Do templates autoupdate?

[Nathan Brazil]

Could someone please confirm whether a website made with Designer Pro or Web Designer Premium
version 7 would automatically be updated when opening in version 8 of either program? Or would the website need to be recreated from scratch?

[Boy]

Newer versions of Xara's software are intended to be backward compatible, so you should be able to open older .xar or .web files without problem. However, newer versions may have additional or modified functionality that could change the behavior of certain aspects (e.g., I remember in one of the upgrades that the mouseover or mousedown state had been changed). This may be a problem for you but should be fixable w/o too much effort. You certainly don't have to recreate the whole website.

Added: Don't expect new functionality to be automatically added to older files/templates. Xara updates older content with each new upgrade if new functionality so requires.

[Nathan Brazil]

I was thinking, specifically, about the new automatically resizing pages, and in particular the resizeable widgets. Would both of those auto update? If not, then every single widget use would need to be recreated. The mouseover/ mousedown state change you mention is also a concern, as the site I have in mind has lots of buttons!

[Boy]

Are you considering upgrading your software? If so, you could download a trail version, open your website's .xar/.web file, publish it (locally) and see what the situation is.

Do you want all your pages to resize automatically and do you want all your widgets to resize automatically? The questions is: Your website's pages and widgets have their current size, to what size to you want them to automatically resize?

[Nathan Brazil]

Are you considering upgrading your software? If so, you could download a trail version, open your website's .xar/.web file, publish it (locally) and see what the situation is.

Do you want all your pages to resize automatically and do you want all your widgets to resize automatically? The questions is: Your website's pages and widgets have their current size, to what size to you want them to automatically resize?

The problem here is that the trial version, which I already downloaded to try, does not come with the upgraded widgets. So unless I buy, I have no way to tell if existing widgets would be automatically replaced with their resizeable counterparts.

Yes, I would like pages to resize automatically, however as the pages in question are not hand-built but come from a template, it is unclear to me whether these will auto adjust.

Surely, one of the megabrains at Xara can answer both these questions in a trice?

[Nathan Brazil]

All day, and not a sausage! Come on Xara, it can't be THAT difficult to answer.

[Boy]

There are others that are better qualified to answer your questions but I'm quite sure that your website (page length and widgets) will not automatically update. That's not how Xara software works.

[handrawn]

All day, and not a sausage! Come on Xara, it can't be THAT difficult to answer.

this is user forum - if you want to raise queries with Xara Ltd directly you should go via their website support

that said Xara employees do vist here from time to time

[Nathan Brazil]

There are others that are better qualified to answer your questions but I'm quite sure that your website (page length and widgets) will not automatically update. That's not how Xara software works.

This is what I suspected, hoping that I was wrong. So, in the absence of info from someone at Xara, I think it safe to assume than an entire rebuild would be required.

[Nathan Brazil]

this is user forum - if you want to raise queries with Xara Ltd directly you should go via their website support

that said Xara employees do vist here from time to time

Indeed. I shall try my luck direct, and if there is anything to contradict what has already been said here, will post again.