Xara Designer Pro education course learning and training resource

[Xhris]

My course is now V11 ready. Enjoy!

Some info and feedback:-

I worked intensely to try and get it out sooner (than was comfortable). I appreciate the thanks received so far; please let people know about this course if they have any questions about the software as they crop up in the future.

It has taken a good couple of weeks of solid work in my own time to carefully modify the course with the new content. Lots of subtle changes have been made since V10 which mean a lot of fine toothed combing through my detailed planning notes were needed to ensure old defunct material is removed and new material added such as to keep a seamless, sensible structure, and high quality content. I wasn’t prepared to just record some new V11 videos and lazily slap them on at the end.

Interestingly, I’d never heard of Lynda before…and it comes as no surprise to see they charge an arm and a leg for their courses. I could have easily cashed in and layered my pockets with green, but this was what I meant by setting a higher standard in my first post. Why limit my audience with a paywall for education that only cost me my spare time?

Video length seems to be the most common constructive critical feedback I've received. Two things to say about that. Firstly, unlike many of the courses on Lynda—which are more like tutorials or overview demos for specific tasks similar to my “tutorials” chapter—my course is a full, thorough, and complete educational course covering EVERY feature in a deceptively huge piece of software that is really the equivalent to a suite of products. I'm confident it’s not possible to significantly shorten course length without losing quality or content. Secondly, it’s not intended that anyone watch the entire course or even one of the larger chapter videos in one sitting, analogous to how you don’t watch the whole 7 season DVD boxset at once. Single videos are long because I wanted to avoid video clutter and a myriad of separate videos scattered everywhere—much like on Lynda (409 Photoshop courses, and 20,535 videos…lovely; not at all messy or bloated). The description on my website reflects this. One of the main reasons there is such a detailed time index (which, incidentally, took days of work in itself to do in a way that was also future proof), is so it can be used also as a content reference source. Want to learn about the fill tool? Search for and watch just the fill tool videos. Incidentally, the only reason I had to split chapters 2 and 4 into different parts is because YouTube imposes an arbitrary 5000 character limit on video descriptions. Only the core essentials of the software (e.g. selector tool and object handling) I’d recommend watching fully as a prerequisite. So I'm not that concerned that video length is really an issue beneath the surface.

[handrawn]

ooh good - now I can go straight there and not bother with the ver 10 at all; thanks again, much appreciated

[Boy]

You expected the video course to be v. 11 ready only by October. You outdid yourself again! Amazing job.

Suggestion though: I like the index but would like it even better if I could click a subject and go straight to the respective video. This might be too much to ask for but I thought I try anyway.....

[Xhris]

If you can figure out a way to do that given that I can't link to a specific video (as they will be deleted frequently if an update is needed--only the playlist is constant), then let me know. You can't copy the YouTube hyperlinked text, as it doesn't copy any time links;I tried.

[Boy]

I am sure you have thought of everything Xhris. It was just a thought and a wish to have direct access to the video segments. What about Xara, couldn't they host your work? So many people post questions on TG that they could easily find an answer to in your course.

[mikeymopar]

and i just two days ago watched the two sections on web design to attempt to use Xara to build a new website in order to replace my Frankenstein'd website i quickly threw together several years ago
now you're tellin' me V11 vids are out
seriously good vids! it's easy to navigate to what is needed and as long as they contain pertinent info and are easy to understand (visually and audibly) i don't care how long they are. well done, bro, well done

...off to watch two more website vids, V11 style....

[ss-kalm]

Xhris, a great big THANK YOU from me too. I think I've watched nearly all the video's you produced in the early years of me using Xara, and always been amazed at your skill in passing on your knowledge. I am looking forward to watching the whole course ... but as you say, probably not in one go.

Thank you again.

[csehz]

Xhris first of all thanks that you so much love Xara..

Your vids can be with any lengths I like them, their tematical separation is great resource also in the case when someone need to focus on a topic to complete a certain task. For example I forgot quite much the web design and here can be found in one if needed

[Deltapete]

Fantastic resource Xhris, real quality work. Very much appreciate all you hard work.
Regards, Peter