Report and suggestions after Xara Free Trial experience

Alas, my trial of Xara has just expired.
I used it to do some of my professional work with (including a big colouring job of an existing black and white image for a textbook, enjoyed doing that using Xara's "shape builder tool" and a Wacom tablet). Here are my thoughts on Xara, for what they're worth. (Some of the features that I couldn't figure out or had trouble with, might exist – f they do please enlighten me. Also, I didn't have time to try everything or read up on everything – 30 days go by very quickly when you're having fun with Xara... and trying to work at the same time.)

Things I really like about Xara (I liked most things about Xara):
[Unfortunately, I had to cut this out as my post was too long to be accepted by the forum software... there are so many things to like about Xara.]

Things I didn't like:

• Can't save palettes (maybe you can but I couldn't figure it out, although one can save a document templatee which saves your colours if you switch off the "discard unused colours" setting in the control panel);
• The colour bar only has one row (this is a real problem when you have lots of colours in it, for instance when you choose to have one of the Pantone palettes show in the colour bar);
• Colour mixer takes a bit of getting used to, seems a bit unwieldy at first;
• If you change the settings so that right-clicking on a colour selects the outline colour rather than presenting a colour menu, there seems to be no other way of accessing that colour menu (at least I didn't have a chance to figure it out);
• Align control box is also a bit clumsy, but one gets used to it;
• Snapping doesn't seem to work when using the shape editor tool;
• One can't adjust whether an outline sits inside, half in-half out, or outside the bounds of an object;
• The "pen tool" is to all intents and purposes completely hidden (only gets a brief mention at the bottom of a page in the help file). This is a big oversight. It should be sitting right next to the shape editor tool on the main toolbox. If you are tracing an image with lots of curvy lines (such as a map with contour lines as I attempted) you can't rely on the shape editor tool, you need a more traditional bezier tool like the "pen tool" to be efficient. The "pen tool" needs to be given all the same functionality that the shape editor tool has;
• If you left-click on an object and hold for longer than a millisecond a duplicate object is created (often useful, but also often irritating when one didn't want a duplicate)�one must be able to change the time required to hold an object before a duplicate is made. (I posted separately about this and it seems drop copies are not supposed to occur with left-clicking, so it must have been a problem with my computer/Xara/mouse settings).

Features Xara definitely needs:

• The main thing I missed in Xara is the ability to fit (or flow) text into a shape. This is essential if you're doing "design" work as opposed to "illustration" work. Essential to such a feature would be the ability to control the margin distance between the edge of the shape and the edge of the text. Perhaps one way of dealing with this would be to make the paragraph text boxes alterable with the shape editor tool and to give paragraph text boxes a margin setting. I tried the text repel tool, but that is only feasible if you have one item in which text must fit, but as soon as you have several items, then it becomes untenable, as any adjustment to the shapes become a time-consuming and energy sapping saga.
• The alignment feature should be tweaked so that, for example, if you want to align objects, the object you select last is the one that all the other objects align to. In most instances, this would save one having to choose between aligning to selection, or aligning to background object (is the object that I want to align the other objects to, behind the others?). In connection with this one should also be able to set keyboard shortcuts for left, right, top, bottom, and centre align. Besides selecting colours, moving and resizing objects, aligning is the next most frequent task that I do when working in vector programs. So it seems essential to me that this is made easy to do. (CorelDraw does this, at least the old version I'm familiar with)
• One should have the option to view non-printing (invisibles) characters such as spaces, line breaks, tabs, etc when working with text.
• One should be able to choose whether one can create objects when your currently selected layer is locked or hidden. Currently one can create objects but gets a message telling one the object was created on a locked or hidden layer. Then one has to unlock or show the layer and move the object to the layer you really want it on. This is quite irritating. It would be better if one wasn't allowed to create objects on locked or hidden layers.
• It would be useful, once you have "expanded" or broken a 3D object apart, if it broke up into vector shapes, and not a bitmap (AI and Inkscape do this.) Also, if you group objects and apply 3D to them, it's a pity they all assume one colour along the side of the extrusion. Often one groups the objects so that they all align when they've been extruded, not so that they all take on the same colour. Try making a 3D pie chart or stacked graph with the 3D tool as it is at the moment. Very difficult.
• The ability to independently control the curve of each corner of a rounded rectangle (as you can with CorelDraw).
• The ability to create object styles.

Nice to have:

• The ability to save text styles (and object styles if they become available) so one can pull them into other documents.
• If one could drag and drop a colour from the color palette onto the UI to change the UI colour, just as one can drag and drop colour onto a page or work board.
• It would be nice to see the size indicators on the tool bar when one is adjusting objects via their nodes using the shape editor tool.

