entirely on how many serious bugs we or you find. We think this version is pretty stable, but there is a lot of new stuff in there.
Understood. It does seem pretty close to RC quality.
Quote:
We'd hope for release in a few weeks.
Sounds great, looking forward to it! :-)
Cheers
Doug
:cool:
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
... and there's more? Excellent! I'm looking forward to trying it all out.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
There really are some very significant improvements over Xtreme in this program, but from a personal point of view, without some kind of Macro/Actions I can't see myself buying Xtreme Pro.
I know many people don't use them or are happy to work without them, but I've built my work process around them and to give them up now would be a massive step backwards in productivity for me.
Looks like expression isn't going to have macros either, it seems I'm going to have to dig deep and buy Illustrator LOL!
Unless anyone could reccommend another program?
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MarkMyWords
but from a personal point of view, without some kind of Macro/Actions I can't see myself buying Xtreme Pro.
Have you seen the Xortcuts Pro feature? Or were you looking for soemthing more?
http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/workbook53/page_6.htm
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MarkMyWords
Looks like expression isn't going to have macros either, it seems I'm going to have to dig deep and buy Illustrator LOL!
Unless anyone could reccommend another program?
Have you looked into a third-party utility that can run macros within any program? I've used MacroExpress for those times in Xara when I've wanted to automatically execute a series of operations.
.joroho.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
After reading through the postings, of the Xtreme Pro announcements, I'm surprised there hasn't been more praise for the Photoshop PSD import / export that keeps the layers in tact. I can see some big advantages with that. Being able to share with other collaborators for me is one of the most important thing about software. Design, share, submit. I could be wrong, but seems like the AI / EPS import has been improved a bit.
For those who are kind of put off by the price, it can be a bummer when the actual price and your expected price are so different. That actually might be a testament to people's appreciation of Xara Xtreme and how full featured that program is. They see it as such a good value, it's hard to top.
I think Pro has some excellent additions for the DTP users. The new text boxes were coded wonderfully. Smooth, original use of the text box linking. I've used PageMaker, Quark, Indesign, Scribus, and several other non popular products such as the serif stuff. Xara's linking text boxes are smooth and good.
I do wish the flash features had a timeline, something like a livemotion, aftereffects or other, but at the same time, it's kind of good that the flash animation is kind of like a traditional flipbook animation.
One bug I found on my demo was, when I had an animation open and another normal document open, switching between the two, the animation controls stayed when they shoudl have gone away and the canvas of the animations are locked where the document canvases are sort of free floating. I saw a little bug where my normal document got locked to the corner like an animation.
I'd love to see the addition of instantly importable lorem ipsum text like indesign has to make designing faster. If plugins could be made, creating a table plugin and a text-wrap plugin or capability is going to be really useful too.
nice job to the X team. I appreciate your work and I'm glad that this release seems to be on the mark for a lot of xara fans.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
michaelbuddy PSD import is a superb new feature to me as well :-D
Not having to open PS just to export .psds to some compatible format, and in worst case separating layers to different files is a real time saver.
I don't know, the timing is just so fine to me personally. My skills, job tasks and wishes were just starting to "grow out" of Xara, and I've been looking at the available options... then this update comes and my favourite program grows with me. How cool is that?
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
joroho
Have you looked into a third-party utility that can run macros within any program? I've used MacroExpress for those times in Xara when I've wanted to automatically execute a series of operations.
.joroho.
Thanks for your suggestion joroho, I'll download and try that one, but my past experience with non-dedicated (not specific to the program) macro/actions software is not great.
Mouse recorders are particularly fraught with danger, the slightest difference in your display, after recording, can cause all kinds of problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Doug
Have you seen the Xortcuts Pro feature? Or were you looking for soemthing more?
Having more hot-key commands does help a lot, but not all functions have hot-keys available.
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Page Gallery ?
I think a Page Gallery would be extremely useful (where you could change the page order, remove intermediate pages, etc.)
However I already do my main work with the beta ...! I know this is a bit dangerous, but I like it so much !!!
kindly,
ivan
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Re: Page Gallery ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ivan louette
However I already do my main work with the beta ...! I know this is a bit dangerous, but I like it so much !!!
Not dangerous at all if you regularly save to a backup copy which you do anyway for important work ... don't you?
Improved multi monitor support works ...
