Importing Xara to Dreamweaver , Only problem I see is..

[behzad]

I have imported one of the sample templates to dreamweaver cs3. The graphics always come out really good, the only problem i see is the placement of text. It seems xara segments every line of text and in dreamweaver it all gets messed up.

Is there a way to save this from happening? Would it be better to do all the text in dreamweaver and all the graphics in xara?

Is there a way that the next xara designer/web can fix this text issue so it does not show up in the code line by line?

[gwpriester]

Why are you trying to do this?

The two programs work very differently. If you have Dreamweaver and want to learn how to use it, then use Xara to create your graphics and Dreamweaver to organize and add function.

My two cents $US of course.

[pauland]

I agree with Gary. We've already had almost this same discussion in the thread about making Xara software CMS friendly. The slicing of text and absolute positioning is fundemental to the way Xara supports WYSIWYG.

If you care about the HTML produced, don't use Xara software for websites. It's that simple.
If you want to use Dreamweaver, great, and Xara will be a great aid to designing page layouts and creating assets for use in dreamweaver.

The very last thing you should be doing is creating HTML pages using Xara software then having to re-edit in Dreamweaver. It's a poor workflow.

[behzad]

okay, you guys do make sense. I am trying to get xara help me design websites for client. Clients that may go to another developer in the future. I know web designers always talk bad about other web designers (coding and such) but I don't want to design a site with xara and be known for a crappy coding later down the road.

[pauland]

Xara is best for clients that want a result and won't stick their nose into how that result is achieved. If you are trying to make a name for yourself as a professional web designer within the web design community, Xara produced HTML is not going to do that for you - quite the opposite.

It's not a question of snobbishness or bad coding by Xara, it's a question of substituting html design skill for a machine driven process, that replicates the output for the design using a differrent method to that which a seasoned web designer would use. Why doesn't Xara do the same? because they'd need to do some serious AI development to analyse the design.

As a trivial example. Lets imagine your design includes a rounded box with a gradient. Xara will provide you with an image. A seasoned web designer will do the same using CSS. Who cares? Well the end-user doesn't, nor most clients, but in the web design community, people would be surprised to see a graphic being used unnecessarily when a leaner and more adaptable approach is possible with CSS.

Another trademark of hand-written CSS-based sites is that the designer, knowing how HTML/CSS works will produce a design that takes advantage of CSS to make the download speed fast and the page adaptable to changing content. A good by-product of this process is that invariably the designer will make designs that fit to a grid-style layout and have a common theme and reused elements.

Xara for design - good.

Xara for HTML - great for end clients on a budget, terrible for credibility in the web design community and totally unsuitable for interoperability with other designers/developers.