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Xara Designer Pro education course learning and training resource
Attachment 109253
I'm happy to say there is now a full educational course available for Xara Designer Pro. This is something that has been requested on this forum several times over the years, but producing such an educational resource to a very high standard of quality is not a simple task. This video course principally walks through every feature and niche proclivity in the software, and is principally aimed at beginners who want to learn how Xara’s tools work and how to use them. Features and tools in the software are demonstrated from first principles so that people can then either get started, or start applying artistic drawing or design knowledge etc. they may already have. This course may also be good for people who want to learn about some less well-known features.
I’d recommend starting at my website (which has finally had a facelift): www.xhris.digitalred.net. Course content is listed and there are links to the main YouTube video playlist. Each video is lengthy and full of topics, and so has a very detailed time index to help viewing in bite-sized comfortable sittings, or for quick reference of particular features (the entire list can be text-searched from my website). Note that specific videos are likely to be replaced with updated / corrected versions over time, so I would recommend linking only to the main playlist to avoid dead links; the playlist is permanent.
This work is completely free and you’ll never see a request to “comment, rate, and subscribe”. Note that at the moment, it doesn’t cover any of the V11 features (it’s a V10 course), but I expect to produce an entirely new video course for V11 before October.
FYI, this course has taken me over a year to design and create (hence why it’s a V10 course). Hundreds of hours of work have gone into it. One of the most difficult challenges was designing a course structure that fully and logically covered all the features of such a large and complex piece of software; the written plan alone is over 12,000 words. This difficulty was compounded by there being no equivalent course elsewhere to base on; as far as I know, it’s the world’s first dedicated educational course for Xara software. It’s also a voluntary effort and not associated with Xara Ltd. in any way (they didn’t pay me or even ask for this). Technically, I could have written a book and sold it for cash, but fortunately I'm not money-driven and like to think I can set a higher standard.
If you want to contact me, I would recommend through YouTube.
Enjoy!
Xhris
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Re: Xara Designer Pro education course learning and training resource
That's a terrific gift, Chris. Thanks.
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Re: Xara Designer Pro education course learning and training resource
It's Christmas in August! I am watching Chapter 2 and I am hugely impressed. What a great resource! The index with all the different items is really useful.
I am not really sure whether to congratulate or thank you. Both, probably. =D>
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Thank you Xris A lot of work obviously went into this. I've made this thread sticky
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Re: Xara Designer Pro education course learning and training resource
Xhris, here's me been chipping away at the glacier and you've had the skill to craft an ice structure.
Gratefully received,
Acorn
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Very impressive. Kudos to you, Xhris!
Phil
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Top stuff Chris. Pity it can't be given something like the Adobe Accreditation through Xara to show skill levels. Becoming an Xara Certified Expert gives you a clear and focused way to tell the world about your expertise and communicate your proficiency in leading product from Xara. All that would look good from a perspective in today's job market and may if your lucky give Xara/Maagix products a boost in the industry. Still great work Chris, what a hero and a large task for no money
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Thank you Xhris. I will definitely be looking at that.
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That is a GREAT set of tutorials Xhris very informative and well done. Even with my hearing loss I was able to understand the commentary (which on some tutorials I can't )
Jim
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here's me right in the middle of upgrading three computers to various levels of win10, one of which is a bitch and I have no time to watch all these properly [sob] :D
but like everyone else I am awed at the work and commitment you have shown; I shall be back, thank you :)
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Really exceptional work. "Thank You" doesn't show just how much this is appreciated. The voice is nice and clear which does make a change on the tube.
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Amazing job.
Some of the lectures are pretty long. For V11 perhaps look at splitting very long sections into shorter segments. I don't think any course I have has a session longer than 15-20 minutes and single session stand-alone lectures are an hour or less.
I am amazed at your dedication. It's very impressive and I hate to think how long it took you to make these.
Bravo!
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I recall the excellent tutorial that you made in earlier versions of Xara Designer and they were always the ones that I looked for when a new release came out. I thought you had possibly left the Xara arena but now I see that is far from the case! Thank you for this fantastic gift.
