JUST RELEASED: A New Version of Xara Designer Pro X

[stevegill]

We’ve released updates to Xara Designer Pro X and Web Designer, available now.

As promised we have been working away on Open Type and Table support and there are significant enhancements to both, which I’m sure will be welcome here on TG. Another highlight is a powerful new graphic design tool, ‘color palette from photo’, which analyses a photo, identifies the predominant colors and creates a color palette of Theme Colors based on those colors which you can then use in your document.

You can find full details on these and other new features in the Release Notes @ http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/designer-pro-x16/ and http://releasenotes.xara.hosting/web-designer-16/

If you have an active Update Service then you can access this update now for free. NOTE you need to re-download the software, there is no auto-update. You can uninstall your current version or run it alongside if you prefer, and it uses the same serial number.
http://www.xara.com/designer-pro/download/
http://www.xara.com/web-designer/download/

If your Update Service has expired then you can renew your Update Service / upgrade in order to get this and other updates since your version. Go to the Designer Pro or Web Designer page on magix.com and click Upgrade.

Also since we have moved on to v16 you have the opportunity to download the trial and try it again, even if you have run the trial of a previous version.

One final point, there is no 32 bit version, we will no longer be producing them.

I hope you enjoy the new features,

Kate Moir, Xara

Hi Kate,

What happens after the 1 November upgrade deadline? Does that mean I can no longer upgrade? Or do I then have to pay full price?

I have both Xara Designer Pro X and Web Designer Premium. It seems to me that, as the upgrades for these both have the same new features, it would be much cheaper for me to just upgrade Web Designer.

= Steve

[Acorn]

Hi Kate,
What happens after the 1 November upgrade deadline? Does that mean I can no longer upgrade? Or do I then have to pay full price?
I have both Xara Designer Pro X and Web Designer Premium. It seems to me that, as the upgrades for these both have the same new features, it would be much cheaper for me to just upgrade Web Designer.
= Steve

Steve, i assume you are looking at http://content.magix.net/newsfeeds/x...S/en/index.htm or similar.

Magix handles marketing and every time a deadline has been reached, it is magixally extended. You will never have to pay full price foran upgrade or buy-in to the Update Service, until Magix proves me wrong.

I personally stopped updating my XWDP in favour of just extending XDPX. It costs more but XDPX has many more features over XWDP. If, however, you rarely use these then flip.

Acorn

[stevegill]

Steve, i assume you are looking at http://content.magix.net/newsfeeds/x...S/en/index.htm or similar.

Magix handles marketing and every time a deadline has been reached, it is magixally extended. You will never have to pay full price foran upgrade or buy-in to the Update Service, until Magix proves me wrong.

I personally stopped updating my XWDP in favour of just extending XDPX. It costs more but XDPX has many more features over XWDP. If, however, you rarely use these then flip.

Acorn

Hi Acorn,

Thanks for responding. I much prefer XDPX and have Version 15. However, the upgrade price for XWDP is less than half the upgrade price of XDPX, and yet the new features are exactly the same as far as I can tell. So I figure I could upgrade XWDP to get the new features and then use both XWDP and XDPX, depending on what I'm doing at the time. Once a version of XDPX comes out that has features unique to it I would then consider upgrading XDPX. So far there hasn't been any compelling reasons as the updates have been few and far between.

One thing I find curious is that after upgrading XDPX last time, Xara/Magix promised continual release of new features instead of annual releases, and yet nothing worthwhile came until after the update plan expired. They said they weren't going to do yearly updates like they did before (which I preferred) and yet the upgrade offer I received said renew your update plan and receive version 16 of XDPX.

It looks like they're trying to have it both ways.

Anyway, I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. It used to be so easy to make a decision to upgrade but now it's just frustrating. Maybe I won't upgrade either product.

= Steve

[stevegill]

Magix handles marketing and every time a deadline has been reached, it is magixally extended. You will never have to pay full price foran upgrade or buy-in to the Update Service, until Magix proves me wrong.Acorn

Hi Acorn,

You're right. It's been extended, and the additional software included looks like it could be a lot more useful than the photo thing they were offering before.

= Steve

[Acorn]

Hi Acorn,
You're right. It's been extended, and the additional software included looks like it could be a lot more useful than the photo thing they were offering before.
= Steve

Steve, could well be but I'd bet AceBIT ASEOPSwon't be tuned for Xara websites in any manner.
But, you do get a free download service.

Acorn

[Michael]

Hmm, just dowloaded the trial version. Some positive changes but also some nags...
For instance:
* line width list only shows two line widths and a possibility to scroll to other widths. That's just plain irritating and IMHO incongruent with the UI.
* Changing to the non-themed user interface (ctrl+alt+shft+s) still makes floating control bars quircky when moving or resizing. Al one sees is the bar with the title of the toolbar. Moving the cursor over the toolbar brings back buttons and functionality. (and I know the unthemed UI is not supported...)

I'll stick to the old version I'm acquainted with for productivity reasons.

[Boy]

[QUOTE=Michael;602800
* Changing to the non-themed user interface (ctrl+alt+shft+s) still makes floating control bars quircky when moving or resizing. Al one sees is the bar with the title of the toolbar. Moving the cursor over the toolbar brings back buttons and functionality. (and I know the unthemed UI is not supported...)
[/QUOTE]

Have you tried to minimize and then maximize the program window? That redraws the buttons quickly.

[Acorn]

@Kate, I am currently running three versions of XDPX - v12, v15 & v16.
v16 has sort of covered the bugs in v15 but has introduced its own so no version is wholly resilient in its own right.
I keep putting off updating or publishing any current sites I have from v16 as there invariably is a Bug that throws a wobble into doing such too soon.
I have deferred this, expecting a bug release, promised, but not seemingly imminent. v16.0 was spawned on 08 October.

Could you advise if you are just going to roll up these bugs into another version update as this seems to do a disservice to those who have bought into the Update Service?

Acorn