Now I have to carefully weigh up whether I should invest my hard earned cash in Xara and become a fully fledged Xaraist. The main thing that I must consider is the exportability of documents to a world in which the majority are using AI :-( . The thing with PDFs is they always seem to break up the text. Otherwise I'm very tempted to become a Xaraist.
Xara makes vector work and design fun again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M.U.D.

Things I really like about Xara (I liked most things about Xara):
[Unfortunately, I had to cut this out as my post was too long to be accepted by the forum software... there are so many things to like about Xara.]

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Well then, I'd suggest making a second post - it's free and most of us like to hear what new users like about the software we like a lot too ;)

Things I really like about Xara (I liked most things about Xara):

Left and right-click to select fill and outline colour;

Ability to modify the nudge distance using combinations of shift, alt and ctrl keys;

Drop copy (right-click and drag, or "+" button while left-click dragging);

Cut and paste opacity masks (what a pleasure);

Soft groups (grouping across layers without moving the objects out of their layers, although it does seem to hamper the alignment tool, especially "distribute centres");

Cut and pasting objects as bullets;

Cutting and pasting objects as text characters;

Ease with which buttons and control panels can be dragged around and customised;

Ability to create short cuts to view Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black plates (makes it easy to check your overprint settings, although it would be nice if you could have shortcut to "Show Printer Colors" or if one could save a template that has "Show Printer Colors" as the default colour view setting);

Crisp snapping;

Quick access to feather control;

Ability to drag colours via the names (or was it via the colours gallery?) gallery from one document to the other;

All the paste options (paste attribute, paste location, paste opacity, etc);

The Help file is very good, and I like the fact that one doesn't have to go on the Internet to access the Help file;

At first I wasn't sure about the black UI, but actually came to like it, and now other "grey" interfaces seem really grey and dull.

Love the fact that text that doesn't fit into a paragraph box still shows – as a light grey (I can see this saving one lots of hassles�I'm sure many have experienced the embarrassing scenario of trying to explain to a client why text is missing when working in one of the competitor's vector programs, because you had simply tweaked a paragraph text box to improve the design and thereby inadvertently and unknowingly lost a line of text);

Ability to easily crop and colour adjust raster images;

Ability to pull at the edges of a page to resize them (although if one could also pull the top and left sides, that would be even more fantastic!)

The names gallery is quite useful, seems to fulfill some of the functions that AI's "select similar" menu provides (select text objects, select same fill, select same outline, etc).

When you have a rectangle with curved/rounded corners, you can drag one side of the rectangle to change its length or width and the curved corners don't become distorted or change their curve setting

Ease with which arrowheads can be applied to lines (illustrators often need to apply labels to their illustrations, and arrows are essential for this).

Editing nodes and control handles (when using shape editor tool) that are distinct and visible (unlike other programs where you need magnifying glasses to find them).

... And of course the Xara TalkGraphics Forum is terrific! Friendly and helpful atmosphere.

Another feature Xara should have is the ability to convert an ordinary text object to a paragraph text object and vice versa.

Hi MUD, you have made some very good points in what you don't like about Xara. Some such as the alignment dialogue, and the objects on hidden layers warning have been asked about many times on the forums. (if I had a dollar for every time I've accidentally pasted an object on a hidden layer...)

There are some work arounds you may find interesting, If you are using Designer Pro you can use the button pallet (window>control bars> button bar) and hold down the Alt Key to drag any button from the palette to your tool bars.

There is a free utility available in the Xara Xone Archives on the Shareware page that you can use to create a .pal colour palette which can be added to the colour gallery, you can also use .aco colour palettes in Xara.

I thought Mud's comments were valid if I was coming from Illustrator. Nothing stated was incorrect! I could nit pick in a few points but those are small like the colour bar when using Pantone and saving as template to keep the so called color palette. All that I can say is a big thank you and cannot understand why he didn't mention anything about brushes.

Good points!

I like that you have taken the time to write the features you find good.
Here's another attempt to summarize good aspects of the program, from the perspective of illustration .

The name gallery is much more flexible than Illustrator's selection filter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M.U.D.

[*]If you left-click on an object and hold for longer than a millisecond a duplicate object is created (often useful, but also often irritating when one didn't want a duplicate)�one must be able to change the time required to hold an object before a duplicate is made. (I posted separately about this and it seems drop copies are not supposed to occur with left-clicking, so it must have been a problem with my computer/Xara/mouse settings).[/LIST]

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I strongly suspect an OS related thing, like hold+click 3 seconds to right-click in the tablet pc settings.
It's usually right-click + drag to duplicate in Xara.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M.U.D.

makes vector work and design fun again.

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Indeed!!


Intuitiveness and continuity in a software appears easy but takes a lot more time to articulate than just bunching features on top of one another.
Many developers choose not to dwell too much upon this aspect.


Marc

Thanks for the responses to my Xara Trial Report.



Thanks to Frances (Angelize) for her tips on how to create custom palettes in Xara (.aco and .pal palettes).



