Xara Web Designer MX Premium 8 Video Tutorials and Xara Web Designer 7 Premium

Dear Talk Graphics Users,

I wanted to let everyone know that I have made some great video tutorials on using Xara Web Designer MX Premium 8 and also Xara Web Designer 7 Premium in fact I have 70+ tutorials. I just uploaded a tutorial on positioning objects using the "position on page fixed and footer" option a new feature in Xara Web Designer 8 MX Premium. You can also view all tutorials starting with Xara Web Designer 7 Premium, which will transition into Xara Web Designer 8 Premium as you go through video series.

I hope your New Years is going well and wish you great success in 2013!

Sincerely,

Champ

Lot of good instructive work there. Thanks.

I watched quite a few of your videos just last week. Thank you very much for sharing.

Would be really cool if we could fix with a percentage. Like if I wanted a Facebook link to always show on the left hand side of my page, 50% of the way up from the bottom. Seems like we are ALMOST there with this feature but just not quite. :-(

I was already subscribed.
These tutorials were very useful for me as I just started out with this software.
Thanks!

Hello There, I just came across your posting of the tutorials I have just started to watch them. They are very informative and very well laid out. I just bought designer 7 premium and is very daunting at first. I was only buying the program to make a banner to add text and pictures and your explanation of all the tools, text tools shaping tools so far is really great to find the extra functions available. Also the other things in the previous lessons.
I'm a quadriplegic and have asked some help on doing a couple of things with this program and a tutorial is come in very handy for me is difficult to read manuals and PDF files are not much better trying to go through each subject.

Thank you so much for going to the trouble of making these tutorials, it helps me greatly regards Mark

Fabulous Champ! You have certainly put in a lot of effort in preparing these tutorials. They are easy to follow and very informative. Thanks very much. Cheers, Abi

Champ, thanks for some very good information. I am just starting out with xara web creation and can use all of these videos. Bring them on.
Choctaw

No Problem your welcome!

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

Lot of good instructive work there. Thanks.

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I'm amazed at the overwhelming responses wasn't expecting that many people to notice the post right away. I waited a little while to see if people liked the tutorials I'm really glad they were helpful!

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Originally Posted by Wegg

Would be really cool if we could fix with a percentage. Like if I wanted a Facebook link to always show on the left hand side of my page, 50% of the way up from the bottom. Seems like we are ALMOST there with this feature but just not quite. :-(

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Originally Posted by Craray

I was already subscribed.
These tutorials were very useful for me as I just started out with this software.
Thanks!

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Great! You made a good choice Xara is one of the best design programs available their really isn't anything else out their quite like it.

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Originally Posted by wheels

Hello There, I just came across your posting of the tutorials I have just started to watch them. They are very informative and very well laid out. I just bought designer 7 premium and is very daunting at first. I was only buying the program to make a banner to add text and pictures and your explanation of all the tools, text tools shaping tools so far is really great to find the extra functions available. Also the other things in the previous lessons.
I'm a quadriplegic and have asked some help on doing a couple of things with this program and a tutorial is come in very handy for me is difficult to read manuals and PDF files are not much better trying to go through each subject.

Thank you so much for going to the trouble of making these tutorials, it helps me greatly regards Mark

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Your Welcome!

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Originally Posted by Abikadabra

Fabulous Champ! You have certainly put in a lot of effort in preparing these tutorials. They are easy to follow and very informative. Thanks very much. Cheers, Abi

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Your Welcome!

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Originally Posted by Choctaw

Champ, thanks for some very good information. I am just starting out with xara web creation and can use all of these videos. Bring them on.
Choctaw

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No Problem I will keep making new tutorials as long as I continue to get new subscribers and feedback such as comments and so on to let me know what the viewers want me to create. If you would like to see a specific type of tutorial just let me know.

hi first of all a big thank you to champ for these superb tutorials - you have put a lot of effort into them well done - just one thing I have just watched number 12 (layers) and you say all new layers should be dragged inbetween the mouseoff and mouseover layers ?? is this correct as I have never done that and never had a problem or is it just a preference thing ??

keep up the good work - cheerz

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Originally Posted by trukkerz

hi first of all a big thank you to champ for these superb tutorials - you have put a lot of effort into them well done - just one thing I have just watched number 12 (layers) and you say all new layers should be dragged inbetween the mouseoff and mouseover layers ?? is this correct as I have never done that and never had a problem or is it just a preference thing ??

keep up the good work - cheerz

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Its more of a strong recommendation than an absolute have to do thing. The Mouse-Over layer is for revealing hidden objects so placing something above a hidden layer is somewhat counter-intuitive. I think having it between the mouse-off and mouse-over layers to keep everything organized is better and will lead to less errors. Also the Mouse-Over layers is a special layer and you don't want to accidentally change the name thinking it is an ordinary layer. So by keeping the special layer for mouse-off at bottom and mouse-over at the top it lessens that chance of causing errors in your web design site. In other words any layers you create in between those layers will be layers you created and named. You could have multiple layers that have different names and if your mouse-over layer is mixed in with those names it is very easy to make a mistake and re-name it. In general I don't think it is a good practice to put static content or stationary content above a mouse-over layer. I may have to add a note of clarification though to the video so thanks for the insight.

mmm thanks for that i will have to give that some thought - although I have never came across it before it sounds logical but I would of thought keeping the mouseoff and mouseover layers together reduces the risk of renaming them unless that is just me - keep up the good work :-)

