New here - Anyone else used Serif WebPlus X8 before Xara Web Sesigner ?

[John Young]

Well soon most of w+ users will migrate here nice to see some familiar avatars :P

Ye invasion of the WePlus users......

[BarryS]

Hi John

Like you I have been using WP x8 for years and in fact I started with X2, I decided to make the switch to Xara Designer Pro X11 and now have upgraded to X365 since the "web responsive" lark came about and not being able to make a variable sized pages easily. I have found and still finding my way around this new software, but so far I Like what I see and feel.....Yes the forms are tricky to start with, WP are very standard and easy to use, but once you start to get use to them the extra benefits kick in.........if you want my advise BUY IT, the cost are more than WP, but I feel it's worth it, and with all the extras that come with it.

Regards
Barry

[Room101]

I’m also pretty new - not new and pretty : - ( come over from WebPlus x8 and had been using their previous variants, now I’m on Xara Web Designer Premium.
I miss the ease of menu creation, the master pages, and the snappy speed. But Web Designer just pips Serif due to the ability to make a responsive site (the reason for me switching) and the graphics with text handling. The Xara tec team have been polite and responsive even when they couldn’t help me, I at least know their heart is in improving – unlike Serif who just dumped us. Also good knowledgeable people on this helpful forum, which I think is pretty vital for dumb newbees like me.

[behzad]

Nice comment Room101. How much to rent a room I too was a webplus user and still work with x8 but shame on them for dumping a great program. Oh well, moving on.

[hamishmacdonald]

I'm also WebPlus user who migrated to Xara when the program became abandonware. At first I bought the web designer variant, but then upgraded to Xara Designer Pro X 'cause I was so impressed by all the things the program can do.

It's a learning curve, for sure, but XDPX (ugh, the name!) does an astounding number of things beyond the responsive website design we've been asking to get from Serif for years. It opens and edits PDFs, for instance, edits photos, lays out print documents, and so on. It's weird to have all these features in a single program, but I'm finding it really handy as I learn about the features to simply turn to it for everything, rather than go to a dozen different single-use programs.

One really promising beta feature is online designer and client editing. I've wanted that for sooooo long.

So if you're still swithering about whether or not to make the purchase -- DO! Just go buy it, because it really does everything you could want, and does it nicely.

P.S.: I bought CoffeeCup Responsive Website Designer -- not cheap! -- but I couldn't produce even the simplest website with it, it's just so confounding and frustrating. So spare yourself that headache. XDPX gave me back the simple, absolute-positioning-style layout I want to use.

[behzad]

Thanks that is great to know. Glad you like xara. I agree.

[janet2280]

I just thought I would put my penny worth in. I just changed a month or so ago from Web Plus to Xara Wed Design Premium. I am not very experienced but have been using WebPlus for several years. I changed over 5 sites to Xara using copy and paste, it was not too bad and it gave me a lot of practice getting to know the software! I found the Menus really difficult on WebPlus and Xara is just a breeze in comparison, really lovely to set up and change. It found it annoying to keep changing from the text tool to the selector tool on Xara, and still do.
At first I found the lack of the Master a bit daunting but in fact it is easier without it. The Forms on Web Plus were marvelous and Xara just doesn't have them but the JotForms mentioned previously seem to work very well and for a complicated booking form I took the advice of someone on this forum and used Google Forms. The Google map wiggit on Xara doesn't seem to work properly but I found if you just copy the code from Googlemaps direct, it works fine, and it was easier to put multiple points on the map than on WebPlus.
I don't use the templates, I do the layout from scratch.
Tables in WebPlus were excellent (but tricky sometimes setting up) and Xara doesn't have them but there are some suggestions on ways around that on these forums but to date I've just used a different layout although for me the tables were not very important.
Ok sometimes strange things happen, but I think when you are using new software that happens, using WebPlus at first my pictures regularly did not show when inserted while editing but did show up when published (that took days to sort out).
On the whole I think WebPlus seemed more stable and logical but Xara WD is easier to use until you get to the external stuff like maps, forms, etc. I am happy with Xara Web Designed but I do have one site I will have to leave on WebPlus because the structure is old and too complicated and big to bring across.
I haven't tried to do the smartphone pages on XaraWD yet (but found that fairly easy on WebPlus) but I suppose it is something to look forward to (with dread?). On the whole I am happy with Xara Web Designed Premium.

[behzad]

Nice. I like webplus but just now trying to update a client website, it takes forever to view it on browser, that alone gets to me. Hopefully the 365 new added features to come will be good. Some things like stretchy pictures and stickies were so much needed in w+ but no one listened. Xara needs a blog feature and a database setup similar to website x5. Time can only tell.

[rarehare]

Hi I have just migrated and although I think xara is great, it is a whole new learning curve for those of us who like to design for ourselves. Everything can be done but just differently. So take your time and don't get frustrated.