I am shocked

wtfxara wrote on 12/16/2016, 1:32 AM

Hey everyone,

For 15 years I flopped between Macromedia (now Adobe) Fireworks, flash, and other odd programs. I have been designing graphics for years. I decided to take a chance on finally leaving the comfort of the "now abandoned" fireworks and move to Xara. I heard it had a fresh interface, small footprint, never crashed. I heard all these things.

After just spending over TWO HOURS trying to export a simple project I am seriously tempted to go back to Fireworks.

Xara Designer Pro cannot even

1. Crop like a normal program (you have to run around in circles to do anything in this program)

2. Export without screwing with your image, I just made a great project and everytime I try to export it only half the image shows up in the PNG, god awful.

3. It cannot make vertical text, thats a basic function in Fireworks.

The list goes on and on and I really want to like this program, but who made this thing. Its just an awful software to work with!

I am so tempted to tell my friends and family to stay away, but then again i wanted to post here first just to see if I missed something.

Looking forward to hearing some feedback!

Comments

browj2 wrote on 12/19/2016, 10:51 AM

Hi Shocked,

There is a separate forum site for Xara users with a vibrant community, plenty of help and another site, Xara Xone, with umpteen tutorials. I suggest that you post there, on TalkGraphics. Just because you can't do something that others can easily do likely means that you don't know how to do it, not that the program can't do it. Like any program, there is a learning curve, and a manual to be read.

1. Crop - click on the photo tool on left menu near the top and select the camera. That is the crop. The next one is clip that does about the same thing. Select the image and crop. Simple as that.

2. What did you select to export? Did you have something highlighted and only exported that? Did you look at the settings when exporting? I don't have any problem exporting to a png. There is a button on the screen when you export once you have entered a file name.

3. As far as I know, there is no Vertical text command, as one is not needed. Simply click on T in the left menu to create text. Draw a box, then start typing. Resize the box to be a tall narrow column showing only one letter. Change the line spacing in the top menu to be what you want and center the text, if you want. Text boxes are used extensively in Xara. Read the Chapter about Text Handling in the manual.

Your list will likely dwindle to zero once you have read the manual.

I also use PaintShop Pro and, except for doing photo improvements, I always revert to Xara because it is much simpler to use. But then, maybe I should read the manual.

johnebaker wrote on 12/19/2016, 6:06 PM

To add to John CB's comment

. . . .As far as I know, there is no Vertical text command . . . .

If you want text to be read vertically and on its side as shown below

Type the text horizontally, then rotate the text box using rotate tool/control/handle.

You will find that many modern programs such as Xara, Paintshop Pro etc use this technique to enable rotation at any angle.

HTH

John EB