How do you feel about the 365 Program?

[mwenz]

To add, part of the frustration felt by at least myself is the seeming lack of actual application functionality updates, especially in the OT features and vector capabilities realm. Text styles are funky to use and needs rethought, etc.

Not to mention I have given up on ever seeing a JavaScript API guide--so much so I have abandon any care that it is ever released.

Which pretty much sums up my feelings about OT Features ever being implemented (and implemented properly and intuitively ala CD) and new, better, additional vector capabilities.

XDP has been fairly stagnant since I purchased my first license with version 6. The only real vector capabilities I personally take note of are the shape builder and eraser--I use them and have even hesitated to request any enhancement as I have given up hope of significant changes to what is otherwise the best, fastest vector drawing application available.

OpenType Features have been available to the wider market since 2002. Why are they not available in XDP?

[handrawn]

Hi Kate, always nice to hear from you

Guys, it’s really disheartening to see you so negative. I realise many of you aren’t comfortable with the new model, but remember you do still have the option of upgrading only when you see enough features to tempt you (you’ll get a perpetual license to that version)

but it's only a perpetual licence on the computers [max 2] the program is on at the time the last 365 licence expired - am I right or wrong on this Kate? - putting it onto another is a reinstall yes? EDIT - so not really a perpetual licence at all...

[and I reinstall my OS regularly anyway, I like it kept clean - but likely I am atypical in this respect]

it is disheartening to still find this is not something the company wants to talk about [apparently]

it is disheartening not to have for example after all this time a flood fill vector tool for scanned bitmaps, even one without gap tolerance - inkscape has had one for years - drawers get a few bones like the PSD layer/objects option, but nothing of substance; web and photo get it, and I may say at the expense sometimes of drawing workflow

no this is not being negative, it is being pragmatic - if it doesn't fly like a duck, doesn't quack like a duck, and doesn't swim like a duck, then it probably isn't a duck it's just lame - and I sense the pure vector drawing side is dead in the water [I also sense mixed metaphors, what the heck] for the foreseeable future at least

Mike has just said stagnant - aye, brackish and overgrown with weeds....

EDIT - ok I missed that really important bit out re the flood fill oops.. sometimes I think too fast

[katemoir]

OK. Thank you Kate.

Even with an active license, there are continually hiccups with the content catalog and people are not able to access it. The content system is slow in use. And even when the stars are aligned and everything seems to work fine, one cannot really search the local designs anymore and in the end, none of us that are discontent really trust in something that has such issues.

Best regards, Mike

I'm only aware of one serious problem with connectivity with the Online Content Catalog, which we posted about here on TG. Are you still experiencing problems?? But I agree it's slower than it should be.

You know, the Find function in the Designs Gallery hadn't worked properly for quite some time. We couldn't easily fix that but kept it there as better than nothing. Now we have a proper search function in the Online Content Catalog so we've removed the Find function from the DG.

[katemoir]

OpenType Features have been available to the wider market since 2002. Why are they not available in XDP?

We are working on OpenType support. I just can't give you an eta!

[katemoir]

Hi Kate, always nice to hear from you



but it's only a perpetual licence on the computers [max 2] the program is on at the time the last 365 licence expired - am I right or wrong on this Kate? - putting it onto another is a reinstall yes? EDIT - so not really a perpetual licence at all...

If you bought 12.5.0 PGD today, for example, then that is the version you have a perpetual license to. If after 1 year your Update Service expires and then you have to reinstall on a new computer, the version you will be able to install is 12.5.0. What you won't have access to on that new install is any updates that you have downloaded during that year (12.6, 12.7 etc). So my point was that if you buy today, reject the updates and upgrade again in a year's time, you are pretty much in the same position you always were. The main difference being the loss of the Online Content Catalog after expiry.

[mwenz]

Hi Kate:

https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...tent-Catalogue

These pop up frequently.

Or even obtaining help from both Magix & Xara:

https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...s-service-xara

It would take me too long to go through the forum for problems that recur. The two types of issues are frequent. But they are there. Xara employees are frequently here and often enough, unless it is a web issue where Ben steps in, problems are handled by Xara's free support people--us.

My main issues with the Content Catalog is its on-line only connectivity and its slowness. I often work off-line on a laptop. Aside from simply not being within Wi-Fi connectivity range during decent weather (I like being under the grape arbor when it's worm enough), I am frequently waiting for client meetings and what not and use that time for design work. So the DG is important for me. And when I am connected, it is important to be able to search while at say Starbucks between meetings or on a client Wi-Fi wherein connections are slow by themselves and then the CC is near unusable.

