xara.com getting even further from the Xara DEsigner products?

[Egg Bramhill]

Thank you for the reply Kate.

Guys, calm yourselves, please, there is no impending doom!

Well in my opinion looking through the forums I believe many members are far from happy and predict the end. It's up to you and Xara to 'calm us down' not the other way around. TG members are constantly asking questions and receiving zero or little response from Xara. We are told the big Xara research effort is now into Xara Cloud.

... we are focusing our marketing efforts on Xara Cloud, as we announced at the time.

Xara Cloud is not a graphics program (in my opinion) so I don't see this 'distraction' as helping Xara Graphics software, nor a reason to halt / delay updates to the software we still love but with diminishing returns.

Complaints re the detested 'update' method of delivering Xara software go totally unanswered.

The introduction of the ridiculous Smart Transform scaling was also hated and it's taken many months to apply a kludged fix. Why was it introduced?

Yes, we've had updates. Open Type Features ........ Is this the finished product? At present it's totally not fit for purpose. Is there any road map on these 'updates'? Tables without csv import?

... and Rob from Xara support is also still visible here in the forums.

Yes, Rob is excellent but why is Xara hiding behind him? Xara is your business. It's users are very disillusioned and yourself & CEO Matt should be far more proactive on your flagship TG. To me you're fiddling whilst Rome burns.

So excuse me whilst I calm myself

[csehz]

desktop is still very much part of our lives!

Thank you that is good to read.

Not envying your role in these days, respect that you stand tall, although can not agree that 'tables and text in shapes' are big changes. Some new tools or developments in the existing ones in the core part of the program, those would deserve to be named as real developments

[haakoo]

Guys, calm yourselves, please, there is no impending doom! Remember we have just released an update, and it had at least 2 features that have been much requested (tables and text in shapes). I thought you'd be pleased with those!! I know it was delayed, and that was bad for you and us, but remember it was still the third update in the last 12 months.

The Xara website has changed because Magix are now responsible for the marketing, we are focusing our marketing efforts on Xara Cloud, as we announced at the time. The Magix site gets MUCH more traffic than xara.com, so you shouldn't see that as an ominous thing for the future of Xara. The information is there on magix.com, and what's more much of it is still on xara.com for now (probably best to bookmark xara.com/products).

I know our CEO Matt has answered quite a few emails from TG members, and he has responded to some individual posts, plus there is a link to his Open Letter at the top of this page (which includes his email address). I don't think I can add any valuable extra info to what he says there, but I am trying to answer any new questions as they come up, and Rob from Xara support is also still visible here in the forums. We may not be doing the marketing any more, but desktop is still very much part of our lives!

Kate

Sorry but this isn't what was promised;"we will make updates on a more regular basis instead of one new version a year", when will you start with that?

New features or tools are simply not there,only what you think should be.
Fixing a selfmade fault is not an update.
Javascript object is not an update
pre-designed content is not an update

It's very condescending to give a diplomatic answer once again,don't you think?
It's like a mommy telling its kids "because I said so"

Why don't you come forward with a roadmap to put our minds at ease,
just to make sure you're really working on it.

Don't give us that petty excuse that it is confidential,your competitor from Nottingham has no issues with it.
Having a business is taking chances and you would gain by doing so,
because if you read the posts very good,you have a lot to lose.

Amaze us with real engagement and put your money where your mouth is.

If you are not entitled to do so,rattle the cage in Berlin

[handrawn]

... [the].... desktop is still very much part of our lives!

Kate

Kate - I know your company has been going through a period of restructuring/rebranding/refocusing.. whatever, and I wish you well... but when it comes to desktop designing with Designer Pro and Xara Cloud then there is an analogy I would like to make..

There is a big difference between decorating and furnishing a house with store bought stuff, and making stuff yourself

The focus of Xara has for too long been on providing 'Store bought stuff' so that we can nicely decorate a piece of paper or a web page with things you provide [that often we could get else where, sometimes for free] rather than enhance the tools that enable us to make our own stuff

It's now more than 10 years since I joined TG and most of the things we called for then have still not arrived - grid based bitmap morphing, flood fill with gap tolerence, to name but two - I'm not going to go through the list yet again

To be fair, you provided some stuff: ART brushes for example.. but the implementation of those brushes is such that they have a half-finished feel... same with the recent font improvements, and, it would appear, the newly introduced tables

Several times in the past the 'improvements' have had serious implications for exisiting workflow - you would appear to have fixed the 'squish' issue, I cannot test it as so far a trial version of 15.1 has not been available.. but it is stll sounds tiresome to do compared with other programs

Text within shapes also sounds like there will implications....

