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  1. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Petrolia, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    70

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Hello Restless:
    It appears your comment went unnoticed, as the thread continued on with a discussion of version #'s. I too am frustrated by Google insisting my content is too wide for mobile. I too use variants that are 320px, 480px, 960px, and even 1200px, but Google keeps reporting errors related to content width, viewport not set (but it is!), etc. So, I'm wondering if you did finally receive any resolution from your comment. Thanks for posting.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    113

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Quote Originally Posted by STS View Post
    Hello Restless:
    It appears your comment went unnoticed, as the thread continued on with a discussion of version #'s. I too am frustrated by Google insisting my content is too wide for mobile. I too use variants that are 320px, 480px, 960px, and even 1200px, but Google keeps reporting errors related to content width, viewport not set (but it is!), etc. So, I'm wondering if you did finally receive any resolution from your comment. Thanks for posting.
    Thanks for the message. Nope, haven't heard anything else from the forum. For some reason text - the individual characters - is bigger online than it is on my computer, so I am having to to all of our Xara websites and adjust it as best I can.

    We have been using Wordpress for new websites, and are slowly switching our Xara websites to WP. The Beaver Builder plugin works great, a lot like Xara. Once we figured out how WP works, it was easy:

    We put items side-by-side, and when the page changes to a smaller size they stack up one above the other. The right sidebar (column) goes all the way to the bottom. Now that I know that, I know how to design pages that work okay on all devices. And no matter what the size, the page fills the whole width of the screen.

    So far, no complaints from Google about any of the WP pages.

    Ed

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Mississippi, USA
    Posts
    184

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Had issues with Xara and ecwid e-commerce not playing well together. Had to find an alternate (I still use Xara most often) that played well with ecwid. I choose WYSIWYG Web Builder, WWB. It offers responsive but allows you to design breakpoint (variants) that you can customize layout for a particular size. A bit of the design control from Xara variants plus responsiveness. The last few WWB sites I built I used Xara to prototype for the customer. Xara is just so much faster. I do wish Xara could figure out how to implement better responsive design AND address the issue with add ins like ecwid.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,338

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    onlye, The simplicity and power of Xara none can match. Have a look at what you described, menu after menu and command after command, it is very structured and technical, surely not for the creative minded person. I have been using xara for few decades and when I design something for print, it instantly and with very little work can be used for the web. The mobile variants are great and I just add a one to the main website that I am working on. So my main site is 1130 px and mobile can be 700 px. I have found that this works great on pretty much every tablet and phone. Xara is a force to be recon with and I am sure with time it will improve even more. I would love to see some of your clients work, you can find mine in the Web gallery here on the forum.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    113

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Quote Originally Posted by onlye View Post
    Had issues with Xara and ecwid e-commerce not playing well together. Had to find an alternate (I still use Xara most often) that played well with ecwid. I choose WYSIWYG Web Builder, WWB. It offers responsive but allows you to design breakpoint (variants) that you can customize layout for a particular size. A bit of the design control from Xara variants plus responsiveness. The last few WWB sites I built I used Xara to prototype for the customer. Xara is just so much faster. I do wish Xara could figure out how to implement better responsive design AND address the issue with add ins like ecwid.
    I also tried WWB. It took me a while to get started, and then I couldn't figure out how to make it responsive. Then I tried the Beaver Builder plugin for Wordpress. It didn't take nearly as long to figure out how it works. They have a lot of modules to make things easier. Very nice Pricing Tables - compare 4 products side by side, with picture at top, features list, Buy button. Would take me a long time to do that in Xara. Same with Info Boxes. Then I realized that Info Boxes are just a collection of modules, so I decide to do my own:

    I selected a "row" with 4 "columns" and dragged it onto the page. In each column, I put a Photo module, Text module, Button (for more information), another Text module, and another button (to by the product).

    True, I don't control exactly what will display on smaller screen sizes, but I know this: When the screen width reduces a certain amount, there will only be 2 Info Boxes per row. Reduce more and only 1 Info Box per row - the 4 will be stacked vertically.

    True, Xara gives you more control over complex layouts. But many people seem to like simplicity - something they can grasp in 2 seconds (or less).

    We still have a lot of Xara websites, and we are not i a hurry to replace them. They get the job done.