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Great,thanks,Chris,
Another (re)source to point to if someone is in need for assistance
Hans
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Thank you Chris, i am one of your many fans.
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Good job, I did not see it but will take a look,. thanks for your time and effort making this. You can also add couple of videos the new feature of x11, won't be that much :-)
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I, too, would like to throw my hat into the ring. Thanks so, so much Chris. These videos, albeit long, are extremely well presented and flow seamlessly. I'd say on a level of Lynda or better.
Best
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My course is now V11 ready. Enjoy!
Some info and feedback:-
I worked intensely to try and get it out sooner (than was comfortable). I appreciate the thanks received so far; please let people know about this course if they have any questions about the software as they crop up in the future.
It has taken a good couple of weeks of solid work in my own time to carefully modify the course with the new content. Lots of subtle changes have been made since V10 which mean a lot of fine toothed combing through my detailed planning notes were needed to ensure old defunct material is removed and new material added such as to keep a seamless, sensible structure, and high quality content. I wasn’t prepared to just record some new V11 videos and lazily slap them on at the end.
Interestingly, I’d never heard of Lynda before…and it comes as no surprise to see they charge an arm and a leg for their courses. I could have easily cashed in and layered my pockets with green, but this was what I meant by setting a higher standard in my first post. Why limit my audience with a paywall for education that only cost me my spare time?
Video length seems to be the most common constructive critical feedback I've received. Two things to say about that. Firstly, unlike many of the courses on Lynda—which are more like tutorials or overview demos for specific tasks similar to my “tutorials” chapter—my course is a full, thorough, and complete educational course covering EVERY feature in a deceptively huge piece of software that is really the equivalent to a suite of products. I'm confident it’s not possible to significantly shorten course length without losing quality or content. Secondly, it’s not intended that anyone watch the entire course or even one of the larger chapter videos in one sitting, analogous to how you don’t watch the whole 7 season DVD boxset at once. Single videos are long because I wanted to avoid video clutter and a myriad of separate videos scattered everywhere—much like on Lynda (409 Photoshop courses, and 20,535 videos…lovely; not at all messy or bloated). The description on my website reflects this. One of the main reasons there is such a detailed time index (which, incidentally, took days of work in itself to do in a way that was also future proof), is so it can be used also as a content reference source. Want to learn about the fill tool? Search for and watch just the fill tool videos. Incidentally, the only reason I had to split chapters 2 and 4 into different parts is because YouTube imposes an arbitrary 5000 character limit on video descriptions. Only the core essentials of the software (e.g. selector tool and object handling) I’d recommend watching fully as a prerequisite. So I'm not that concerned that video length is really an issue beneath the surface.
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ooh good - now I can go straight there and not bother with the ver 10 at all; thanks again, much appreciated :):-bd
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You expected the video course to be v. 11 ready only by October. You outdid yourself again! Amazing job.
Suggestion though: I like the index but would like it even better if I could click a subject and go straight to the respective video. This might be too much to ask for but I thought I try anyway..... ;)
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If you can figure out a way to do that given that I can't link to a specific video (as they will be deleted frequently if an update is needed--only the playlist is constant), then let me know. You can't copy the YouTube hyperlinked text, as it doesn't copy any time links;I tried.
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I am sure you have thought of everything Xhris. It was just a thought and a wish to have direct access to the video segments. What about Xara, couldn't they host your work? So many people post questions on TG that they could easily find an answer to in your course.
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and i just two days ago watched the two sections on web design to attempt to use Xara to build a new website in order to replace my Frankenstein'd website i quickly threw together several years ago
now you're tellin' me V11 vids are out :D :D :D
seriously good vids! it's easy to navigate to what is needed and as long as they contain pertinent info and are easy to understand (visually and audibly) i don't care how long they are. well done, bro, well done
...off to watch two more website vids, V11 style....
