Casual Notes on Xara Cloud+ and Xara Pro+ Combo

[Acorn]

I totally agree. Let me forward your feedback.
If you uncheck the include PDF option, it should at least remove the top bar.. which I know is not obvious. We can definitely improve this.

Thank you Rob.

Previewing a Print Document or Presentation
I "discovered" the untick PDF and alluded to that (fifth bullet).

It is also missing from the PDF Manual / Help in the diagrams and text.

Acorn

[Acorn]

Interworking Cloud+ & Pro+
I have set up Dropbox as my Cloud Storage so while I create and save designs, they are also published into Dropbox. I do this so I have backup cover locally and globally at no cost.
It is now a joy to be able to save in Pro+ and see the changes update in Cloud+ and the same in reverse. Xara seems to have improved the speed and so there are few seconds to seeing a change. Ideal for Customer interaction and Team working.
That said, I added a Comment and that took 68 seconds to appear in Pro+ the first time. Thereafter things were far quicker.

The Share to Web requires it to be clicked, followed by an Update. I have to assume therefore that the view of the Share link has to have a Refresh (Ctrl+F5) to see the changes.
I am disappointed that the share (e.g., http://shared.xara.com/OkPooFb6SZ/#xl_xr_page_index) is not SSL.

On Comments, I fail to see why they are not presented in Pro+. They exist but are hidden. This seems an ideal communication mechanism half-implemented.

In MS Windows Registry I changed Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Xara\XtremePro Sub x64\17\Options\DocInfoShowWebDialogDocInfo's value to 1. This provides File > Document Information, which is a web page similar to Doc Info but with the added bonus of a History of interactions:

History

Who	When	Which	Editor
xpa	‎11‎/‎06‎/‎2020 ‎09‎:‎21‎:‎51 CREATED	Presentation Test.xar	Xara Designer Pro+ 17 17.0.2.59369
Administrator	‎11‎/‎06‎/‎2020 ‎09‎:‎24‎:‎34	fb3e8000-abbc-11ea-9800-4deae8ab64f3	Xara Designer Pro 17 Online 17.0.2.59340
Administrator	‎11‎/‎06‎/‎2020 ‎09‎:‎26‎:‎22	3b4bbf50-abbd-11ea-9800-4deae8ab64f3	Xara Designer Pro 17 Online 17.0.2.59340
xpa	‎11‎/‎06‎/‎2020 ‎09‎:‎28‎:‎50	Presentation Test.xar	Xara Designer Pro+ 17 17.0.2.59369
Administrator	‎11‎/‎06‎/‎2020 ‎09‎:‎30‎:‎09	c299f620-abbd-11ea-9924-61ebdf81f2fc	Xara Designer Pro 17 Online 17.0.2.59340

Useful but the Who and the Which parts could be made more user friendly. The Registry change works in the XDAs (I have encountered an occasional error page but this does not affect anything - I am sure Xara will sort it out).

I mentioned elsewhere that Cloud+ is not really fit for Website and Presentation creation or subsequent editing due to the lack of Layer Management and handling of Placeholders. Hover buttons are fine. No NavBars.

Acorn

[Acorn]

Embedding Content
Now it might be me but I like poking things.

In Cloud+, you have Share > Download > Presentation (off-line use).
I tried it and you get a single HTML file with your presentation all wrapped neatly in Base-64 encoding.

So what?

Well, if you use Shift+Ctrl+Alt+A and attach the file to your design you can then create a Placeholder to display it.

So what?

Well, the Embed a Widget code with the Path adjusted to relative is:

<iframe src="index_htm_files/Presentation Test.html#xl_xr_page_title" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" name="xara_iframe" ><p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p></iframe>

So now you can scale a presentation so you have a "live preview" of say 200px wide or start at a specified slide.
@Xara+: Can you make the Next/Previous Page buttons scale to match the presentation's size?

I can now render a thumb's click to open a larger presentation in another Placeholder or a separate Tab.

Acorn

[Acorn]

On-line Chat
I have to commend Xara on its deployment of Intercom Chat. Beats Magix into a cocked-hat.
Accessible from Pro+ through Help > More Xara Designer Pro+ > Support pages.

It ill be interesting to see how Xara will handle volume loading.
The bot has a lot to desire but nice to see it tries to offer up Knowledge articles. I designed and delivered similar in 2008 for a HR Department of a very large organisation.

Acorn

[Gypsyjoe]

Sorry Acorn but is that a misspell or is that how you Brits spell organization? Just had to ask after a previous conversation we had over color!!!!

[Acorn]

Sorry Acorn but is that a misspell or is that how you Brits spell organization? Just had to ask after a previous conversation we had over color!!!!

GJ, yes. Organisation as listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, although the z-spelling is acceptable too.

I was brought up on -sation (conversation) and it seems natural to follow on from the way British English handles related verbs:
In American English, verbs end with -ize, versus British English, in which the spelling changes to -ise.

• American English: finalize, realize, emphasize, standardize
• British English: finalise, realise, emphasise, standardise

It waxes and wanes: https://rapidbi.com/organisational-organizational/ but I suspect people only have MS spell-checking to fall back on.

Acorn

[Gypsyjoe]

I actually have to thank you for the explanation Acorn as I was more having fun with you with my question but your explanation really taught me something. Thanx!!!!