Just Released: A New Version of Web Designer

**jacobitejake** · 27 April 2016, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by Acorn

@katemoir & @PhilM - thank you for both responding.

I probably will renew now I have the assurance that you are major versioning every year and my renewal will ensure access to that major version and not my purchased one.

I have enough smarts to ensure that if my Registry is trashed, I can reconstruct things.
What rankles is a machine trash or re-install drops me back to my purchased / renewed version.

When out of Guarantee cover, I strongly suggest a re-install ought to retain the last update (and bug fixes) as a wonderful customer services offering.

Almost back to singing Xara's praises,
Acorn

Just a quick question, if I decided not to purchase the dvd backup when I upgraded and I then let it lapse, obviously I would then have no access to the Design Gallery content for that version. Can anyone tell me please where I should look in the programme file structure to find all the resource files that I've downloaded e.g. navbars, clipart and themes etc. ? I've had a poke about but can't see them, are they well hidden, or filed as something obscure to prevent users from doing just that? I'd love to drop them on to a disc so I could drop them back in again after a reinstall. I've ordered a DVD with this upgrade to 365 but I may not in a couple of years, so it would be really useful to know which files I need to copy. Thanks.

**wizard509** · 29 April 2016, 03:53 AM

I have read all the posts on this thread and now I am worried. Does Xara plan to implement this 365 plan on all version 12 products? If so I for one will not participate and stay with what I have.
As a hobbyist user I can not afford a constant outlay of cash I was looking forward to XDP12, now I am not so sure. Many here cannot afford that or keep buying the latest version know. I have been lucky in that respect and have been a loyal user and was sincerely wanting to buy XDP12 and learn all I can about website building so I could answer questions as well as Acorn and Egg and maybe earn some sort of income. Now...?

**Scotty** · 29 April 2016, 04:38 AM

Yes I am with Larry (wizard509) on this if the New Xara Designer Pro 12+ (whatever it is being named) is by subscription I won't be upgrading either. I feel the payment for the program licence to use should cover all. Being on a pension and all.
Jim

**Acorn** · 29 April 2016, 09:21 AM

I had one of those aha! moments last night.

Xara offers the following at http://www.xara.com/uk/web-designer/download/:

If you are an owner of the previous versions of Web Designer, you can re-download the trial below and unlock it with your serial number (you may also need to select 'download content' in the Help menu after unlocking):

As it happens, I have 39 licences for Xara products, mainly upgrades over the years but still quite a few full-priced purchases.

If I chose to download and install Web Designer 11 Premium (64-bit), I would get the a bug fixed version.
I have not checked if this is actually the latest version but I believe I could then have access to this or upgrade downloads to get back to the latest Version 11.2.5.42127 of 09 Dec 15. [Xara - do advise or correct me on this point]
I got Web Designer 11 Premium at its launch at Version 11.0.0.

So at any point in my long support of Xara, I am able to download the latest updated versions of its products long after purchase.
I can even keep and run prior major, updated versions; very useful in supporting others in TG. Steve Ledger (http://board.xara-users.info/), erstwhile TGer, is meticulous in doing this.

In the XWD365P 365 Day Update Guarantee, Xara has tried to decouple the latest version, by freezing us to the major version number.
Out of cover, I only get version 12.0.0 downloaded.

So what Xara ought to do it to offer you access to the upgraded version of your purchase long after guarantee expiry, which is only anyway offering to provide the next update, when available; it should not cut you off from the updates your guarantee purchased into.
Additionally, perverse people like me need to be able to keep instances of the major version to support you.
Under the current model, I would have to buy two full products in year one, renew of of them continually and also buy another new product each subsequent year. [Xara - again do advise or correct me on this point, but if I have only one Licence Serial Number, how can you differentiate enough for me to access and use the prior major versions]

So by hiding major version numbers (releases) from us, we get tied into a subscription model.

In passing, Xara also suggests an alternative download site at: http://www.download.com/1770-20_4-0....form%3DWindows.

Acorn

P.S. Don't get me started on the on-line availability model.

**gsthunder** · 29 April 2016, 09:25 AM

It shouldn't be this complicated and confusing. There shouldn't be 1 year subscriptions and such unless it is simply you get everything for a year that we put out( and you get to KEEP it - ALL of it ). After that year you have to pay for the new stuff. Hey, isn't that what we do now with Xara? If it isn't broken don't fix it.