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Xhris, a great big THANK YOU from me too. I think I've watched nearly all the video's you produced in the early years of me using Xara, and always been amazed at your skill in passing on your knowledge. I am looking forward to watching the whole course ... but as you say, probably not in one go.
Thank you again.
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Xhris first of all thanks that you so much love Xara..
Your vids can be with any lengths I like them, their tematical separation is great resource also in the case when someone need to focus on a topic to complete a certain task. For example I forgot quite much the web design and here can be found in one if needed
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Fantastic resource Xhris, real quality work. Very much appreciate all you hard work.
Regards, Peter
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I came across some concern about volume, so I've re-rendered the quieter parts in all videos (recorded before I understood how to use a mic properly it would seem... -.-). Now older-ear friendly :) Also updated website partly based on feedback.
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Xhris,
Just wanted to say that I used your learning resource to find out how to correct a link problem for my website redesign. I know I could of looked it up in the manual but it would of taken a lot more time to find the different sections to find what part I need correct. Your video showed what I need and explained where I need to look to correct the colors for my links that where not showing up right.
Thanks for the resource.
Rkissane
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Amazing, outstanding work you have done there! I salute to you!
One thing, you may want to add more keywords in YouTube to find your videos. I have entered "xara software learning course" which returned your course on the 14th hit. Such an amazing resource should be on the first hit.
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I have found the parts I have gotten through so far to be very helpful. Have learned a lot about the software. Thanks for your work. =D>
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I've viewed just one segment and learnt stuff already - seriously, I'll have to go back and watch from the start again. There's so much detail in there I just can't believe it. Your commentary is very professional too, you had to have written scripts and practised the delivery. I'll bet there were many hours of video editing involved as well. All I can say is Congratulations and Thanks for this fantastic resource. Very professional! =D>=D>
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Nostaw
One thing, you may want to add more keywords in YouTube to find your videos. I have entered "xara software learning course" which returned your course on the 14th hit...
Thanks. I've added permutations of that search criteria to the keywords of all videos; hopefully search hits will improve.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jaydear
...you had to have written scripts and practised the delivery...
No scripts; just a succinct plan then improvised delivery, similar to giving a presentation/public speaking or something. The out-takes are 18-rated unfortunately...
And yes it took hundreds of hours of work over a year to create this for everyone. >.<
Thanks
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I am new to this program, and never had the version 10, so i have no idea how similar your tutorials are.
Would you estimate a percentage of how much of it would be applicable to version 11
Thanks
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Re: Xara Designer Pro education course learning and training resource
What a fantastic resource thank you so much!
I have been a user of Xara for over 2 years now and have learned ways of achieving results that are probably not as good as they could be and definitely take longer than they should!
I am going to discipline myself and work through your course from the beginning, the only problem I think of is that like Homer Simpson - 'every time I learn something new, it pushes old stuff our of my brain!'
Thanks again
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Hi,
That is a FANTASTIC collection of instructions!! Beats 'bumbling' yer way through Xara for a newbie! GREAT work!!
Jim
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This is wonderful and very much appreciated. What a lot of work. WOW!
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A big thanks from me too. What a huge task! Even though I've only had a quick glance so far, I can tell your videos are just what I need for a quick start on the web side of things.
Hope you don't mind but I have a small query, (it's probably just me), but in Chapter 5: Presentations (0:29:41 MOUSE INTERACTIVITY: Advanced layer commands), I think you refer to another tutorial with further details, but I'm not exactly sure which one to look at. Thanks.
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Re: Xara Designer Pro education course learning and training resource
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jonopen
...in Chapter 5: Presentations (0:29:41 MOUSE INTERACTIVITY: Advanced layer commands), I think you refer to another tutorial with further details, but I'm not exactly sure which one to look at. Thanks.
Yes, sorry. I called them "advanced POPUP layer commands" on my time index. Chapter 4 (2/2) 0:31:10 advanced popup layer commands.
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Ah ha that explains it. I was in a hurry and used Find (Ctrl-F) 'Advanced layer' so it didn't show in the search results. I'll take a look at the video later. Thanks again.