With some more sites and nicely responsive.
why?
i cant believe it, that somebody seriously use xara for webpages, in the times of wordpress, typo3, joomla ....
but may be im wrong.
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With some more sites and nicely responsive.
why?
i cant believe it, that somebody seriously use xara for webpages, in the times of wordpress, typo3, joomla ....
but may be im wrong.
A ton of websites can be seen in the sample section of the magix products website.
u have a link?
i only find templates.
First of all the tools you you use make little difference to whether the end-product is a good website or not. It's the person using the tool that determines whether it's a great website or not.
Don't blame Xara for bad designs and don't mention Wordpress because a website that uses it has a good design.
Just because you don't wish to use Xara to make websites because it is adaptive and not responsive it's not cool to disparage others that do.
I don't use Xara for websites, but I think I understand why people do.
The user base of Xara is predominately hobbyist, with some semi-professionals and a handful of professionals. There are a lot of professionals in non-design fields that use Xara to promote themselves.
The Xara user base likes it because of all or any of these reasons:
- it's a one-stop shop
- they like the price
- they find it easy to use
- they like the user community
- they used Xara for artwork and just extended that to web pages
- they are used to Xara and can't be bothered with learning new software
- they don't want to learn to use multiple programs and then integrate everything into a single web builder.
- they want to design free-form rather than through templates that need CSS/HTML tweaks
- they are happy with the Xara template library and don't want to create unique designs
- they like the ease of FTP transfer
- they like the hosting
- they don't need dynamic web pages designed through templates.
- their sites are static.
So, I understand it.
I don't use it because I too prefer responsive sites and like to assemble web pages not design them free-form.
Please do knock people who do use the software, there are plenty of reason why they do and reasons why we don't. I think we know there are a lot of reasons not to use Xara, but if these aren't of concern to anyone, they can be happy.
Xara software is a compromise.
typo there paul in last but one line I think, should be Please do not ?
Every software is a compromise.
and yes, i know this all.
but still haven't seen any page in the wild www.
or any body using
https://www.xt-cms.com/
?
I use Xara for very serious Intranet websites where other products can not be used.
Not every site has to be a CMS and in a defined business enterprise not every page has to be responsive.
Most products fail accessibility needs, which is why I bang on to Xara about web standards but I am equally disparaging elsewhere.
Xara outputs can be delivered across multiple environments will little payload and integration concerns.
That is the type of responsive I need.
Acorn
Unless I am missing something here, it is not the software but the skill of the designer that makes a great website. The best software in the world is useless by itself.
Xara has limitations. It is not designed for e-commerce. Yes you can work with shopping cart add-ons, but not natively. Xara is tiresome with large websites.
But for small to medium size websites Xara is terrific. I work in Designer Pro so there almost everything I need is right there for me. I can design a website and in the same window work on custom graphics, nav bars, edit photos, without having to leave the program.
I have seen over the years many really excellent websites created in Xara. Clean, effective, attractive, and content that is informative and easy to access. At the same time I have seen sites created in other programs that are overworked, gimmicky, hard to navigate and hard to find the appropriate content.
It all comes down to the designer and his skill using the tools at hand. Just like a great painter.
Could I suggest gwpriester.com
I really do not want to brag by showing my work. But here are few client sites done with xara.
www.clearsoundhearing.ca
www.minirinx.com
I don't believe it is bragging giving the OP what he is looking for! Looked at both sites and thought they are both good examples of what can be done, I wish my sites were good enough examples that I felt like offering them up but they are to simple. Thank you for offering up good examples and that goes for Gary's site also!
I've tried a few other site creation tools, including WordPress (which I find one of the more annoying and fiddly ones), but keep reverting back to Xara. I honestly can't say why, but it's my go to. I only use WP when the customer wants a CMS solution. I'm never satisfied with the end results when using WP, although that's my lack of enthusiasm rather than a WP fault.
https://lukemumby.com.au/
'Responsive design' is quite silly as a concept. At what point is someone going to literally load up a website on a pc then suddenly shoot it over their cell phone? You're really designing two sites and of those two sites, you'll be doing two different things. I don't want to read a long diatribe if I'm on a phone and I don't want to watch some stupid presentation if I'm on my underpowered PC (seriously there's a lot of websites that kick my fan on these days because they just waste resources to put words on screen...it's madenning).
