Finally decided

[Davidwh20123]

After many hours trying to decide either to stay with Webplus or transfer my site (all 300 pages) to xara and even though there are many good things about Webplus I am now starting the process of rebuilding my site with WD 365. There are a few issues that I am not totally convinced with with 365, the lack of file structure (everything just being dumped into one folder and given random file names), I do not like the sliders that much (I want a plain slider with no fancy text backgrounds flying everywhere), there appears to be only one, the effects slider 2 but even with this, I cannot change the transitions. Other issues that I have I require the php file extension for Sitelok and WD will not let me change the index page to this extension....which means it has to be done after each time I publish, I wish there had been more done on the file management side of things instead of just appearing to concentrating on drag and drop and the responsive element as develpoment in 365 from WD11 took place, webplus is much much better at this. I would have also like to have seen master pages introduced as mentioned in previous posts, though setting one page up and the duplicating it is a work around it would have been a nice touch. If Serif had planned upgrades to Webplus I would have stayed with them and forgot 365 but because Webplus is no longer going to be continued (and that raises doubts about support), I have decided to switch. It appears that this post has been written just to slag 365 off....but that is not the case Webplus has issues but as I have said I with the developers of 365 had spent more time on building 365 into more of a proper web designer.

[pauland]

David, before you go for the 300 page site, I'd get some advice about how to structure things: traditionally Xara software has had issues with very large sites so people have usually split their sites into smaller sections.

If I look at my software use in general I find my need for support has been quite minimal, so I think the serif software should be good to go for a while yet, so don't be in too much of a rush to get that site copied over. Get used to Xara first.

Your points about Xara and Master Pages, etc is shared by many others I'm sure.

You might want to share your new design here before you transfer 300 pages. You might get some good feedback that will be a lot more useful at page 1 than page 300!

Good luck.

Paul

[Acorn]

1. There are a few issues that I am not totally convinced with with 365, the lack of file structure (everything just being dumped into one folder
2. random file names
3. I do not like the sliders that much, the effects slider 2, I cannot change the transitions
4. Other issues that I have I require the php file extension for Sitelok and WD will not let me change the index page to this extension....which means it has to be done after each time I publish
5. I wish there had been more done on the file management side of things instead of just appearing to concentrating on drag and drop and the responsive element as develpoment in 365 from WD11 took place, webplus is much much better at this
6. I would have also like to have seen master pages introduced as mentioned in previous posts
7. I with [sic] (wish) the developers of 365 had spent more time on building 365 into more of a proper web designer

David, I took the liberty of formatting your prose into bullets.

#1 300 pages strikes me as too big for you to handle updates for. Split the site into logical sub-sites and and physical published sub-folders. Xara doesn't offer a managed way for this but it is very feasible.
#2 There are random numbered image files. I overcome this by Naming them (Utilities > Names... > filename="aNiceNameforYourFile", without jpg or png extension). Then Repeat on all pages to only publish one file and not hundreds.
#3 Name the sliders you have tried to use; there many be some fixes.
#4 http://support.xara.com/index.php?_m...articleid=2765 & http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...fter-html-code & https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourc...s.com%2F%20php
#5 You'll have to explain this more please.
#6 A separate debate.
#7 I don't see what you are expecting here. Same as #5.

Acorn

[John Young]

I am also from WebPlus and just rebuilt my site with Xara and to be honest it was very easy. Webplus was great (been with them for many years) but I do find Xara better in a lot of area like easily stretching images to fit a screen, sticky objects, Photo grids etc and its much easier to make a mobile site at the same time as a main site. Plus Xara is much quicker to start than WebPlus which could be annoyingly slow to start

One of the things I have found hard to get used to is the layers on Xara and how you can easily loose stuff in them. I lost my page border as the website background was hidden for some reason

There are of course things which WebPlus did better like the forms for example which Serif sorted in house but Xara uses third party providers - But I was told they are thinking of adding them in house as part of the software not 3rd Party

[gwpriester]

Every application has its strengths and weaknesses. And I think our first reaction is why doesn't my new application do things the way my old application did?

Each program has its own way of doing things and while at first it seems foreign, after you get the feel of the application and how it works, it will make more sense.

It's a lot like learning a new language. Once you find yourself dreaming in that new language, everything will start to fall into place.

And YES We do need MASTER PAGES.

Here is a mini-tutorial for breaking large websites into smaller more manageable sites http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/wo...kbook%201.html

[DanFelix]

Every application has its strengths and weaknesses. And I think our first reaction is why doesn't my new application do things the way my old application did?

Each program has its own way of doing things and while at first it seems foreign, after you get the feel of the application and how it works, it will make more sense.

It's a lot like learning a new language. Once you find yourself dreaming in that new language, everything will start to fall into place.

And YES We do need MASTER PAGES.

Here is a mini-tutorial for breaking large websites into smaller more manageable sites http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/wo...kbook%201.html

Agreed. I came from WebMaster (very old) and NetObjects. My web building in Xara was hindered by my trying to find equivalent methods learned in the previous programs. They (WordPress, NetObjects, Dreamweaver) use a different syntax. Been with Xara since '95 and building sites since '94. Xara can handle large sites but the builder (me) had to change my thinking. Thankfully, Xara has not changed their vision. Now with variants and on-line editing I don't see many projects that it can't perform. Everything I used to do in NetObjects and WordPress, including commercial sites, I now do in Xara. I'm pleased.

[pauland]

If ever there was one program I really wished would go from strength to strength, it was NetObjects Fusion. Sadly it was not to be.

There's one thing that NetObjects Fusion shared with Xara - relying on a single project file to hold all assets, and having issues as sites grow in size.

The big killer for me was that NOF started to have a reputation for trashing project files. Fortunately Xara seems to escape that.

[DanFelix]

Your experience matches mine. Once they changed ownership, the program suffered.

[gwpriester]

I used NetObjects Fusion from version 3-12. I preferred it for large sites as the folder view or whatever they call it, is so much better visually for organizing large sites. But I only have a few large sites still with NOF because I am too lazy to rebuild them with Designer Pro X.

[DanFelix]

You are anything but lazy, Mr. Priester.

The file organization trees are interesting but not physically necessary for the site to operate efficiently. IMHO, the forced imposition of a tree-like relationship for file naming was a burden to the speed.