The November 2020 update to Xara Designer Pro X 17 available.

The November 2020 update to Xara Designer Pro X 17 has been released.

This updates Xara Designer Pro X 17 to 17.1.0.60415 DL x64 Oct 21 2020

This was my experience.

On my system I originally had the march 2020 version of Xara Designer Pro X 17.

This November 2020 version did overwrite my toolbar settings. I am not sure what other settings it overwrote. Fortunately I had a backup of the registry setting where these are stored. I simply restored the reg file that my backup creates.

The help file this November 2020 update installed is actually for Xara Web Designer Premium, not Designer Pro X. Again, I restored the previous Designer Pro X help file (Albeit for 17, not 17.1).

I have sent a note to Magix support letting them know and if they could send me the Designer Pro X 17.1 CHM help file.

Note: Designer Pro X 17 did not advise me that this update was available. I download the trial version (which delivered the November 2020 installer). It asked me for my serial number (Which was not pre-filled) and I was able reregister it with my still active serial number.

On my PC, the program itself runs fine.

Here you can find what's new: https://www.xara.com/us/designer-pro/whats-new (click the Pro tab). And here are the release notes:http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/designer-pro-x17.

Make sure you select the correct version by selecting the 'DESIGNER PRO v17' button on the What's new page.

Attachment 128257

Disappointed they've deliberately held back the one useful feature from 25 June 2020 - the High DPI Support. I've been waiting and waiting and then, slump.

So they get no upgrade money from me and left with a feeling of dissatisfaction. Pro it is not!

Should I wait for my Pro X 17 to tell me there is an update or do we now have to pluck it out as a trial?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanFelix

Should I wait for my Pro X 17 to tell me there is an update or do we now have to pluck it out as a trial?

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I would expect Designer Pro X 17 to eventually tell you there is an update...... I just got a bit impatient.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Boy

Here you can find what's new: https://www.xara.com/us/designer-pro/whats-new (click the Pro tab). And here are the release notes:http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/designer-pro-x17.

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Cheers Boy.

In reading them I see little offered for XDPX.

XPro+ has updated the following:

• Version 20.0 (04-Jun 2020)
  
  • Improved Export of Web Documents
  • Tool Switch on SmartShape insertion
  • Don’t resize SVGs on impor
  • Other Fixes & Minor Improvements
  
  
• Version 20.1 (25-Jun 2020)
  
  • High DPI Display Support
  • Export Options for SuperSites
  • Settings
  • Other Fixes & Minor Improvements
  
  
• Version 20.2 (04-Aug 2020)
  
  • Tables - tab key support
  • Tab setting controls for Table Of Contents
  • Custom Spacing - Advanced
  • Minor Improvements
  • Bug-fixes
  
  
• Version 20.3 (07 Sep 2020)
  
  • Selection UI
  • New SmartShape Handles
  • New Selector Tool Handles
  • Footer Designs
  • Other Improvements
  • Image Import Resolution
  • Google Fonts Update
  • Bug-fixes
  
  
• Version 20.4 (08 Oct 2020)
  
  • Selection UI
  • Improved Rotation Center Handling
  • Selection box offsets on small objects
  • New QuickShape handles
  • PDF Import Improvements

XDPX:

• 4K support ((How long did Xara take to achieve this)
• New footer designs (Content not function)
• 40 new Google Fonts (Xara updated a file or two)
• New SmartShape & Selector Tool handles (It will be interesting to hear the response form XDPX users on these)
• PDF import improvements (Not used in anger yet)
• Improved selection and rotation (I still need to be convinced but the Rotation centre is very useful)

Also

• Improved ToC
• Keeping your Settings
• New Supersite UI (A fix following the mess Xara made on first release)
• Image Import Resolution (Finally)
• Improved tables (No, I still break them and they are not W3C-compliant) Also they convert old table versions making backward-compatibility now impossible
• SVG improvements (Another Xara correction)

it is useful to have a(n almost) side-by-side comparison.

Acorn

Acorn,

In looking through the release notes, I do not see anything about the 4k support. Where did you find this?

Here is the link for the trail version from Magix at the bottom of the page - https://www.magix.com/us/photo-graph...ures/#c1215866

Have not found the manual to down load, anybody know a link for it?

Ray

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RKissane

In looking through the release notes, I do not see anything about the 4k support. Where did you find this?

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Ray, my bad. It was a late night copy & paste. No 4K for XDPXv17.1.

Acorn

Attachment 128261So are you saying for this much money, the 4k is not included?

I have notice that I can not download the new design gallery. When I click on download all nothing happens.

So I went and ran the content installer under the help menu. After this installer ran, I then received a popup saying there is an update new update is Xara Pro X 17.1.0.60486 DL x64 Oct 29 2020. Not sure if this popup showed up is because I ran the content installer or it just took a while to show up.