Albacore was wondering why I didn't mention brushes. Funnily enough shortly after my trial ended I was using a rough textured charcoal brush in Illustrator

and wondering whether one could create similar organic lines and brush strokes in Xara. There was a limited selection of brushes in the Xara trial. Are more

brushes supplied once one buys the Xara software? I noticed that one can create one's own brushes. I would be interested to hear experienced Xara users'

comments on this feature and Xara brushes in general. Can one save one's own custom-made brushes? Also, can one create usable custom dashed

lines? I only fiddled with this a little bit but without much success.



Marc, thanks for the link to your list of Xara virtues. I agree with your comments about intuitiveness and continuity. And I think they are important

observations. After my trial I sense that Xara has a major advantage over its competitors, despite lacking many of their features, because they are paying attention to intuitiveness and continuity.

Working with graphics software all day is exhausting. At the beginning of a work day or session, one is fresh and has the energy to seek out menus,

sub-menus, hidden menus, tools and functions (like Illustrator's ridiculously hidden transform menu!) and to do repetitive tasks, but as the day progresses one has

less energy and patience and wants to achieve results with the minimum amount of clicks possible and with the minimum pondering where to find a tool or

trying to distinguish one tool button from another. (Actually, I feel exhausted just thinking about Illustrator.) Add a nasty deadline and the scenario is more

fraught. Graphics software developers should keep the stressed-out, deadline-haunted end user upper most in mind when they develop their software. A good example of intuitiveness in Xara is when you

create a new layer, the name field automatically opens allowing one to easily give the new layer a name (although in my trial version this was slightly

impeded because a right-click menu also opened automatically, and it had to be removed by pressing the 'Escape' key before I could enter the layer

name). In Illustrator CS4, for example, you have to double click on a new layer in order to

give it a name... and this becomes very irritating and enervating throughout the course of a busy day.



Xara could further enhance the intuitiveness and continuity of their software by making the text-styles menu available in the buttons palette. One could

then

drag the text-styles menu onto a toolbar of one's choice, making it visible all the time (at the moment the text-styles menu is only visible when the text tool

is selected). One could then simply select a text object and change its style with the ordinary select tool (select text object and click on text-style menu

which is visible in your custom toolbar). This would save

one the extra click or two needed to activate the text tool in order to show the text styles menu (and thereby minimise the enervation/irritation factor even

more). See a related thread dealing with the new text fly-out menu here.

(As a matter of interest, when using graphics software, do other people find annoying the

procedure one has to go through to escape from a text object when one is working with a text tool, and similarly when you want to move from working on one text

object to another? (Inkscape is very good at the latter.)



Another way Xara could help to minimise the enervation/irritation factor, would be the ability to drag colours from the colour mixer onto the colour bar

instead of

having to go through the clumsy and somewhat confusing save-new-colour-procedure (perhaps one can, and I simply didn't figure it out).


I see on the Xara website that when you buy the Designer Pro X software a graph-making widget becomes available. Does this create vector graphs that

can be further manipulated and enhanced or does it merely create a graph that is only visible in web browsers (a jpeg/png or script generated graph)?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M.U.D.

I see on the Xara website that when you buy the Designer Pro X software a graph-making widget becomes available. Does this create vector graphs that can be further manipulated and enhanced or does it merely create a graph that is only visible in web browsers (a jpeg/png or script generated graph)?

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This is a widget that creates js scripts and, except for the data variables, cannot be edited from within DPX.

In answer to your questions about brushes, Xara can only create brushes where the brush object is repeated along the path, and if your brush object is a complex group it can bog the program down. They can be useful though in some situations and you can create your own brushes and save them as a Xara document, so you could have a document with a set of brushes for a certain purpose, for example I have one that contains a set of brushes for doing clouds, smoke etc. and I just open that document to load the brushes and they will show in the brushes list.

Xara's brushes do need improvement, and I think that's what Albacore was getting at, brushes that are stretched along the path have long been asked for on the forums and certain types of transparencies don't work with brushes.

Re: Brushes

What I do is use Microsoft Expression 3, the free version, then I draw/paint in that application. I cut and paste the object into Illustrator CS6, then I cut and paste it into Xara. Cut and pasting from Expression into Xara produces a bitmap rather than a vector. I use Illustrator as a 'go-between' for Xara and Expression. It's a real pain, but until Xara can emulate what Expression does, this is my process. I would use brushes more in Xara, but they're too limited to be be practical for anything beyond variations of basic repetitions.

Hi Sheff,

Have you tried exporting from MS Expression 3 as a pdf and then importing to Xara? BTW--You might be interested to know that MS Expression Design is being phased out. Look here: http://expression.microsoft.com/en-US/ If you scroll down you will see that they are also giving MS Expression Design 4 for free.

Cheers,