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For some time Xara has been patiently and persistently producing software that turns difficult design tasks into relatively easy steps. With Xara X, they managed to make vector graphics just a shade easier. That same approach to simplifying complex tasks has been a characteristic common to Xara’s application. This is particularly true with Webstyle.
Version 4 represents an update for the program and the addition of some interesting new features, not the least of which is an even more streamlined interface. Attention has been paid to making the system more intuitive, and offering more help along the way.
The basic premise of the program, which is still consistent with version 3, is that the program offers a template based approach to Web design. Mixing templates with an interesting passive wizard like procedure, the program offers a skeleton frame with which to work. Through a series of options the program allows you to create your own distinctive Web page or pages.
The circular interface features the ability to create Web pages, banner ads, logos, dividers, bullets, headings, 3D headings, backgrounds, buttons, photos, photo albums, theme sets, nav bars, menus and Web pages. Taking the template approach one can design in a pick and chose fashion. Through selection and choice, the options afford a great deal of creativity and a very shallow learning curve.
The big new feature here is the Photo Album. The tedious task of creating Web pages with photos and thumbnails has been reduced to easy steps. What normally requires a great deal of configuration is now literally painless. It is one of those significant upgrade features that really makes the upgrade seem totally logical.
Unlike designing for print or other media, designing for the web presents unique challenges. Unless you wish to spend hours exploring the intricate nature of web page creation from the coder’s point of view, at some point you will need software to make the process easier. Sure, you can code your way to a very sophisticated web page, but it will take hours, and this is certainly not something your average end users will take up to pass away the hours.
While serious Web designers may not give an application like this a second look, I envision it as a piece of software for the novice as well as the rushed pro who needs to meet a deadline and does not have time to customize every excrutiating detail. Besides, at a certain level of Web page design due to the limitations of the medium one does hit limits and not possibilities. Considering what this application is attempting to do, there are few corners left untouched.
Offering an easy way to create sharp Web pages, Xara has really done a spectacular job by creating a simple to operate Web tool that surely will have a place inside every Web designer’s software library. While I think the photo editing feature is not really needed, and the logo creation tool is really not that great, the rest of the program is definitely worth the price of admission. For newbies I can see the photo editing features and the logo creation tools as nice add-ins, but for me, the photo album, Web page creation and banner navigation features are the real stars in this increasingly sophisticated program.
Clearly Xara sees this as a high end tool as well as consumer one. The built-in support for both Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Microsoft Frontpage 2003 are proof of the seriousness that Xara places on the program.
For artists who like to spend more time designing and less time dealing with the details of Web creation, Xara Webstyle 4 is a very serious addition to the tools of the trade.
Talk to Kurt in Graphics Unleashed Forums
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