How big can xara website be?

[Acorn]

A Table of Contents (TOC) is a automatic list creator using Headings 1-9.
I think, sadly, in your case, it is only part of Xara Designer Pro X.

Alas, Xara doesn't automatically do Sitemaps either in the sense you are thinking (Like Gary's diagram).

You can use something like a web search tool (I use DuckDuckGo Search Box (https://duckduckgo.com/search_box)), which will find everything across all web pages, Conventional or Supersite.

A Supersite, in Xara's words is:

the whole site in a single HTML file) which lets you present your website with animated transitions between pages, or as a vertical or horizontal arrangement of pages, which users can swipe through on mobiles and tablets.

There is nothing to stop you setting up a clutch of buttons for each article/subject in a graphical layout and have that as a Home page with a simple Home link on every other page.
Each Subject could have a simple NavBar to related Aticles.

Acorn

[ewraysure]

A Table of Contents (TOC) is a automatic list creator using Headings 1-9.
I think, sadly, in your case, it is only part of Xara Designer Pro X.

Alas, Xara doesn't automatically do Sitemaps either in the sense you are thinking (Like Gary's diagram).

You can use something like a web search tool (I use DuckDuckGo Search Box (https://duckduckgo.com/search_box)), which will find everything across all web pages, Conventional or Supersite.

A Supersite, in Xara's words is:


There is nothing to stop you setting up a clutch of buttons for each article/subject in a graphical layout and have that as a Home page with a simple Home link on every other page.
Each Subject could have a simple NavBar to related Aticles.

Acorn

More thanks, Acorn!
Thinking about it, my thought processes have been blinkered by thirteen years of using WebPlus and I've found it difficult to get to grips with the workings of other programs like WordPress and Xara. And again, it's probably me, but I've got several Magix programs and find it hard to understand their instruction manuals. Are they translated from German - 'cos they feel like they are written in an alien language to me (although I understand Xara was not originally a Magix product). One example is that I'd like to know more about Xara's web hosting, but I can discover nothing about it on the Magix/Xara websites (should have looked on this forum) - probably me being thick.
I don't want all the "we've got templates of web sites that you can adapt to your needs" stuff. I get that this makes designing a website easy and quick for the amateur, but I want to create my own site from scratch (and it probably shows). I think of WebPlus and Xara as DTP programs for websites - it's the way each connects the pages which I've found difficult to reconcile.
But I'll get there in the end.
What I find frustrating is that the Xara blurb says "Web Designer is unlike any website creation tool you've seen before.....There is no easier solution". "Unlike" - it's certainly that! "Easier solution"? Don't think so.
And now I read that several reviews say it's liable to crash/freeze at any moment. Well, that's just great! A program with bugs.
And you guys seem to have a gift/knack for working round problems by experimentation, and come up with solutions which ain't covered in the instructional manual - something that's way beyond this mortal.
I salute you!

[ewraysure]

Is there any mileage re: large websites in creating a Home Page and Site Map in WebPlus and then linking to individual pages created using Xara as separate websites. I've done this for a few articles already and it works well, using the Xara free one-year web-hosting facility.

[Acorn]

Until I can see your content, it is hard to offer specific advice. I would stick with one program.
The power of a Xara design is its portability across platforms and media. One day it is on the web. The next I offer a USB version or run a presentation form my laptop.

Magix does not own Xara, it markets it for Xara Group Ltd. Xara has a German director and each bills the other.
Xara is still UK-based with 17 staff at its lowest and then Xara Cloud came along and allegedly 40 staff into Xara GmbH.
You need Venn Diagram skills to understand who is doing what.

All programs are buggy. The "fight" over how Xara handles these with its "fall back" approach rolls on.
If you are new to the program, and are using v16.3, then it is relatively clear and well up for the work you are aiming for.
If you bought in less that a year ago, you are entitled to a free upgrade to at least v17.0. Did you know?

acorm

[ewraysure]

Until I can see your content, it is hard to offer specific advice. I would stick with one program.
The power of a Xara design is its portability across platforms and media. One day it is on the web. The next I offer a USB version or run a presentation form my laptop.