Still have the problem with not being able to down load the new designs. I know I have seen this in the past and will have to do a search about this.

Just want to give a heads up on the new update to the Oct 21 update.

Ray

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RKissane

I have notice that I can not download the new design gallery. When I click on download all nothing happens.

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Ray, by any chance are you blocking the nasty Magix promotions?
If so, this might be blocking other on-line accesses.
I removed my blocks, immediately got the New Update offer, and Download All works fine.
Re-blocking when my downloads are done.

Content Installer is nothing to do with any other updating; it is a bad legacy approach to providing items otherwise not included in a download. Legacy, as it all used to fit onto CDs and Xara decided a massive download was too hard to address.

Acorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by behzad

Attachment 128261So are you saying for this much money, the 4k is not included?

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I doubt MagiXara would say that. Rather, you'll get it eventually as another "triumph" to reel in yet more punters.

Save the pain, spend your cash on the Xara Pro+ / Xara Cloud+ combo.
Yes, it is SUBSCRIPTION but after a year got back to Magix by all means if the updates and feature you need are there.
Nothing lost and you save dosh.

Magix and Xara are probably ding-donging around while Xara is doing its best to force out XPro+ too cut out Magix.

Acorn

it is my understanding that xara cannot tell magix when to release, or for that matter what specific features to include as such; it is all subject to mutual agreement and is planned way in advance, the lead time long

xara of course can update pro+ more or less straight away

Quote:

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and you save dosh

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I am not sure I see how that would work, probably missing something...

I am not going to rent a software. I will wait until my current 1 year sub expires and then will take off or stick around and not upgrade until something major happens to xara. The current updates are nothing more than a few christmas decorations. I am not bashing xara, been a user for almost 3 decades so do not read into this too much. But I can recall how excited xara was when they married magix and shorlty afterwards a divorce that is holding assests from us users. This totally sucks, if this is the case. Maybe someone from xara should comment?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

it is my understanding that xara cannot tell magix when to release, or for that matter what specific features to include as such; it is all subject to mutual agreement and is planned way in advance, the lead time long
xara of course can update pro+ more or less straight away
I am not sure I see how that would work, probably missing something...

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I was replying specifically to the New Purchase screenshot. The buy-in price to XPro+ is almost equal to the Update Service cost Magix is asking if you already have XDPX.
I would not shell out that much to go from XWD(P) to XDPX, I would rather spend half the amount and go XPro+.

I fail to understand the grief over a subscription that I have suggested is for a year only (unless you are happy with it) and
For those who already have an expired, permanent licence through the MagiXara delivery you still get to keep this while you are paying for delivered updates, including 4k, through Pro+.
At the end of a year you can buy back into MagiXara and you might be lucky to get all the updates you need.
Sticking with the much-maligned "Update Service" or not upgrading at all just make the wait all the longer.

Acorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by behzad

I am not going to rent a software.

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All software is a rental unless to stop the clock and freeze your PC, operating system and your browser software as when these die or change, you have to upgrade or the software just stop.
Visualising something is equally a dead end.

Acorn

Acorn,

I have not seen the Magix promotions in a while so maybe I am. Not sure where I would of done this other than selecting a box and tell it not show again.

Ray

for example:

you take out a subscription, you find you really do not want to go back to having no 4K, even though you managed without it before

xara have still not fed the 4K into the magix channel, and so you are stuck with the sub - xara have no incentive to feed the 4K ionto the magix channel if it 'encourages' users to take out pro+

the more people take out the sub, the less incentive they have....

what you propose if a gamble in that you may get sucked into the sub permanently, and for the sake of saving a few quid spend more in the long term

@Acorn you fail to realize that what ever the price (also converted to Canadian) is too much for me to justify the few Minuet updates that I have seen so far.

permanent licence is not a rent, it is a lease bestowing a defined set of benefits that requires just one payment upfront ;)

I am entertained to see friends whom objected the move to + when it was introduced, now backing up the plan.

you know maybe it's all just a cover and they really do work for xara.... :D

Just installing the updates now ;))

Quote:

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Originally Posted by behzad

I am entertained to see friends whom objected the move to + when it was introduced, now backing up the plan.

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I objected and fought on the price (now halved)[https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...t-with-a-Bang].
I objected on the failure of Xara to realise its original goal of Designer ProX on-line (it fails to address layers)[https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...83#post601683].
I objected and fought to the poor delivery of features for all notified Updates (no one else did or rarely does).
I objected to the fluff and flannel (still rife)[https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...34#post612334].
I objected to the lack of detail in Releases (Knowledgebase and elsewhere)[https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...mp-Pro-Status]
I objected to the unstated differences (XPro+ is less functional than XDPX)[https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...-Xara-Hosting]

I have spent an inordinate amount of time on assessing the monetary worth in chosing the XPro+/XCloud+ combo: https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...527#post623527.
I have run out of objections.

Acorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by handrawn

you know maybe it's all just a cover and they really do work for xara.... :D

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This friend of behzad, for one, is definitely not a Xara employee or sub-contractor.
I did get some cash once through an Affiliate Link and I have partaken on testing and gained a licence but I renounced this subsequently. I am not on a retainer.

I would be happy to engage with Xara on a commercial basis but I have always been vendor-agnostic in my professional work as an employee and as a freelance consultant.

My transition to XPro+ has been more the dropping of the obnoxious Magix Update Service than anything else. I think my objections to the Update service are fairly well-documented.

Acorn

Am I wrong to be underwhelmed by the update? It is of course a .1 update not a full number release update. But the full number release update 17 was just a retail numbering gimmick. So a .1 to what was not really an upgrade really amounts to a bit of nothing.

But maybe the new features are more significant than I realize. Tell me I'm missing something.

I use to excitedly anticipate the annual upgrade. There were always several reasons to upgrade to the new version. I don't think I have been excited by a new Xara feature in a long time.

The web design software I have moved to does a new release about once every 16 months. I started on version 14 and just upgraded to version 16. Each version included around 200 new and improved features that take about 6 pages to describe. The newest version had me on page one of the new features, so the next 5 pages were all gravy. Support is via a forum and answers from the developer usually take less than 24 hours. Compare that support to Magix that sends you and email to confirm that you really want support after you submit a ticket that usually goes unresolved. All this from a company of one developer. Xara could take some lessons from this smaller but superior software developer.

@acorn

you are worth your weight in HTML that's for sure... where would this forum be without you and half doz others.....

I always wondered whether you did beta... actually I wondered if xara still did beta at all a few time in last few years

You are probably being unfair to the obnoxious by linking them with the M.U.S

@acorn your a fountain of information and knowledge. Without your contribution I would have been lost in the Xara forest. You and few others like Egg and Gary etc.. Lets all do a group hug ;))

Quote:

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Originally Posted by behzad

Lets all do a group hug ;))

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A socially distant one thanks

Acorn

I realy like the new version, and the new Selection UI.

very good!


but i have difficults how the "Improved Rotation Center Handling" works,
somtetimes the center jumpes around i have no idea where and why?

and the fontsize in the menu are smaller, any ideas how to make them larger?

regards reinhard

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rsrsrs

...and the fontsize in the menu are smaller, any ideas how to make them larger?

regards reinhard

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It seems Xara have found another way to encourage you to buy DP+ to access their High DPI (4K) support. I believe this will then allow you to increase your Windows font size settings without making everything else go fuzzy!

Likely the program icons will have been reworked for HiDPI and the new handles would have been designed on the basis HiDPI is deployed - these issues were originally raised in the Beta HiDPI tests. Beats me why Xara did not include HiDPI in 17.1, other than for its own misguided marketing reasons. There would be no rationale for Magix to exclude HiDPI.

That is why we should hear it from the horses mouth. I am still entitled to get the same updates as + unless this was intentional, I deserve to know if it was or not?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by behzad

That is why we should hear it from the horses mouth. I am still entitled to get the same updates as + unless this was intentional, I deserve to know if it was or not?

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Xara's CEO (the horse mouth) has already stated this, that the Magix releases are agreed a year ahead.

Acorn

cf post #13 above

thanks acorn for confirming at least in part

Then they had ample time to warn us users on what we are not getting, which they did not about 4k.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

Xara's CEO (the horse mouth) has already stated this, that the Magix releases are agreed a year ahead.

Acorn

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by behzad

Then they had ample time to warn us users on what we are not getting, which they did not about 4k.

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But you surely know, being a old trooper, that Xara has never advised ahead or given any release date, ever.

Acorn

trouble is behzad, when did xara ever notify anyone of anything before an update? - historically practically never... and that has only changed since the arrival of, and in respect of, cloud pro+

at the sake of repeating myself I stil get the impression the magix channel is second-class service at best....

edit : cross post with acorn :)

:banghead:

With regard to the new menu font, I wonder if the fact that has changed means the HiDPI capability is already built-in but just disabled, perhaps by a registry setting?

Beyond the Nov 2020 updates showing on the Magix/Xara Designer Pro product page (link in post #2), it looks like (for some reason) Magix/Xara are keeping this update a petty low profile affair. Unless I've missed it, there doesn’t seem to have been the usual fanfare from Webmaster Kate or Rob-Xar here on the TG forum.