Importing WS4 templates into Web Designer 6?

[Surfwriter]

OS: WXPpro
Xara: Web Designer 6
Xara: WebStyle 4

Hi - I've just attempted to import a couple of draft web pages designed in WebStyle 4 into Web Designer 6 and got a dog's breakfast. The pages display perfectly in my browser of choice (FF5x), but when I open the WS4 designed pages in WD6 bits & pieces are missing and those that are there are in different places.

So ... I don't mind starting from scratch, but Web Designer 6 doesn't offer the template I'd like to use and WS4 does. Is there any way to import WS4 templates into WD6? And, if so, how do you recommend I proceed?

Many thanks, b

[Soquili]

Hi Surfwriter,

Welcome to Talkgraphics.

The WebStyle 4 templates are not importable in Web Designer 6. However it is possible to use elements of a WebStyle web page template within Web Designer. Using a WebStyle 4 navbar is easily done within Web Designer, step by step instructions are available at:Inserting MenuMaker and WebStyle navbars in to Web Designer

Working with a WebStyle 4 web page template requires a little more effort.

Which template are you wanting to use?

I can work up a mini-tutorial for you that is specific to that template.

[Surfwriter]

Hi Soquili,

Thank you for replying to my post. Your further help would be much appreciated.

The WS4 design I'd like to use in Web Designer 6 is: Pastel (Theme)\Layouts\Pastel_page2. That particular page can be adapted to be used for all the pages of the website I'd like to publish. I especially like the colours, the grid background, the layout with the curved corners, the striped header bar below the navbar, and the themed image & text boxes. But I've replaced the default navbar with one I've adapted from the WS4 navbar collection (and is now available in WD6 in Portfolio Theme). So importing the navbar from WS4 isn't necessary.

[Soquili]

Thanks for the information. I will work on a mini-tutorial.

There will be some differences. For example Web Designer creates fixed size pages by default where WebStyle 4 created/creates dynamic width pages.

[Soquili]

Hi Surfwriter,

Before starting the tutorial, I should point out that Web Designer is not an html editor. This is why you got such a mess when trying to import the html files.

Web Designer is a vector graphics drawing application that has the ability to export to an html format.

To start creating a Web Designer template from a WebStyle template start a new Web Designer project. Use the File menu and select one of the web page sizes that match your needs.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your WebStyle 4 folder inside the Program Files folder. Open the WSTemplates folder and the Pastel (theme) Folder. Sort the folder by Type. This will place the files with the .wix filename extension at the top of the display.

The .wix files are Xara vector graphics. These are the objects that make up the elements of the WebStyle 4 template.

You mentioned you will not need the navbar so we will skip all the .wix files that have hnavbar and vnavbar in their filename.

One by one drag and drop the other .wix files into Web Designer 6. Do not let any file drop on top of another or it will be very difficult to isolate the elements for any one graphic object. You will recognize the various parts of WebStyle template.

Once you have the various parts, it is easy to place them where you need them.

My next post will show the Web Designer template.

[Soquili]

The attached image shows the preview of the Web Designer 6 page created using elements from the WebStyle 4 template and some added graphic elements and text blocks.

The .web file is also attached. it still contains the various parts droped in using Windows Explorer.

To use the Pastel_bg.wix and the Pastel_image_bg.wix files for the page background and the image background, you will need to export to a raster image (.gif, .png, .jpg, etc.) and then import is back in so it appears in the Bitmap Gallery.

[Surfwriter]

Again - thank you. Everything is going along smoothly ... except the two image files. When I export "Pastel_bg.wix" and the "Pastel_image_bg.wix" (I've tried *.png, *.jpg and *.gif), the image files are blurry when I import them back. I've even tried opening them in Xara Xtreme 5 and exporting them as new files in the same three formats and the same thing happens. So what I'm doing now is recreating them in Web Designer 5.

Last question and probably a stupid one: when I'm finished, do I save the page as a template? Cheers, Bob

[Soquili]

When you export the Pastel_bg.wix to a gif or png are you using 256 color with Transparency? This creates a sharp file on my system. With the simple colors for the background you can select the 16 color option with good results.

Before exporting to a raster format, position the group that is the Pastel_bg.wix objects so it is on even pixel X and Y positions within Web Designer. This reduces the amount of antialiasing needed and makes the result more sharp.

Xara works at a millipixel level internally so it is possible to have objects located on fractional pixel coordinates.

[Soquili]

Oh... I forgot to answer your question. It has been a long night. I work from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM.

Yes you can save it as a template or simply as a .web file in a folder of your choice.

Give it a name that will remind you it is a basic starter project for the Pastel layout.