Xara Web Designer Beginner’s Guide

Posted Sep.15, 2009 under Tutorial


wd_logoHello Friends,

Does the thought of learning Dreamweaver or a programming language  like HTML sound daunting?  If yes, then the idea of designing your own website seems  like only a dream!

Time to Stop Dreaming and Worry No More – Xara Web Designer can Save your Day and Save Your Money! No need to hire an expensive web designer or continue procrastinating on that website that your business desperately needs for a boost in sales. 

DON’T MISS THE EXCELLENT XARA WEB DESIGNER VIDEO AT THE END OF THIS ARTICLE

Create your Professional Website with limited or no HTML skills.

Xara Web Designer is different from other web editors due to its simplicity and user friendly features. It’s an all-in-one application where you can design and publish your website. It specifically aims to aid people with limited or no HTML knowledge to create professional websites.

User Testimonial
“You’ve done a great job taking complicated tasks, in all of your software, and making them simple and intuitive, the next generation of GUI in advanced software.” says Scot Ranney.
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Some of the exciting things that Xara Web Designer can do for you:

Create Websites

Xara Web Designer gives you total freedom in creating your web site, from the:

a. Designs - Choose your website design from a wide selection of graphical professional-designed templates;

b. Customization - Customize colors, drag-and-drop web objects, import or create images and more;

c.Widgets - Add various kinds of widgets – YouTube movies, slideshows, music player, chatbox and so much more; to

d. Publishing - Catch a glimpse of your actual website with the Browser Preview function and upload to your FTP site by entering the FTP site details, then Voila!

Create Web Graphics

With Xara Web Designer, you can either use a template design (for buttons, headings, text boxes and more) or create  custom graphics with the help of the drawing tools.

Or if you prefer advanced and comprehensive drawing tools, you may use Xara Xtreme.

Create Flash Animation

Use Web Designer to create Flash animations that you can export as .swf or add to any page you’re creating.

Rapid Website Prototyping

It doesn’t take a layman to be an expert to design a website prototype with Web Designer. It is the fastest tool for website prototyping in the market – a trustworthy tool for both beginners and pros.

Now  sit back turn the volume up, watch, enjoy and learn from this Xara Web Designer Beginner’s Guide video.


Hey no need to continue sitting back and building castles in the air grab Xara Web Designer today and create an extraordinary website like a Pro!

If you find this software interesting you can read more here.

Until Next Time ;-)

Peter – Your Xara Guide

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3D Image with Xara Xtreme’s Bevel Tool

Posted Aug.06, 2009 under Feature

Hello friends!

Xara Xtreme 5 is famous for its speed and unrivaled ease of use, making it not just a highly productive tool, but a pleasure to be creative.

Using  Xara Xtreme’s Bevel Tool you can easily transform a simple and dull image into a Professional 3D-like image.

Now fasten you seat-belt and get ready to roll!

beveltypeFirst you must create an object, whether free-hand, shape or text, you decide. Once you have created your object (text, shape, freehand etc) click on the Bevel Tool from the Tools menu.

You can now modify your object any way you desire with the use of the Bevel menu located on top. Click on the drop-down arrow to see all the options of Types of Bevel.

For example, you can increase the depth of the bevel and light angle by dragging the arrows:

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You can also control the bevel depth, light angle, contrast, or light elevation and see the change preview on-screen as you move the slider and change the percentage value.

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On the Bevel Menu, you may also choose your image’s bevel to appear in or outside the object and even change the color of the bevel by just selecting on the bevel and then choose your desired color from the color palette.

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That’s not all  you can change the corner shapes of the bevel – mitered, round or beveled.

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The examples above are very simple and for demonstration purposes only. With these tips, you can now create a much better and more professional-looking image out of it. The images on these pages Groucho and Fusion show effective use of bevels:

You too can  create these wonderful work of art with the use Xara Xtreme’s bevel tool and many more.

If you already own a previous version Upgrade to Xara Xtreme 5 or if you are new to Xara Xtreme  get your own Xara Xtreme 5 and let that Xarartistic side of you shine!

Until Next Time ;-)

Peter – Your Xara Guide

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Xara Xtreme 5 Released

Posted Jul.24, 2009 under New Versions, News

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Hello Friend,

Xara Xtreme, the ultimate graphics software has released Xara Xtreme Version 5. By far one of the world’s best graphics tool, whether you’re working on that website design, flash animation, photo composition or a vector drawing, I tell you if you’ve got Xara Xtreme  you’re using the right tool!

Here are the some of the new features of the Xara Xtreme 5 that makes it stand out among the rest both in print and on the web.

  • Text Handling *Updated* – Now Xara Xtreme allows you to enter text in lines, columns or even across multiple pages and gives you powerful control over the formatting,  making Xara Xtreme an ideal tool for DTP projects like brochures and newsletters that combine drawings, photos and text.
  • Spell Check *New* – includes a multi-language spell checker with check-as-you-type, word suggestions and a user dictionary.
  • Object Gallery *New*- it replaces the Layer Gallery as general method of selecting pages, layers and objects. It’s the most powerful and flexible tool, best for viewing, re-ordering, hiding and locking layers and pages in your document.
  • Object Gallery (Xara Xtreme Pro) *New* – It has everything from the Basic edition plus more advanced features.
  • Content-Aware Image Resize *New* – Intelligent image scaling technology that allows images to be stretched or squashed while retaining the proportions of important parts of the picture.

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  • HTML website Creation *Updated* – includes a complete ‘website creation’ feature that enables you to design multi-page websites with ease, including mouse-over and pop-up effects, animations and widgets. One click preview and FTP upload included. It’s the world’s most advanced WYSIWYG web page layout – and with no HTML skills required.

Plus 100 more enhancements. Read more….

