variants

[spd1954]

just quick questionwhy when I resize text in say a mobile variant does it also resize the text in the main site?
thanks

[gwpriester]

Some things that should not change, such as text size or position, sometimes do. It's frustrating.

After I create a mobile variant, I always select everything on the mobile variant page and select Websites Variants > Stop Sharing. It's just easier that way because I never know what is going to change or not change.

[Acorn]

Sorry Gary, that is not really the right approach.
Text font size is the same across variants until you tell it to be different: https://helpandsupport.xara.com/xara...variant%20text.

Select your Variant text and change its font size.
In the Text tool, you will see a plus suffixed with the Paragraph Style.
Click the down arrow and pick the Update 'para style name' in this variant.
This will change the named style font size, and any other changes, to your set values (and remove the plus suffix).
Back in Main the font size is unchanged, despite showing the same Paragraph Style.

Changes in actual prose are reflect across variants.
If you are intent of keeping different copies of prose for each Text Area then by all means Stop Sharing.

Acorn

[behzad]

All good and said Acorn, but should it not be easier than that? If Xara wants to they can make it much easier for people. I have had my share of problems even following your instructions in the past/xara solution.
No offense to you but many things can be improved upon specially now that xara is charging a premium with their yearly subscription users deserve more.

[Acorn]

Thank you behzad, I suppose the difference is I sit down with a product and try to use it and then try to break it.
If I then know what it can and can't do, I work with it or find another tool or approach.

Xara's features are rather useful when handling Variants; it allows for a responsive mindset where the same detail appears in a different layout but allows for you to go fully adaptive by letting you have completely different material in each variant.

What would be a great advance would be the means to change the transition effects across variants (main - Conventional, tablet variant - Crossfade, mobile variant - Vertical Scroll). What you are after in the "many things can be improved" front is more along the lines of a better user interface. In this instance, that would only be effective where people actually use Paragraph Styling (and Thematic colours) properly. So it boils down to deeper understanding (RTFM) and self-discipline (practice, practice, practice).

Acorn

[behzad]

Yes your right Acorn, but remember Xara with their + online features are looking to make the life of users easier by drag and drop and easy user interface. The same should be done with Xara pro+. I am sure they will revise this in the near future. The Market for Xara pro + is still there or else they would abandon the program.

[Acorn]

I would say the market is there for the Xara engine.
How Xara packages it is its business.

Remember 32-bit? Xara uses Qt for its UI design. I think Qt is owned by Nokia. Qt 6.5 only supports 64-bit so in moving from Qt 5.15, Xara had to drop 32-bit Xara applications.
Remember IE? Xara was running with embedded IE modules well into v19.
Keeping desktop applications alive is expensive; Xara is still way behind in upgrading a lot of its third party integrations.

Building a Xara in the Cloud is just one instance so upgrading anything is a breeze in comparison.
You also get the advantage of being cross-platform are your client is the browser.
Xara has been hinting Presentation Steps are coming into Xara Cloud. So what? This suggests Xara is getting around to managing Layers in the cloud, hence web application delivery...

Eventually, Xara will design the XDA away so do not expect major innovations in this to the detriment of Xara's clear business aspiration.
Obviously, it pays to keep its "2M+" XDA customers on board as this has to be a major source of revenue.

Acorn