You can only bolt things on for so long before things start to fall over - was that the reason for the 15.1 'update' taking so long? ... if things need rewriting from the ground up, it should be done wherever, and as soon as, possible.. before there is a real problem

Last year's Xara Web Designer Release notes had the byline: 'web design for the rest of us' - whilst that piece of inverted snobbery or marketing blurb [you choose] does not seem to be in the current release notes, it still sums up the corporate feel to me

And then there is what has been described as the pettyness of removing access to your online catalog of currently available pre-designed stuff when the licence runs out

You are starting to feel like the high street store that has posters that proudly proclaim what you can buy tomorrow, but today the shelves are mostly empty, and when goods do arrive, they are often sub-standard... - EDIT: no, on reflection, sub-standard is unfair, rather mutton dreseed as lamb; and overpriced mutton at that when you look at what the market can provide...

Me, I dont buy in a store like that, but I wish you well... and good luck to all...

[webmaster]

The new trials are now live on the Xara website - Designer Pro, Photo & Graphic Designer and Web Designer - so if you need to re-download you can now do so.

Just to re-iterate, the main additions are text inside shapes and table support but you can find more details on what's new in the Release Notes (for Designer Pro they are at http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/designer-pro/) and, as ever, make your own individual decisions about whether the new features are valuable to you or not.

@ Haakoo & Handrawn. Some companies publish their roadmap, but many don't. I know, I know, I know that you want us to, but I feel it's best to be unambiguous about this - we haven't done so since 1981 and we have no current plan to do so.

@ Egg, I really don't want to get into another discussion on the Update Service since nothing has changed in this release. But we have certainly taken onboard that you and others don't like the Update Service and I have passed on this feedback and will continue to do so. I have seen some tweaking of the model, but I don't think a major change is very likely. But bear in mind that a return to the model where there is only one update a year would likely be even less popular, so I guess the next most likely alternative is a subscription, and that would mean no program at the end of the term, in the Adobe way!

Kate Moir

[mwenz]

Kate,

If returning to once a year update meant that the bug fixes were available if/when one reinstalled, i.e., that the application could have all its revisions through the year, I think that is a better model than not having bug fixes in that event.

It seems that if Xara cannot figure out a means of separating out bug fixes from updates that include content/features, one actually looses if one doesn't reup for at least fixes to the version they purchased a license for.

None of this is new. I and others harped on this point when the so-called Update Service was first announced. Xara really needs to separate these things out.

Mike

[rpc9943]

I am on the boat for using the xara desktop, as I use it every day full time for my job!

[Egg Bramhill]

Kate, once again thank you for your reply. Unfortunately you have handed over marketing to Magix and therefore have no control within this area. As Mike mentions above:

..separating out bug fixes from updates

is a huge issue.

Even more so is access to the CC. Also computer crashes/new computer purchases, and all is lost.

The annual update was a long anticipated wait but updating to the latest version meant it was mine ad infinitum. No longer the case unfortunately. Why do you suggest the Adobe way is the only alternative?

I reiterate, TG members are presumably the core of Xara's customers, even though many only lurk. However the recent tone of the forum must inform you (and many visitors to TG) of the disliked path Xara/Magix is undertaking.

[jaydear]

... computer crashes/new computer purchases, and all is lost...

This, for me, is probably the biggest issue. How a company can justify removing access to updates (i.e. bug fixes) that occurred during a user's paid subscription period is too hard for me to swallow. Only being able to access updates online through a current subscription and not being able to save them for future calamities is unacceptable. It is unfriendly and alienating.

On top of that there are annoying bugs e.g. the white outline that appears on edited bitmaps which also increases the dimensions, that have not been fixed despite other users asking. I should not have to work around such bugs after paying hundreds of dollars for three versions (10,11,12).

I bought XDPro to have all the modules I need in one integrated package, but I still find myself having to jump in and out of an external editor. Over three years later and after spending hundreds of dollars, I'm no better off for the stuff I do and in any case, my access has expired. The ultimate dislike

[handrawn]

Thanks Kate

Can you at least tweak the subscription model so that you don't lose bug fixes or content that apply up to the end of your susbscription, if you have to reinstall on a new computer after the subscription expired - it was never like that before and whilst I acknowlede that the EULA makes it clear, it is tantamount to sharp practice - it is the big glaring non-no of the model from the users point of view...