Web User interface *New* - With lots of features such as links, placeholders, image type and quality, improved mouse-over and more.

Don’t miss out on this one, give your clients more than they could ever imagine and  grab your own copy of  Xara Xtreme 5 now!

If you already have one don’t miss out on the great new features that are unmatched by any other web design software, upgrade to Xara Xtreme 5 at our special upgrade price.

Until Next Time ;-)

Peter – Your Xara Guide

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Xara Xtreme Artwork Competition

Posted Jun.17, 2009 under Contest, News

XaraXtreme2 Xara has came up with a competition for everyone. A competition that will test and showcase the talent, creativity and artistic sides of Xara artists.

The six winners of the competition will have their artworks showcased and published in an upcoming book, Xara Xtreme: The Official Guide by Gary Bouton. The book will be published by McGraw Hill and will be released this fall.

Gary Bouton is an Xtreme artist himself and an author of many software guides. His works are mostly on writing about graphics and multimedia applications. Through his works, he expresses all the techniques, tricks and tips about the softwares he write.

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Here are the rules on how to make it to the competition:

• The images can be of any theme or style of your choice, multiple entries are accepted. Your artwork must be created entirely using Xara Xtreme (either the full version or the 30-day trial version) and must be entirely your own.

• You can’t enter artwork that’s already been published, including on the Xara CD or featured in the Xara Gallery or Outsider. (But Xara have also reserved a few additional pages to showcase some existing Grandmaster’s work)

• It must be decent and it must be legal (no incorporating copyrighted material), judges have the final say on what is decent and legal!

• Make sure to submit your entries before June 30th, 2009.

There are five judges, all from the graphics industry who will decide on who are the six artists who gets the chance for their product to published and be known to the world.

For more information about the contest and to submit your entries, see Xara Competition page.

Now head’s up Xara artist and start working on that entry.

Good luck!

Peter – Your Xara Guide

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Xara WebDesigner Released

Posted Apr.30, 2009 under News

xara-web-designerXara has just launched a brand new product called, Xara Web Designer, a web page editor that gives a complete design freedom for your web pages.

With Xara Web Designer, performing the following functions is easier even for you people with completely no skills in HTML, you can layout your text, graphics, animations, photos and widgets and publish your pages – no third party software required – so easy and no experience required.


Exciting features to expect from Xara Web Designer:

- Ready-made Templates and Graphics

From designed templates and customizable graphics such as headings, navigation buttons, logos, text panels and more, all of which can be simply dragged and dropped from th Designs Gallery onto the page.

- WYSIWYG

Be it using one of the many customizable templates available on Xara Web Designer or create your very own, it’s genuinely WYSIWYG, what you see in Xara Web Designer is exactly what you get on your web page.

- Auto Text Tool

Allows text flow between columns or pages and even around objects such as shapes and photos. Also includes a spell checker.

- Ultra-fast Photo Tool

This tool has many enhancement functions such as automatic adjustment of photos to its correct web resolution.

- More clever stuff

Clever tricks provided by Xara Web Designer which will surely save you time and trouble.

• Easy Mouse-over

• Thumbnail and Pop-up Creation

• One-click change of site wide theme colors and shades

• Automatic color matching of imported objects

• Automatic stretch of buttons and panels as text is changed

So, what are you waiting for? Go grab your own Xara Web Designer now!

Until next time ;-)

Peter – Your Xara Guide

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Xara Xtreme 4.0 Out Now

Posted Aug.25, 2008 under New Versions

A new version of Xara Xtreme was released recently, Xtreme 4.

Here are some reviews:

Chicago Tribune
“This software draws on all the powers of a modern PC to give even beginners the ability to enhance our surroundings with home-brewed works of professional looking art.”

Los Angeles Times
“…the greatest thing about Xara Xtreme is the enjoyment one gets from just playing. It is the adult equivalent of that first tray of watercolors that enraptures children during art time in kingergarten.”

Computer Arts – Recommended
“Xara’s latest release is a superb illustration tool …One thing we particularly like about Xara is the live solid object scaling and dragging…It soon becomes a tool you’ll pick up again and again for photorealistic vector ‘painting’ – seriously rivalling Expression and thoroughly spanking Illustrator’s bottom…Xara Xtreme Pro is well worth splashing out for.”

Digit
“Live Effects is the standout illustration feature. This will let you edit an object (including vector drawings), even after you have applied an effect to it. DTP tasks are made easier by new support for multiple page documents and an enhanced text tool.(tools) such as the colour picker – are one-click simplicity. The Transparency tool in particular is fast and easy to use.”

PC Pro
“The program’s main strength remains its underlying speed. Xara has always stood out for the astonishing speed of its vector handling, as well as the sheer hands-on creativity this enables. ..the ability to apply a drop shadow, graduated transparency, or both, to your text in real-time is impressive…You’re getting an extraordinarily powerful package for little more than the upgrade cost of the latest Illustrator.”

Practical Web Design
“Although it’s primarily known as a vector-drawing program, Xara Xtreme has capabilities that extend into photo-editing and animation, making it a great all-round tool for the creation of web graphics. Optimised for quick learning and rapid workflow, this is a deceptively powerful package.” “Importantly, Xara seems committed to maintaining its software’s innovative edge.”

Click to read more about: Xara
Xtreme 4.0

Until next time ;-)
Peter – Your Xara Guide

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Xara Xtreme 3.2 Released

Posted Nov.04, 2007 under New Versions, News

Xara Xtreme 3.2Recently Xara released a new minor upgrade of Xtreme – version 3.2.

It’s called a minor release as it is not a complete new version e.g. not Xtreme 4.0, but 3.2. But I wouldn’t call it “minor” anyway.

Read on to find out why this is more than a minor release…

(Read More »)

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