Upgrade Xara pro19?

[mentorman]

Just had email notice regarding update of Xara designer pro x being upgraded to V20. Visited the site with expectations of "upgrade" only to find little or minimal information other than the "discounted" price of £120+vat. and
NEW
New Interface
NEW
Customizable Tables
NEW
Import data from spreadsheets
NEW
Widget upgrades
NEW
Multi-language support
IMPROVED
Live Copies
IMPROVED
Web Export
BUT no details or examples of what one is to expect or is included in the purchase price. It does not even appear in their product section so does this mean the death of xara designer pro x? Or a marketing ploy to sell a pig in a poke?
Ken

[handrawn]

it's not officially released [launched] until 'next week' it probably says this in the email you received, it did in the one I got

release notes will probably follow when it is official

meanwhile I upgraded at the offer price, I was always going to upgrade out of the magix product, and the 'full price' of over 300 GBP if you include UK VAT is high to say the least

[handrawn]

...it seems to me that, except for the exclusions mentioned in the email link, xara designer pro 20 [perpetual] has most of the features listed in designer pro+ release notes up to march 23; in any case some of the said exceptions were not released until after march

could be wrong but there is certainly a lot more than in version 19

and I expect, as said, that release notes will be updated one way or another before too long...

http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/des...plus/index.htm

[Acorn]

The further detail is on https://www.xara.com/designerpro/v20/.

Some of its detail:

Font Selection
Automatically find and apply installed fonts with special characters.

Working with tables
Now you can design tables, product sheets, and invoices in Xara, use and edit them in PowerPoint and MS Word documents.

Copy external data into Xara
Copy and paste data from spreadsheets or other external sources into your Xara tables; for accurate and beautiful marketing and sales docs.

Fully Customizable tables
Re-order rows & columns with a simple click & drag, paste multi-line text from spreadsheets and copy cells from one table to another.

CMYK Color Profile Control
The Color Profile used to display CMYK colors on screen and on export can now be controlled for each document, via the View tab of the Options dialog

Fast-loading lines and brushes
Previous versions of Xara experienced a delay in loading the Line Gallery which in some cases also caused the current selection to be lost.

Widgets got more accessible
Using Widgets, Symbol Picker, Google Font Finder and the Erase Tool Guide are now accessible with the latest Microsoft Edge technology for a smooth workflow and widest range of widgets like PayPal and YouTube.

Align Toolbar
The distribute options on the Align Toolbar have been changed from Distribute centers, to Distribute equally spaced, a more common requirement because it works well with objects of different sizes.

A superior mobile experience
Page animations got improved on pages with vertical scrolling. A vertical swipe will no longer changes page on pages with vertical scrolling or if text selected.

Show readers where they stand
Now you can automatically show total pages alongside current page, for example Page 3 of 44. Just go Insert > Page Count. You can enter complex numbered lists, including a parent number.

Export as SVG
Export more types of graphical object to web using SVG instead of having to make separate bitmap image files for each one. As a result your website and web documents load faster.

New Repeating Objects option
The Repeating Objects feature now offers a ‘Make Repeating’ option. This turns the current selected object into a Repeating Object, without automatically copying it to all pages - you can then copy it onto selected pages.

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If you purchase before year end, you have a 60% discount for a perpetual licence - with no updates. It is also many releases behind Xara Designer Pro Plus (subscription). The latter is updated about bi-monthly (6 times a year0.
v20 is missing SVG element rendering for HTML and oodles of improvements that Pro Plus currently has. Expect a similar v21 upgrade cost, if it appears in a year's time.

You therefore have a cost and capability trade-off.
v20 --- £120/y (discount [60MAGIXV20])& behind by about two years.
Pro+ --- £108 (first year discount [40PLUS]) but £180/y thereafter & fully up-to-date. Xara usually offers attractive discounts every year.
So costs are almost on parity.
The lag will always put you a further £240 out-of-pocket, if you drop the subscription and want to have almost identical functionality.

My personal opinion, if you are a professional designer go for Cloud Pro+ - £204/y, but haggle with Xara for the Designer Pro+ discount. Give up a shop coffee each week to pay for it.
If you are a hobbyist (or the professional designer above) then get v20 and buy an upgrade every couple of years.

tl;dr Pay £200/y subscription for the latest and/or £100/y for a perpetual licence with a 2-year lag in function.

Acorn

P.S. Either path brings in Xara Support, making Magix a dim past.

[handrawn]

thanks for that acorn, the link you give is the link in the email I received...

as ever, it boils down to what you want the program for

if it will do what you want for the forseeable future, the perpetual version is a fair option, as xara say in so many words; and it avoids getting locked into features you many not have really needed, but then have to stick with

I dislike the broad-brush catagorisation that the perpetual version is for hobbists; a professional graphics designer or web designer may think that, those in other disciplines may not...

...making Magix a dim past...

this however is a win-win

[mentorman]

Thanks guys for that information (especially Acorn) why on earth this was not made easily available on the Xara website I will never know but only guess as a slow phasing out of designer pro but hey ho that's progress I suppose.
I think I will go for the V20 update.

Thanks again for the info and have a great Christmas and hopefully a better New Year
Cheers
Ken

[handrawn]

... have a great Christmas and hopefully a better New Year

you are welcome, and wish you all the best too

xara marketing has always been 'interesting'

[behzad]

I love your signature, Nothing lasts forever lol

you are welcome, and wish you all the best too

xara marketing has always been 'interesting'

[handrawn]

but of course... nothing else does

[shiphen]

> v20 --- £120/y (discount [60MAGIXV20])& behind by about two years.

That's outrageous. Xara are clearly trying to phase out perpetual licences if the are deliberately making the perpetual licenses 2 years out-of-date. :[

I have told Xara that being a self-employed user with unpredictable workload, I shall never EVER buy a subscription to any piece of software.

i.e. My view is that each and every time that they want more money from me, they will have to earn it with some new work that is of value.

They have been telling me that V20 "is a significant upgrade from v19." but if it is deliberately being kept behind by "about 2 years" that is not acceptable.


Decision: OK, I'll tell Xara that if & when they bring V20 up-to-date with the features in Pro+, then I would be delighted to pay the £120.

J