I have just watched the tutorials on navbars and it's helped a great deal in understanding where I have been messed up previously. But I am still stuck, as I have a site I have been asked to build and the drop down links on the sponsors page are supposed to link with the catagories listed on the sponsor page, ie:attractions, restauraunts etc. Can this be done with xara? I am really struggling for some reason to figure it out and my deadline for the project is drawing near. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Originally Posted by trukkerz

mmm thanks for that i will have to give that some thought - although I have never came across it before it sounds logical but I would of thought keeping the mouseoff and mouseover layers together reduces the risk of renaming them unless that is just me - keep up the good work :-)

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I will try to explain a little better what I mean. Imagine that the information I write below is layers and each name represents a layer:

Scripts
Information
Other Content
Mouse-Over Layer
Videos
Images
Mouse-Off Layer

Notice how the mouse over layer is mixed in with all other layers? If for some reason you accidently change the mouse-over layers you want know it because its mixed in with other layers. Whearas if you list it this way you will immediately notice if proper layers still are named properly:

Mouse-Over Layer
Scripts
Information
Other Content
Videos
Images
Mouse-Off Layer

By keeping the special layers at bottom and top I can immediately see if they have proper names. When your website starts to grow bigger and you have a lot of layers sometimes you make mistakes that can effect how your website behaves and by keeping the layers the way I have shown allows me to eliminate that as one of the problems. Sometimes I also have viewers send me their files if they need help with finding out what is going on with their website and this allows me to quickly check if they have a problem with layers or not.

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Originally Posted by Tom Elledge

I have just watched the tutorials on navbars and it's helped a great deal in understanding where I have been messed up previously. But I am still stuck, as I have a site I have been asked to build and the drop down links on the sponsors page are supposed to link with the catagories listed on the sponsor page, ie:attractions, restauraunts etc. Can this be done with xara? I am really struggling for some reason to figure it out and my deadline for the project is drawing near. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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If I am understanding correctly you want to link the sub menus to those categories. If yes, I would go to your navigation menu bar properties by double clicking on your navigation bar you created. Then I would check the settings category and make sure you have the "automatically link to all pages" option unchecked. That way when you create a new page it doesn't automatically create a new tab in your navigation menu bar. Once you do that when you create a new page go back to your navigation menu bar and create the sub-menu you want and link it to the new pages you create. Let me know if that resolves your problem.

I suppose its a preference thing because I would much prefer this layout of layers - as I dont think it affects the operation of the website I suppose its down to the individual on how they work


Scripts
Information
Other Content
Videos
Images
Mouse-Over Layer
Mouse-Off Layer

cheerz

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Originally Posted by trukkerz

mmm thanks for that i will have to give that some thought - although I have never came across it before it sounds logical but I would of thought keeping the mouseoff and mouseover layers together reduces the risk of renaming them unless that is just me - keep up the good work :-)

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You could keep them together.... I guess at the end of the day its personal preference both methods allow you to keep them pretty safe. I also prefer the method I use because it works well for me because I think of mouse-over as the highest layer and mouse-off as the lowest layer aside from background and all in-between layers are layers that I have created.

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Originally Posted by trukkerz

I suppose its a preference thing because I would much prefer this layout of layers - as I dont think it affects the operation of the website I suppose its down to the individual on how they work


Scripts
Information
Other Content
Videos
Images
Mouse-Over Layer
Mouse-Off Layer

cheerz

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I wish I had an example I could show you but its been years since I had any problems with the layers. I remember awhile back I had problem with layers but I think that was with like version 6 of the program, which is when I started using the method I showed you. I tested it the way you mentioned and it seems to be safe so I would stick with what you have been doing. I will have to make an update tutorial on that subject or add a note into video.

I would nt bother with an update video as your method works well - and teaches people to do things in an orderly manner - me i,m just lazy lol - .

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Originally Posted by champ

I think of mouse-over as the highest layer and mouse-off as the lowest layer aside from background and all in-between layers are layers that I have created.

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The mouseover is always the top layer even if you have new layers above it in the layer gallery.
(Internally they are special layers)
Attachment 94169

The DPX Help file explains;

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Attachment 94168
Note: The mouseOver layer must always be above, that is on top of, the MouseOff layer, as shown in the above example.

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Originally Posted by trukkerz

I would nt bother with an update video as your method works well - and teaches people to do things in an orderly manner - me i,m just lazy lol - .

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I can be lazy too but for efficiency purposes only lol I tend to use all the short-cut keys instead of actually going to any of the menus... that's one of the first things I practiced when I started using the xara web design software. I try not to use the short-cuts in the video because not everyone is going to remember them when starting out learning the program. However I might start using them slowly just to get everyone one the same page and moving faster so that my tutorials can be shorter and faster to the point.

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Originally Posted by sledger

The mouseover is always the top layer even if you have new layers above it in the layer gallery.
(Internally they are special layers)
Attachment 94169

The DPX Help file explains;

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Thanks for the feedback and good illustration!

so as long as the mouseover layer is above the mouseoff layer it makes no difference in what order you stack the layers :-)

cheerz sledger

Thanks so much Steve for helping me out. I previewed yours and it worked great. I set mine up the same way and it checked out great twice, but now for some reason, both your file and mine in preview mode try to got to "lost webpages" page on the web. I am hoping this is my computer but won't know until I get the site uploaded. Thanks for TALKGRAPHICS and all your help.

In WD, make sure you are previewing the website and not the page because all pages need to be exported to Xara's temp folder when previewing. :)