Worth the Money?

[Turan]

It has taken me years to get used to, don't laugh, Corel7 suit. Took the decision to master one thing rather than learn Corel and PhotoShop and Paintshop Pro etc etc etc.

Way back then young Mr Priester was doing tuts in Corel. When he moved to Corel Xara etc still followed them and found could do most if not all in Corel.

So, without to much sway from those who are on commission form Xara is it worth the money when I have a package I think is good and does most things.

Please state if you have used Corel7 and now have XaraX.

PS for those in the UK, what was the final cost of XaraX when adding import and vat etc.

[Turan]

It has taken me years to get used to, don't laugh, Corel7 suit. Took the decision to master one thing rather than learn Corel and PhotoShop and Paintshop Pro etc etc etc.

Way back then young Mr Priester was doing tuts in Corel. When he moved to Corel Xara etc still followed them and found could do most if not all in Corel.

So, without to much sway from those who are on commission form Xara is it worth the money when I have a package I think is good and does most things.

Please state if you have used Corel7 and now have XaraX.

PS for those in the UK, what was the final cost of XaraX when adding import and vat etc.

[tad]

You bet,
This forum alone is worth every farthing. PLUS, you don't have to actually USE Xara; just thinking and communicating is enough,,,,well, it should be.
Regards............Tad... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
ps. I still use Corel4 a lot, Hey, you said "don't laugh"..........t.

[pduggan]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>PS for those in the UK, what was the final cost of XaraX when adding import and vat etc.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Turan

Pricing in $US presumably for worldwide convenience, but no import because it's a British product. I make the current price (using Xara.com's own currency converter) £122.38 including VAT.



Peter</p>



Peat Stack or Pete's Tack?</p>

[qmr]

That Corel 7 suite got me into graphics on computer too. First thing since Windows Paint (and I still think thats pretty good too..) I still use bits of 7 (especially Trace, and the printing layout features.. still the best around here) and find that it runs quuite a bit faster on these newer computers than the P133 32 megs ram I/it started on. (that's now a dedicated chat machine for teens .. sigh.. makes you fear that karma actually is real..)

I still remember the cold fear of seeing the <font color="FF0000">'illegal operation'</font> messages regularly, and the marvellous discovery of the 10 minutes autobackup... ah Corelworld..

Only thing I never used was CorelDream. The checkered lines reminded me of high school maths classes.. ick.

But everythings so much faster in Xara, however for arrangement of photostencils etc, Draw is still best for me. But I have to use Freudhand.. theres a moral there somewhere. Graphics-wise.. Are Mac users masochists or am I just being rude?

(sorry)

Q.
http://www.Qdesign.co.nz

[Ross Macintosh]

Turan - I've never used coreldraw 7. (I moved from CorelDraw 5 to the first CorelXara). I'm not going to say Xara is right for you. You sound like you aren't inclined to rush out and try new things, when what you're already used to continues to meet your needs. I don't know how you use your CorelDraw 7 Suite and so it is only conjecture if I say you can do it better/faster with Xara.

I will say that maybe you should give Xara a chance to strut her stuff. Download the demo and play with her. Goof around and get a sense of her personality. Once you have a feel for Xara, try doing the kind of drawing in Xara that you normally do in CorelDraw. That will put you in the position to assess Xara and what you like and don't like. You might surprise yourself and find the transition from one program to the other very easy. You might find out why us xarans like xara so much.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[gwpriester]

You must be kidding [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

I still use DRAW, version 10. And DRAW is a pretty darn good application. I think I like its bitmap creation and editing capabilities a lot.

And I often wish Xara had a Ctrl R for repeating something the way DRAW does.

But Xara X has not only closed the feature gap with DRAW, it has a bunch of features that DRAW does not, including Bevels (not those crummy vector extrusions), and Profiles for greater control.

And unlike some bloatware that I won't mention, Xara is still darn quick and has the best rendering engine in the business.

I did my chrome pretzel test with Xara. It's a 900-step blend on a pretzel-shaped path using two chrome like fountain filled circles. Xara's is perfectly smooth. DRAW's, even with 999 steps, is still jagged looking.

Is Xara worth the money? Does a bear do something I can't mention in this conference, but it has to do with eliminating certain by products of a meal, in the woods? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Even So Humble...

[jclements]

I am a long time CorelDRAW user and still use it often. DRAW does have a lot of very good vector editing tools/functions which Xara does not have and I believe that will be one of the first things that will "hit" you. But after a while you should be able to adapt (plus Xara does have a few very cool editing functions DRAW does not have).

Visually, you will IMMEDIATELY notice how "smooth" and "crisp" Xara's transparencies look (colors don't look "muddy") and they don't cripple printing like DRAW can sometimes do. Xara handles bitmap fills much better. Xara's screen display is VIBRANT. You may also find that Elliptical fills and transparencies can save a lot of frustration in trying to achieve certain effects ... something you simply can't do in DRAW.

You can get good, professional assistance in a very timely manner. Either from the advanced users, moderators of this forum, or sometimes directly from Xara personnel.

Finally, it seems Xara is not reluctant to issue software "fixes" once they have passed their quality checks. No need to wait for 6 months for a service patch release.

[Turan]

Thanks,

Lots of good advice. Keep meaning to upgrade, think it's time to check out the demo.

Nice to see you did not just stamp on Corel7 - would have been disapointed if you had done the hard sell on XaraX and not mentioned Corel still have some advantages.

Use Corel3D lots - out of all the corel suite it is the only one that crashes on me.

Once again thanks ... about to check out the next topic the Tut :-)

[Peter Clifton]

Turan

The Xara Gallery and Xaraxone featured artists and of course this forum, really highlight the strengths of the Xara package.

If your work involves or partly involves creating anything similar then there really is no contest, Xara should be part of your toolbox.

In my trial look at Xara X, I found the package quite straight forward in terms of basic interface access, most of what you know in Draw can be directly translated, and the regulars here will help you out with what can't and show you the myriad of possibilities the new and extended effects tools of Xara offer.

I'd use the first few days of the trial, not doing anything other than basic shape creation, node manipulaiton, colour fills etc, to find out where everything is and how it works then use the remaining time to try out the advanced techniques posted in and around here.

I come here to listen mostly and take a gander at the latest creations from the Xara community, just be cause I don't use the package doesn't mean I can't admire the work posted here.

A community needs different points of view if it is to survive and grow and it appears that these have always been welcomed here which is a good sign.

Peter

(who also uses Draw 7, to earn a daily crust)