This Applies to most Web Graphic elements
0. I read hundreds of xara post and it seems a lot of people are unable to see Xara Web elements when they put
their site on the Web. Xara should try to make that work better. The problem is they serve two master the FP
MX integration users and the HTML coding crowd. If they change WS4 to store the graphics more easily for the
integration crowd, they might not be serving he HTML coding crowd. The problem experienced by FP users is a
procedural one whereby at the outset of a web project, us the users do not initiate their project in the same
way as the Xara Staff when they test the product. The essential concept is to place all your photos that you
supply as input into the images folder in your FP website. When asked within Xara where to store the graphics
that are generated by Xara the images folder must be specified. If this is done, there is no need to use FTP
or to copy and files from one place on the users machine to another. The whole process becomes relatively
seamless after that. So I don't really view this family of problems as significant going forward. I'm sure
that some people have stopped using it all together, and I'm not trying to minimize that. My point is that
once I figured that out, all kinds of graphics were working correctly for me.
The above point applies to most of the Web Elements and I won't repeat it under each category below.
Real Problems - as I see it.
I will proceed clockwise through the Web Elements starting at 12 O'clock.
Navbars and Menues
1. Don't drop down over frames.
2. the submenues items don't have the same great graphic as the main menu item graphic that you choose.
Theme Sets - I haven't done much with
3. are not editable - I'm not sure what people are getting at as, I was able to replace images with other images, and they allow many elements to be recolored. But I think what people mean is that you can't change the images in a theme permanently.
4. Many people are sucked into a black hole of wasted time if they dare to use them. I can't rightly say why
as I am only evaluating this tool for the Web Design Business I am starting, so I haven't experienced these
issues. The problem could be the same issue, the directory chosen to work on these elements is not within the
website itself.
5. People have had huge installation problems, when they go from the demo to the full product but there are workarounds written onto within this forum. If you can't make it work they will give you your money back.
Photo Albums
6. Photo Albums can't be processed from FP. That's a fact and maybe not a fault. A message indicates, that you
can't create new web pages from a Web Page Editing Application, use Webstyle from the desktop. Is that really
a problem?
7. PhotoAlbum can be used to rapidly, enhance, resize (large photos) and create thumbnails, but it doesn't
give me the option of just saving my photos and thumbnails to a folder for my own use later. I was able to
take 9 digital images and make myself image and thumbnail ready in 2 seconds flat. This is a major bonus, such
an undertaking ran me about 3 hours for a 16 shot suite previously. I needed to use 3 different programs to
get the results I wanted. Just that process would save me about $150, I'm sure other people have found other
products that can do this well.
Photos - no significant issue.
8. OK so the photos, can't be saved from within the WS4 to a directory inside the website, therefor the
pictures have to be moved manually and the code to expand a thumbnail, had to be corrected. <span class="ev_code_RED">
WorkAround</span>, Instead: drag and drop the pictures you want to use into the images folder in the
FP website, then go into Xara, when you work with them save them to the image folder. presto your
homefree.
Buttons
9. The buttons are not active graphics. <span class="ev_code_RED">WorkAround</span>, Insert a menu. Remove all the
menu items but one. Presto, we have a rollover button. It works but, does the button created, have the same
code as a regular role over button? You tell me. An active graphics button is a special case of a menu with
only one menu item and no submenu items.
Backgrounds
10. Backgrounds can't be processed from FP. That's a fact and maybe not a fault. A message indicates that ,you
can't create new web pages from a Web Page Editing Application, use Webstyle from the desktop. Is that really
a problem? I opened Xara from the desktop. I can still edit one and save it to my images file as a jpg. for
later use. I Created a layer gave it a "Z" position of -1 and presto I'm in business.
3D Headings, Regular Headings
11. General Point - These create webbots that span across the whole page, as do perhaps all of the web
elements. Put them into a table, layout table, or layer, like you probably would have anyway.
Bullets
12. Is it a Bullet <span class="ev_code_RED">NOT</span>It's an image that jams against the line above and requires a
table just to contain it, as mentioned above, it is a webbot and take up the whole line it's in unless it's
contained. What the heck bullets don't work right in FP2003 as far as I can tell anyways(no space after the
bullet. So I need a table to contain them as well.
Dividers
13. They do not dynamically lengthen and shrink based on the window width like html dividers i.e. <hr style="
color: #CC0000">. Would it be fair to say, <span class="ev_code_BLUE">so what</span>? Do all fancy dividers have this issue.
Logos
Works well except points 1, 10
Banner
Works well except point 1.
Web Page
It's not a Front Page integrated piece.
Color picker.
14. I was unable to specify the color I wanted to use by typing after choosing hex. So I used the numbers. A bit inconvenient for me that's all. Next time I'd record my colors in hex and the numbers. No problem.
Demo movies. The demos are prepared ahead of time, so the save graphic activity is not the same as when you start. They do not use the save graphic in the two movies that I
reviewed. They added web elements to folders that were already there in a Website's subfolder. Therefore by
following the videos, you would have more problems not less, as the critical activities are the initial setup for your work.
Obviously there are many great points about this product. We are looking at images etc, and menubars etc
that would be hard or time consuming for us to create. The interface is universal for every type of graphic
and fairly easy to use, with confusion abounding around saving and project and save graphics activities. Lets be honest, I didn't read even one line of documentation and never used the demo video, and yet I had very little trouble. I have seen programs that are as intuitive and simple as kissing a porcupine, not that I've every even thought of that. This product is very good in my view, once we understand how to start our project. Lets get real, I have a degree in computer science been using computer for 33 years and I have good problem solving methodology. Others are trying to use the product with no proffessional computer experience, so even the documentation isn't going to make sense to them at first. I liked the color picker slider, it was easy to use.
Now I'm going to summarize, from my points above, the issues with no workarounds.
Navbars and Menues
1. Don't drop down over frames.
2. the submenues items don't have the same great graphic as the main menu item graphic that you choose.
Theme Sets - I haven't done much with these
3. are not editable - I'm not sure what people are getting at as, I was able to replace images with other images, and they allow many elements to be recolored. But I think what people mean is that you can't change the images in a theme permanently.
Some people may have problems on there PC that most of the other people don't have. I'm not going to be using frames. If you use any of the flat menues rather than the really fancy ones the submenues look the same. I need more input on the themes issues. Does any body use it all the time, with no trouble. I'm ready to buy this thing, even it I don't get into the themes. The timesaving on photos and menues, gives me enough cost benefit to justify the purchase. Lots of other features are added bonus, that are going to save me hours and day of time.
I hope no one takes personal offence to my post. I look forward to feedback to rectify any misunderstands or mistakes or omissions on my part. Please post using the numbers above as references. I'll be tracking all your friendly input carefully.
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