Mike

[katemoir]

Just a final hint to those of you saying you are disappointed in the most recent feature additions: We have a survey for Designer Pro and PGD 365 owners @ http://www.xara.com/products/designer/survey/. You may have missed it, or not noticed the 'suggest a feature' question because it was optional, but of the 460 separate feature suggestions so far, not very many are vector ones. Surveys like this are just one source of information so I don't want to overstate the weight we'll put on it, but nevertheless if you have a favorite vector suggestion it can only help if you do the survey and add your voice (please don't post your suggestions in this thread though!).

Also the Xara designer behind the photo filter pre-sets & overlays has recently started a thread @ https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...-Xara-Designer, he'd be happy to talk with anyone about content.

[handrawn]

If you bought 12.5.0 PGD today, for example, then that is the version you have a perpetual license to. If after 1 year your Update Service expires and then you have to reinstall on a new computer, the version you will be able to install is 12.5.0. What you won't have access to on that new install is any updates that you have downloaded during that year (12.6, 12.7 etc). So my point was that if you buy today, reject the updates and upgrade again in a year's time, you are pretty much in the same position you always were. The main difference being the loss of the Online Content Catalog after expiry.

Ok - if I read this right: I would only be in the same position I was before, if I ignored the 12.6 12.7 etc updates when they came out during my annual licence - if I accidentally or on-purpose use them, then I am indeed a hostage to fortune, and some might say this was a means of locking users in... WAIT someone already has, elsewhere...

So... what's in it for me in words of one syllable? Nothing. Good luck though to those who wanted this I hope it works out

I have gone full circle, back to vectorising lines and shapes drawn in raster, at least with large RAM 64bit software and openGL this is now practical in everyday terms

Thanks Kate, I appreciate your replies

[mwenz]

Just a final hint to those of you saying you are disappointed in the most recent feature additions: We have a survey for Designer Pro and PGD 365 owners @ http://www.xara.com/products/designer/survey/. You may have missed it, or not noticed the 'suggest a feature' question because it was optional, but of the 460 separate feature suggestions so far, not very many are vector ones. Surveys like this are just one source of information so I don't want to overstate the weight we'll put on it, but nevertheless if you have a favorite vector suggestion it can only help if you do the survey and add your voice (please don't post your suggestions in this thread though!).

Also the Xara designer behind the photo filter pre-sets & overlays has recently started a thread @ https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...-Xara-Designer, he'd be happy to talk with anyone about content.

The Wish list here is still a viable option isn't it? Strikes me I did the survey while being anonymous.

How many responses on the survey were for OT Feature support?

Quark publishes the result of its 5 page survey each year. It acts upon many of those (and other items) each new version. The important thing about the survey (to me) is that the ranking helps users to see what their contemporaries wish for and how the ranking influences Quark in implementing them.

Serif keeps a running feature list it is incorporating into incremental and milestone versions. Most of those items come from users.

One key take-away here is the communication involved. Communication engenders product "ownership" among your customers. They feel part of something and no matter how minor that they have a voice in the future of the product. Secrecy--which is how Xara has traditionally operated--engenders disaffection, disloyalty and suspicion.

When secrecy is combined with the psychological trauma of major changes, Xara is setting itself up for a fall in loyal customers. That is simething Xara can ill afford. Gawd knows Xara/Magix is not out there creating buzz in the graphic design world and never really has. It is your loyal customers that create the buzz. So throw us a communication bone as to proposed, upcoming features that covers the short-, mid- & long-term outlook for your products.

Mike

[hoja]

If you bought 12.5.0 PGD today, for example, then that is the version you have a perpetual license to. If after 1 year your Update Service expires and then you have to reinstall on a new computer, the version you will be able to install is 12.5.0. What you won't have access to on that new install is any updates that you have downloaded during that year (12.6, 12.7 etc). So my point was that if you buy today, reject the updates and upgrade again in a year's time, you are pretty much in the same position you always were. The main difference being the loss of the Online Content Catalog after expiry.

Kate,
this statement is wrong.

It's not just the Content Catalog which stops working as soon as one lets the rental contract run out. One also no longer may edit
existing or create new web-content which due to the way you have set things up automatically (and btw without the slightest notice!) gets
uploaded to your Servers. This is the case with Slideshows, which in Portfolio websites may be the majority of visual content.

As soon as you pull the plug users may no longer access – even delete their intellectual property on your Servers.

***

We have a survey for Designer Pro and PGD 365 owners @ http://www.xara.com/products/designer/survey/.

I commented on your survey here.
The short version is that it's impossible to garner meaningful data with this collection of questions. It is honestly a waste of time for anyone who fills it in and should get removed.