It definitely shouldn't be a case where you can only keep part of what you got over that year( i.e. not all of it )unless you reup. That is holding people hostage IMO. It is just asinine and like others I will not do it.

When did Microsoft buy Xara? This is one of those scratch your head wondering who thought up this brilliant idea moments so often associated with Microsoft.

**handrawn** · 29 April 2016, 09:59 AM

but even microsoft do not ask you to rebuy windows if you repartition a disc, how silly would that be as it is a standard windows function - still no word on that from magix btw ....

**Boy** · 29 April 2016, 01:12 PM

I had a brainwave too in trying to understand Xara's new, confusing subscription scheme: As there will be no major, yearly upgrades anymore, incentives other than the yearly rush of a new feature set will have to be found for customers to continue to justify yearly payments into the company's coffers. The fear of losing features (in case of a fresh install, whatever the reason) is such an incentive.

The new features that are released during the year of subscription are called previews by Xara and only come into your possession after you have paid the subscription for the subsequent year. You have the thrill of privileged access to the new features and get used to them but you have no right to them. Hence the fear to lose them (certainly when you incorporated them into your creations and have become 'dependent' on them).

So, together with the thrill of having early access to next year's new features, the fear of loss should tempt us to renew our subscription.

It's a new business model. Right now many of us feel like we might be suckered into something that is not really to our benefit while it is being billed as such. Will we get used to it and find it acceptable or even beneficial, or will we balk and stumble over our moral objections or experience the new deal as something less than what we are used to? We'll see. I, for one, am not sure yet what I will do.

**mwenz** · 29 April 2016, 01:36 PM

For the wary, it is almost like Xara is encouraging people not to upgrade through a "release cycle," instead awaiting the announcement of the yet next update to even see what was fully updated through the cycle. No one knows what Xara will do to add features or enhance them. But the track record over the years for new features I would consider worthy new features are woefully absent as I don't do web stuff in XDP and that has been largely the focus minus one or two items that I deem worthy.

The whole thing may not quite be so bad if Xara published any sort of a roadmap of intended future additions--and then stick to it as well as possible.

**gracehjs** · 29 April 2016, 03:50 PM

Actually you don't lose out on anything by buying "Version 12" - that has the improvements from 11 and you get to keep the bug fixes regardless. After a year, you can choose whether you want to buy "Version 13" or not. You haven't lost anything from what you would have without a subscription.

Originally Posted by gsthunder

It shouldn't be this complicated and confusing. There shouldn't be 1 year subscriptions and such unless it is simply you get everything for a year that we put out( and you get to KEEP it - ALL of it ). After that year you have to pay for the new stuff. Hey, isn't that what we do now with Xara? If it isn't broken don't fix it.

It definitely shouldn't be a case where you can only keep part of what you got over that year( i.e. not all of it )unless you reup. That is holding people hostage IMO. It is just asinine and like others I will not do it.

When did Microsoft buy Xara? This is one of those scratch your head wondering who thought up this brilliant idea moments so often associated with Microsoft.

**pauland** · 29 April 2016, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by gracehjs

Actually you don't lose out on anything by buying "Version 12" - that has the improvements from 11 and you get to keep the bug fixes regardless. After a year, you can choose whether you want to buy "Version 13" or not. You haven't lost anything from what you would have without a subscription.

Before the subscription, Xara was one of the very few companies that don't add new features to the current version - an increasingly outdated model. So you buy the new version, it didn't change (except for bug fixes), then a year later you have an opportunity to buy the next version or stay with what you have.

Under the subscription model, it's similar, but there's a very big difference - during the year you get access to new stuff. At the end of the year, you'll still have access to new stuff, but if you don't renew your subscription you lose access to some library features. Still you will have the new features, so it's an improvement on the old model... ..provided your hard drive isn't changed, you do a reformat, change computer, etc. because when that happens you lose all those new features that you got used to that were added during the subscription.

Losing those features could force you to have to renew your subscription if you needed access to them. That's the kicker.

Nobody likes to be given something, then be told they can't have it anymore.