    Thanks for your insight, and for sharing your experiences.

    Ed

  6. #16

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Quote Originally Posted by gwpriester View Post
    When you think about it, isn't it better to have variants that work with a specific size range and over which you have design control than one or two variants that arbitrarily adjust and restructure to fit each browser variation?
    I don't understand what you mean exactly. With html, css, and javascript there's complete control; after all, this is precisely what Xara uses in a round-about way.

    What Xara does not do is support mobile-first. And for the sake of those who read this post and don't know, I will explain.

    Not every phone has the speed and power of a $1000 mobile phone, and most mobile phones are not as powerful as most desktops, or even laptops. Furthermore, most stationary (non-mobile) devices have faster dedicated internet connections available to them. Mobile devices can use Wi-Fi to access these same connections, but a hardwired connection is usually faster than a Wi-Fi connection.

    The speed problem boils down to size, heat, and battery life. But speed aside, there is a main reason for mobile-first. There are simply more portable devices accessing websites than there are stationary devices; so, hence, mobile-first.

    Mobile data is used to connect mobile devices to the internet and the idea is to cater to the majority -- mobile devices are the majority!

    Mobile-first dictates three main things that Xara does not seem to address:

    1. The website is designed from the smallest screen size first and expanded to the larger variants later, i.e. Desktop is the final variant and Xara obviously has this backwards.

    2. The code (html, css, javascript) downloaded from individual websites is optimized for mobile, and this code is then later altered and appended for bigger viewports/variants. This assures that mobile code will download completely and be viewable immediately without first downloading a bunch of code for desktops that can be bulky and time-consuming for mobile devices; and the code then modified variant-by-variant until you get to mobile.

    3. In a perfect world, each device will only see what it needs to render the web page in question; and mobile devices with slower processors, less memory, limited data, and slower connections are given top priority, because they are the majority and need all the help they can get in some cases.

    I have not gotten into caching, picture sizes and formats, etc. in order to keep this post simple (to some degree).

    Xara and Google have very different views on what is important. Hopefully Xara will make some much-needed changes. SEO ranking depends on it, as do happy customers like me; and right now I am not happy and stuck at version X 11 until Xara has an ah-ha mindset-change moment.

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Bracknell, UK
    Posts
    8,659

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Quote Originally Posted by TwoEdgedSword View Post
    What Xara does not do is support mobile-first.
    What's stopping you from designing mobile-first with Xara?

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    4,501

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Yes, you can start designing a site with the mobile page. However, with Xara's one .htm file per page for all variants, all assets are downloaded in one go. With slower connections, this will mean longer loading times.

  9. #19

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Quote Originally Posted by pauland View Post
    What's stopping you from designing mobile-first with Xara?
    Nothing now, as it seems there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. There was a new update June 18th-ish.

    New features include a ‘fit to width’ option for websites (scales the page between variants).

    I can rewrite the xara code to address its mobile-first shortcomings.

    I upgraded yesterday and I am back-on-board!

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    113

    Default Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?

    Quote Originally Posted by TwoEdgedSword View Post
    Nothing now, as it seems there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. There was a new update June 18th-ish.

    New features include a ‘fit to width’ option for websites (scales the page between variants).

    I can rewrite the xara code to address its mobile-first shortcomings.

    I upgraded yesterday and I am back-on-board!
    Thank you thank you thank you! I hadn't heard about the new "fit to width" option. For me, it is the best new feature since they added Variants several years ago. I just tried it on a couple of our existing site and they work great... except for the Add This buttons at the bottom of the page. Guess I'll have to remove them.

    Also thank to Chris M on another thread for explaining how to turn the Fit to Width option on (Website Properties > Web Export Options).

    Now (thank goodness) we have a reasonable Xara alternative to Wordpress.

    Thanks again.

    Oops... just found a problem: When I add a picture and use Repel Text Under to wrap the text around the picture, the picture doesn't adjust to compensate for larger type - some of the type is disappearing under the photos.

    So now I am back to the original question: Which takes longer - to update all my Xara web sites... or to just rebuild them all on Wordpress with the Beaver Builder page builder plugin.

    Ed
    Last edited by restless; 21 July 2019 at 11:15 PM.

 

 

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