figure-13

Improved iOS compatibility

On the subject of iOS devices, persons who are visiting your site previously had to tap twice on a navigation buttons that had a mouse over effect to follow the button link. The first tap showed the mouse over button and the second tap executed the link. This has been addressed and now only one tap is necessary.

New Keyboard Shortcuts

Delete Page: Delete
Move Page Up: PageUp
Move Page Down: PageDown
Push Margins Dialog: Ctrl+Shift+H
Toggle Push attribute on selection: Ctrl+H
Preview Website: F5
Preview Current Web Page: Shift + F5

Additional Features and Improvements

If I tried to list all the new features we will be here all night and I really need my sleep. So I will summarize as quickly and succinctly as I can.

Goof Proof Templates OK this is my name for the new templates. Many templates have been redesigned placing objects that need not be edited on the locked Page Background layer. The benefit of this is you won’t accidentally delete a graphic element or move it. Nice touch.

Improved Re-Publishing The publishing routine has been improved making republishing more efficient.

Internal Widget Links You can now link to pages in your website thanks to a newly designed Widget menu. And while we are on the subject of Widgets, you can preview changes in the Widget Edit window by pressing the Export and Preview Web Page icon on the Infobar or by pressing F5.

At Your Service – Server Linked Designs Gallery New material will now be added in the background while you are working if you are connected to the Internet. Also widgets will be added, updated or fixed if necessary.

Cool New Stuff in the Designs Gallery There is a bunch of new stuff in the Designs Gallery > Clipart section. My favorite, if I was forced to pick just one item, are the new stickers. They are design elements with text like the tags shown in figure 25, that you can modify with the Text Tool and all the formatting is applied automatically. And if you are working with some of the hot new templates, you have the option to Match the colors to your site colors.See Figure 25.

: Figure 25

Almost all the clip art, including the new Stickers, Cartoon Figures, Icons, etc., are set up to repel text. You could say these objects are repellent but that would be rude.

: Figure 26

Rearranged And Organized Designs Gallery Xara has spent considerable time tidying up the Designs Gallery, and this is no small task when you consider the tremendous amount of material that is contained within. For example the Widgets are now spread out in the Page Elements folder, which also contains Buttons, Navigation Bars and Bullets. Also as you mouse over each of the folders, a representative image appears such as the teddy bear image shown here that corresponds to the Toys folder. See Figure 26. This last feature was introduced in version 7.

Did I Mention Clipart? The Designs Gallery is bursting at the seams with really awesome, professionally designed clip art. Shown here is a small sampling. When you consider the price of good clip art, you are getting a real bargain with a world class web design program included! The chef and the burger are from a collection of Photo Clipart with transparent backgrounds that can be scaled to fit an entire page or resized as needed. See Figure 27.

: Figure 27

Optimize All Images Speaking of photos, now you can optimize all the images on your site, and not just JPEGs, in one easy operation. Xara scans your document and picks the best format (PNG or JPEG) for each image, even thumbnails, and reduces the size to 96dpi, Windows screen resolution. This can increase speed by reducing the file size and memory use.

Improved Formatting Support for character based languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean makes it easier to publish in these languages.

Improved Import Text and Graphics from Web Function Now you can not only import text and graphics from an existing website, but Xara arranges the imported objects more or less in the correct position. I say more or less because scripts, mouse over effects, etc., do make it almost impossible to achieve an exact copy of the page. But it does make recreating an existing page a whole bunch easier. Hidden objects on layers etc., need to be imported separately as well as mouse over states for buttons.

SVG and PowerPoint File Support You can now import SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files. And you can import PowerPoint (.pptx) and OpenOffice Impress (.odp) files into Xara Web Designer MX.

New Hue Adjustment There is a new tool on the Photo Tool > Enhance Infobar. This lets you correct color shifts in photos, for example correcting a photo that is a little too blue or too green or even too red. But you can also achieve some interesting shifts such as the three apples shown here. See Figure 28.

: Figure 28

The Improved Panorama Tool now takes up to 8 photos, which is 2 better than the previous maximum of 6. And the performance has been improved.

The Big Decision.

Xara Web Designer MX and Web Designer MX Premium has made a ton of improvements, any of which would justify the upgrade price or the modest retail cost of this most excellent, easy to use web design program. The big decision is can you live with Xara Web Designer MX or do you just have to have Xara Web Designer MX Premium? I say, go for the Premium version. You deserve the best!

Xara Web Designer MX and Web Designer Premium Click Here to Download Trial Click here to see a comparison chart of features.