Xara??:... building a website?

[Grizzly Adams]

please don't shout!!..but I'm looking to purchase Xara as I'm led to believe that it is most friendly when building a website?..or am i wrong in thinking this?
I'm pretty good/ok with Corel Draw, is Xara the same sort of workings?
Sorry if the above sounds stupid, I just don't want to buy it if it doesn't do what I think it will!
Would welcome any comments,
Thanks,
Grizzly.

[Soquili]

Hi Grizzly,

Which Xara program are you wanting information about?

You have posted in the Xara Webstyle forum. Webstyle is very easy to use and is designed primarily for people that are not skilled in creating their own graphics. Templates are the main tool. The user can set their own colours and can edit text but not much more than that.

Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro are full featured Vector graphics applications similar to CorelDraw. Xara's programs do not have the high learning curve that Corel requires. At one time Corel was a distributor of Xara's older vector graphics application. During that time Corel attempted to include some of Xara's more advanced features that CorelDraw did not have.

If you are interested in Xara Xtreme you can down load a trial version that is fully functional. None of the features are hampered in any way. http://www.xara.com

The newest release of Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro do have an HTML export function. You can create your graphics and text for a web page and layout exactly as you want it to look on the web, then simply export to html.

[Grizzly Adams]

Thanks Soquili, not sure which Xara programme is best for me?..I am looking to build a website, I am pretty good with Corel but have found out it's not web building friendly/easy, where as Xara is?
The other area of interest is that I have heard that Xara isn't as hard to get your head around as Corel!!

[Soquili]

I would say that Xara Xtreme would probably suit you fine.

It is easier to learn than CorelDraw. Most of the tools are the same, but may have slightly different behaviour. I have CorelDraw but have not used it for ages so I cannot be exact about any differences. It is much easier to draw in Xara Xtreme so I don't even open Corel.

For creating a webpage or multiple pages I have never seen any program easier to use than the current version of Xtreme. The current version is 4.0 and was released just a couple of months ago. The export to HTML was introduced in this newest version. A recent thread in the Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro forum has some examples of web pages created in Xtreme 4.0: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=32484

[Grizzly Adams]

I really appreciate your replies Soquili, I like the look of Xara Xtreme, would I need to puirchase webstyle 4 as well?....and would I need to purchase something like dreamweaver or something similar?...or does Xara do it all?
Sorry for the questions but I want to make sure before I go for it!!

[Soquili]

Webstyle 4 would not be needed. The output of Webstyle cannot be imported into Xtreme. You would need to hand edit the HTML code of any Xtreme exported web page to use any Webstyle created menus, etc. You can create similar types of menus within Xtreme.


Applications like Dreamweaver, ColdFusion, Microsoft Frontpage, Microsoft Expression Web, CoffeCup, etc. are good programs but are not needed.

[Grizzly Adams]

it sounds too easy to build a website!!...is this the forum to ask if I have questions when starting out, as I know I will have some!!
Many thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.

[Soquili]

Actually the Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro forum would be more appropriate. It is for any questions about the Xtreme applications.

I will also move this thread to that forum. Best to keep questions specific to applications to their respective forum.

[MEB]

Hi Grizzly,
Welcome to Talkgraphics Forums.
Xara Xtreme may be what you need if your web pages aren´t much complicated. The code Xtreme outputs it´s a little hard to edit by hand and some functionality like forms can´t be build using Xara. The best thing you can do is download a trial of the software and try it for yourself. There´s some helpful videos available about several of its features( Help -> Movies), as well as good reference sites you may want to take a look:

For website creation take a look a those:
Special WYSIWYG Website Edition
A Multi-page Website with Pop-up and Rollover Buttons

For all the rest:
Xaraxone by Gary Priester (Lots of great tutorials to get you started)
Xara.com check the "Latest User Demos" tab at the bottom of the page

Any questions you may have post here, in the forums, there´s always plenty of people willing to help.

[Grizzly Adams]

Thanks Miquel B, it sounds so easy!!...I have also noticed the price,$250..seems very cheap?