Overall, the internet's design philosophies make absolutely no sense. It's like...imagine releasing a Shakespear play IN FULL and every sentence is a separate page complete with a pop up book. That's how the internet generally operates on a technical level. It's absurd.
Seriously, just make two sites. You can still reuse assets in a folder by both mobile and desktop versions.
Sorry, I just used this space to harp on about how web-browsers, designers, languages, etc. all of it is just absolutely hackey garbage by a tech pop culture that'd rather market themselves than actually design anything worth more than a pile of dog poo.
Err.. no! Absolutely not!
Err.. yes! Absolutely!Quote:
At what point is someone going to literally load up a website on a pc then suddenly shoot it over their cell phone? You're really designing two sites and of those two sites, you'll be doing two different things.
So how can you be wrong, completely wrong and then right?
First of all responsive websites adapt to the width they have available. The elements making up the website will adapt their widths according to the size of the container in which they fit. Some of those elements may have a fixed size or be a fixed ratio. So if a user resizes the browser, typically the text in a text box will reflow to adjust to the size available. The page height may get longer or shorter. It's not WYSIWYG. In Xara the adaptive approach means the text size is fixed and will not reflow because the page is a fixed size.
Now imagine a design that had a text box with a long passage of text that occupied the page width. That would look great on a mobile phone in portrait orientation. It would look terrible on a desktop with great long lines of text - very hard to read.
Some HTML frameworks control the layout. So a desktop design with four horizontal elements would present them stacked one on top of another in a mobile design and if they were text, they would fill the available width.
So responsive design can work superbly within a framework and with some control over minimum width etc.
Not only do responsive designs adapt to the width of the browser, they don't used fixed positioning like Xara, so they adapt to the width and the elements flow.
Now to your second point, which is really the reason for your opening comment..
As you say a mobile design should not incorporate the same elements as a desktop version - I agree completely. Xara makes this possible by using variants to switch fixed size designs according to the browser width. Fine.
What I think you are missing is that responsive designs can do exactly the same! Responsive designs do that by switching designs in exactly the same way Xara does by using media queries to present different responsive page designs according to page width breakpoints.
https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_rwd_mediaqueries.asp
So I hope you'll change your mind about the evil of responsive design. It's not one design suits all devices.
[ I have no clue about the rest of your rant! Made no sense to me. ]
Paul - While I more often than not are on the same page with you, I respectfully disagree.
Yes, it is a swell idea for a design to adjust to the width of the browser. But my guess is only a tiny fraction of web designers can really pull this off with a design that looks good at any width. So most responsive sites may look best at certain widths, but they might look like a dog's breakfast at other widths.
If you design 2 or three variants, then the browser can select the most appropriate for that width and the design integrity will remain true to the designer's design.
To be sure this requires more work on the part of the designer. But the text that looks great on a full screen browser might not look as great on my wife's iPhone SE. And the amount of text might be appropriate for a large browser but look more like Proust on a cell phone.
I am not doing a lot of web design these days. But when I do, I prefer to edit and tailor the content to the device as a means of retaining control over my design.
You are an excellent designer, Paul and I respect that. As we used to say back in the 60s, Different strokes for different folks :)
Gary please read my post again!
Responsive design does not mean using one design for all sizes.
responsive design means adapting to the available space, so a media query is used to switch between alternative responsive designs.
My designs are responsive, but they usually have three versions to cater for mobile, tablet and desktop.
In my post above is a link that demonstrates how it works.
Xara uses fixed placement, my designs use a flow so some parts are identical between all widths because the layout framework I use will stack elements. It’s very different to Xara.
We actually agree - different designs for different widths. Responsive design does not mean one-size-fits-all.
@Gypsyjoe ;)) thanks
Well. I'm sorry, but yes, you are wrong.
www.clinicaverissimo.com
Now, let me tell about me and why I must say xara is a great website tool maker.
In 1st place I must say I never had experience in web design, graphics, etc
One day I thought to hire someone to make me a web page for my dental clinic in Portugal. It was a financial nightmare, time wasting, and it was never as I want.
So I decided to buy "something" I could say to the web designer what and how I wanted. When I found Xara I tried 1st all those tools you mention, but all I found too technical. I had no time and knowledge to do my self a website (I thought) so I used Xara only to communicate with the web designer.
With Time, and when I get more in to it, I realise I was actually building all the website I close the huge account with the webdesigner and moved on.
