Xara in Computeractive

[GOC]

The 21 September edition of Computer Active ("the UK's best-selling computer mag" is how they describe themselves - www.computeractive.vnunet.com) has a group test of "Top drawing software".
The review is not too keen on Xara2 - or rather on Corel. It says "Corel bought the rights to market this program from a company called Xara, but the question we have to ask is why? Corel has never seriously promoted Xara and the only way to buy it is to download it from the web." ---bit about cost snipped --- "which would be a bargain if you didn't have to keep going back to the website for the fonts, fills and clipart you usually find on a program's CD-ROM."
It says that Xara has two great strengths - it runs smoothly even on slow processors and with limited memory. And it can save drawings as static or animated web graphics. The only serious weakness is the inability to create Adobe Acrobat files.
In conclusion they say that one should wait for the autumn release of Xara X - it has stacks of new features and will be available on CD-ROM.
No mention that the agreement with Corel is finished. But all in all they like Xara.

[GOC]

The 21 September edition of Computer Active ("the UK's best-selling computer mag" is how they describe themselves - www.computeractive.vnunet.com) has a group test of "Top drawing software".
The review is not too keen on Xara2 - or rather on Corel. It says "Corel bought the rights to market this program from a company called Xara, but the question we have to ask is why? Corel has never seriously promoted Xara and the only way to buy it is to download it from the web." ---bit about cost snipped --- "which would be a bargain if you didn't have to keep going back to the website for the fonts, fills and clipart you usually find on a program's CD-ROM."
It says that Xara has two great strengths - it runs smoothly even on slow processors and with limited memory. And it can save drawings as static or animated web graphics. The only serious weakness is the inability to create Adobe Acrobat files.
In conclusion they say that one should wait for the autumn release of Xara X - it has stacks of new features and will be available on CD-ROM.
No mention that the agreement with Corel is finished. But all in all they like Xara.

[caraman1]

Did critics all have the same mother? If I see a movie review from a movie critic and they say that a certain movie is bad, I know that I better see it, because most of the time, it will be great!
I don't think any of the drawbacks to Xara 2 were Xara's fault. I don't believe they had any control over the D/L only version. It was "cutting edge" to try that, just that once they realised that it lacked something, like a CD, they (Corel)didn't do anything about it. I can't comprehend how anyone can try Xara and not immediately fall in love with it.

(but that's just my opinion....)

Dennis [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

<a href=http://www.inconnect.com/~dennisco/>Carillus Design</a>

[mgeduld]

It DOES suck that you have to go the the website to get fonts, fills, etc. Maybe it's not Xara's fault, but why should the average user (or critic) care about that.

Sophia Copola was terrible in The Godfather III. I read somewhere that she was cast at the last minute to replace another actress, who got sick and couldn't take the role. Knowing that changes nothing--at least for me. She was still terrible, and so the movie was worse than it had to be.

Not that I think Xara is terrible--I love it, but I do think the Corel relationship caused a lot of problems. I am looking forward to Xara sans Corel!

Marcus Geduld
{ email me } { visit me }

[diniel]

The magazine says to wait for Xara X in the autumn. I think Xara have failed to tell the magazine of their schedule and have probably lost a lot of sales because of it.

The magazine came out yesterday, and is issued every 2 weeks. That means within the life of the magazine, Xara X will be released.

It's unfortunate for Xara of course, that the magazine were doing this review in this issue of the magazine, but I think a bit more information from Xara would have ensured the magazine understood and made clear the release date of XX. For such an opportunity, surely they could have released a beta of the software to the magazine.

I'm not really suprised they didn't, and I'm sure everyone else is the same. Xara's marketing department seem more tight-lipped than MI5 at times.