Magix does not own Xara, it markets it for Xara Group Ltd. Xara has a German director and each bills the other.
Xara is still UK-based with 17 staff at its lowest and then Xara Cloud came along and allegedly 40 staff into Xara GmbH.
You need Venn Diagram skills to understand who is doing what.

All programs are buggy. The "fight" over how Xara handles these with its "fall back" approach rolls on.
If you are new to the program, and are using v16.3, then it is relatively clear and well up for the work you are aiming for.
If you bought in less that a year ago, you are entitled to a free upgrade to at least v17.0. Did you know?

acorm

Thanks for clarification about Xara - I had picked up that it wasn't developed by Magix, just added to their portfolio.
Sadly, I bought the program X16 more than a year ago (only now getting to grips with it) - but thanks for the alert.
Probably a stupid question: if I export a Xara page to a Web folder and then link to it (don't even know if you can do this), will the page still display differently when viewed on phones/tablets etc.

[gwpriester]

I think you can use Web Designer and Designer Pro X interchangeably. You can open both .web and .xar files in each program.

A website created in one product, should work fine in the other product. The exception is some features are not present in both applications. So while a feature might not be supported in Web Designer by a site created in Designer Pro X, the feature should still publish OK.

If I am totally off the deep end here, Acorn will set me straight.

[Acorn]

I think you can use Web Designer and Designer Pro X interchangeably. You can open both .web and .xar files in each program.
A website created in one product, should work fine in the other product. The exception is some features are not present in both applications. So while a feature might not be supported in Web Designer by a site created in Designer Pro X, the feature should still publish OK.
If I am totally off the deep end here, Acorn will set me straight.

Gary, all you say is correct. The OP was asking about mixing WebPlus and XWDP.

Acorn

[ewraysure]

I have actually done this with around six links to XWDP.
Perhaps check out http://www.prestonherts.co.uk/page90aa.html#whatsnew1 and click on the 10 August 2019 update.

[Acorn]

Probably a stupid question: if I export a Xara page to a Web folder and then link to it (don't even know if you can do this), will the page still display differently when viewed on phones/tablets etc.

There are no stupid questions...

I shall assume a Web Folder is simply one that is accessed through an Internet Protocol: http:// or https://.

Regardless of where and how you access your Xara web pages, say, index.htm, that page will render exactly as designed. It is a WYSIWYG approach and will have the same presentation (subject to the browser's capabilities).

To make a phone view more readable, Xara has Variants where you can reowrk a page's contents to be simpler and larger and fit betten onto the screen.

I think I would appraoch your needs as a set of Supersite subject/articles with a single scaling Variant.
I would have a top landing page that itself is Variant-based to jump into each subject area.

Acorn

[ewraysure]

There are no stupid questions...

I shall assume a Web Folder is simply one that is accessed through an Internet Protocol: http:// or https://.

Regardless of where and how you access your Xara web pages, say, index.htm, that page will render exactly as designed. It is a WYSIWYG approach and will have the same presentation (subject to the browser's capabilities).

To make a phone view more readable, Xara has Variants where you can reowrk a page's contents to be simpler and larger and fit betten onto the screen.

I think I would appraoch your needs as a set of Supersite subject/articles with a single scaling Variant.
I would have a top landing page that itself is Variant-based to jump into each subject area.

Acorn

More great advice. Many thanks.
Another question, please.
What reasons are there for not creating a sitemap (either in Xara or WebPlus, say) and linking each page (all 200+) individually to the Site Map? I understand that you couldn't apply one feature (say, buttons) across every page with one click - but if you had say 15 sub-sites, presumably you would have to upload a common feature 15 times anyway.
You see this is where I'm at. I have created 200+ pages using Xara. They began as a common template which I designed and then I loaded photos and texts. I now want to pull it all together. The sub-sites plan is good. And the Variant idea is something I must look at.I'm also wondering whether I can link each created page to a Site Map - or even download each page to my computer and create links to my computer as you would do to upload pdf files. Why shouldn't I do this, I wonder?
I'd be really grateful for your thoughts on this, please, as I'm about 95% of the way to uploading this monster of a website.