Now the best part just type in google search " clinica dentaria em Oeiras, portugal " (in Portuguese) That is a general search to who needs a dentist in my region (there are a bunch of them) but I guess you will find my clinic in 1st page and in Maps section. What I mean is a amateur could work the SEO in xara.
Well, all this to say, maybe a professional that works with scrip and dedicates his life and work to web design, may have better tools than Xara, I do not doubt it. But yes, is a great tool and can be used to do great websites, fast, simple, clear and also permit to do a lot of design.
Cheers
Verissimo - Bravo!
:-bd
My take on the definition of a good website is very utilitarian. The worst websites are like the worst commercials. You remember the commercial but not the product. Simplicity facilitates communication and, consequently, action. I've used about 5 different programs beginning with hand coded sites in the early '90s. WordPress and most CMS programs are not website programs. They are blogging programs and they force the designer to conform to unnecessary engineering constraints. Just try moving your logo 3 pixels and you'll see what I mean. The other constraint is the code itself. Try moving a WordPress site to another domain, let alone a new directory. Try controlling the look and ease of purchase of your products when they are constrained by the complexity of WooCommerce. My skills are far inferior to the more talented and learned moderators and contributors on this site, but I fully agree that quality comes from the designer, not the program. My only caveat is that every site is competing with every other site for the attention of viewers. To that end, if a site design forces a viewer to conform and thus interfere with a viewer's engagement then it has failed. It's a harsh standard but so is the internet. IMHO :)
Just noticed this was posted in the Xara Graphics Chat forum. Moving to Xara Web Design Chat forum.
I don't know if this is a great site but I have been happy with it. It's my personal design site http://www.gwpriester.com/index.html
There are a lot of effects that I created using many of Xara's features.
https://hudsonriverinlay.com/
This is a responsive site BTW.
Still a work in progress (I'm currently working on improving the nav menu) but made almost entirely with Xara and a few plugins.
I've tried a lot of software over the years and no drag and drop editor has the wysiwyg precision of Xara.
Yes there are missing features to be worked out and worked around but every software I've ever used has had issues.
Dreamweaver, Wordpress, Bootstrap Studio, WYSIWYG Web Builder, I've used them all.
Gary, I plugged your site in post #11 ... did you not notice?
Notice what? :rolleyes:Quote:
Gary, I plugged your site in post #11 ... did you not notice?
Yes, but my memory is going down the toilet.
PRMAN Great site. It does exactly what a good website should do. Make it easy for the visitor to get to the content. And lovely presentation of the wood artwork.
I think the original question has been answered several times over, I have seen several GREAT Webpages/Websites I know Xara can create such. My website wouldn't be great so I won't put a link, but that has to do with the creator and not Xara. I think that is the point in this whole matter, it is the creator and some are true artists.
My site and some others that I've done. Not a designer but Xara makes it simple to create your own site without templates like in Wordpress:
https://www.actionitcs.com/
http://www.annespencer.com.au/
http://www.norselec.com.au/
http://www.allsafe.biz/
http://www.astrotecdesign.com/
Very nice work actionit.
Ironically, allsafe.biz sets off Malwarebytes.
Nice site! I also loved the art gallery one I saw earlier. All the sites posted here are great.
My own small offering (and I'm not techy as we're finding on another thread) is https://historicedinburghtours.co.uk/ The mobile version has issues but that's for another place.
What I find isn't so much that Xara will build you a nice looking website, it won't. What it does do really well, IMHO, is build you any site that you see that you want. That's the key thing for me. If I see a website out there that I like, I pretty much know I can use ideas from it/all of it in my own Xara design.
My 'wish list' for Xara would be full screen web video headers and an easy password protected area, but those aren't crucial.
One thing really surprises me about this site - no video.
I imagine that Robert is a great speaker or he wouldn't get such good reviews, so why doesn't this site showcase him talking about himself, how wonderful Edinburgh is and introduce a synopsis of each tour so people can choose what they would like to do?
Seems sad to waste the talents of a gifted orator who shouldn't be shy in front of a camera.
Paul
Thank you kindly! That's me btw (I'm a one-man-does-almost-everything operation). The video adverts are filmed and ready to go up online. They 'should' have been there weeks ago but I redid the website, then lockdown happened and I had to switch to do online tours and now I'm having problems with the mobile site. They're all sitting there ready to get finished and posted!
Thank you for the comments.
Robert (Forrest - my middle name) Howie
http://www.mheinc.com
I'm the engineer for this company and I sideline as the webmaster, using Xara. Xara is perfect for us.