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Of cpurse Raymond, you are right. But my work with Xara is not so important at the moment ;-) It will become more and more in some months when I will be ready to layout my texts and 3D illustrations and add some fancy Xara graphics and effects. And of course that was an incredible surprise for me yesterday to discover that I will be able to do the whole work with Xara !!! thanks to the Xara staff !!!
kindly,
ivan
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Here's something that really surprised me: A max of 9 files for recent files. OK, it's not the end of the world, but why build such measly uneccessary limits into the software?
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Charles, Thanks again for the many improvements. One thing many of us have been hoping for is multi-sided moulds. Can you comment whether that feature is even on the radar screen for Xara?
.joroho.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
pauland
Here's something that really surprised me: A max of 9 files for recent files. OK, it's not the end of the world, but why build such measly uneccessary limits into the software?
I've seen this all over, so I don't think it's a Xara specific thing. I think it has something to do with using MFC or some other GUI framework library. The list is always stored in the registry, so that might factor into it somehow as well.
Of course, the code to write a list of files to disk and read them back is about as trivial as things get (speaking as a developer), but there's probably a cognitive limit to how big a menu can get before it becomes hard to use (though I wouldn't put that number in the vicinity of 9, personally).
Like most people, I tend to store most of my files together with a single directory per project. I've worked with some software in the past that, besides providing you with a list of recently accessed files, also provides you with a list of paths that you've recently used as well, and picking them would open up a file dialog directly into that path, and set it as the current directory so that saves go there as well.
Something like that in Xara would be fairly handy.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Odat
I've seen this all over, so I don't think it's a Xara specific thing.
I think you're right - fireworks and PSP8 have a limit of ten. I'm always flitting about and it would be nice to have a longer list. I just assumed it was some arbitrary limit.
Never mind, no worries, Xara Ltd.
Paul
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
I'd really like more entries to the latest-list as well. 9 slots get so easily filled... not a biggie but would improve the workflow a bit.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Pro really shortens the work flow. The re-size, cursor control, etc., all help, many subtle improvements. The last three designs were done with the beta:
http://yantrayoga.typepad.com/noname/
The others on the web page were done using Xara Xtreme for Linux.
frank
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
I've been using the Pro version now for a few days and it works great! I had a project I worked on last year, a Christmas nativity paper model, that I was working on in Photoshop. Each little character was on a separate layer and I was trying to figure out how to put little tabs at the bottom of each figure so that you could fold them back and make them stand up. I wanted the tabs all the same size and then I wanted to shuffle the figures around to fit on one page.
That was my task and I was a bit "all thumbs" in PS. But then I remembered that Pro could import PSD files and so I opened my file in Xtreme and was easily able to complete my project! It was so easy!
For anyone interested, I will post the finished model on my site next week with a download link on the home page once it's finished. The artwork was done by a friend of mine.
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Two questions about the Pro version:
1. Do the new text enhancements include the feature to add bookmarks (links) against headings/text styles, that can then be used in a saved pdf file? With the new Text Areas and flowing text, it strikes me that this would be a logical progression, but haven't seen anyone mention it so far.
2. Within XPE in Xtreme there is a function to "Send to Windows Picture Viewer". Is it possible with the Pro version to "Send to Xara Xtreme Pro"?
Thanks,
Steve
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
I must be overlooking this but...how do you implement Pro to work with multiple monitors? Was that available with Xtreme?
thanks, DC
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ZEBtoonz
For anyone interested, I will post the finished model on my site next week with a download link on the home page once it's finished. The artwork was done by a friend of mine.
Okay, I am missing the three kings/wisemen and the camels.
And maybe an angel or two. ;)
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dennis Cox
I must be overlooking this but...how do you implement Pro to work with multiple monitors? Was that available with Xtreme?
thanks, DC
Could you be more specific? What do you mean by 'implement'? You can of course drag the window across two monitors right now. What did you have in mind that you want to do?
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Sorry, I got a little wordy, should have just written," How do I get Pro to work with multiple monitors" I didn't realize that I could pull Xara across 2 montors, I'll have to give it a try, thanks!
Dennis Cox
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Re: Xara Xtreme Pro - other improvements
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ankhor
Okay, I am missing the three kings/wisemen and the camels.
And maybe an angel or two. ;)
Sorry, Ankhor, these figures didn't make it on the sheet. Maybe next year I can post an extended version. BTW, it's on the site now.