After you have created a new Presentation (File > New > 955 pix
Presentation), select a header from the Headings folder. Unless you
want it to say, 00 Page Title, just edit the text with the Text Tool. It
will even check your spelling as you type (in 13 languages including UK
and US English, and Austrian, German and Swiss German).
Next, drag and drop a bullet point from the List Items folder onto the
screen. Edit the text as desired.
Select your first list item and press Duplicate Step. The first duplicate
may not be where you want it. Just drag and use the Magic Snap
alignment guides to move the second point under the first. The next
time you duplicate a step, the next line of type will be automatically
placed in the correct position with correct spacing.
If you do presentations, you are going to flip over the new
Presentations capabilities in Web Designer 7 Premium. Eat your heart
out Microsoft PowerPoint! I am calling this new capability, XaraPoint
Presentations. Now you do everything in one familiar program.
Everything you need to
create impressive
presentations has already
been created and all the
action is built in. In the
Designs Gallery as you can
see on the example to the
right, you have a full
complement of components
for creating your own
custom presentation such as
Arrows, List Items, Photo
Transitions, etc. If you are
less adventurous, you can
select from a large group of
pre-designed theme
templates (these
components and templates
will automatically be
updated as new designs and
components become available). If you would rather craft your own
presentations from scratch, you can easily do that as well.
There is a new setting in the File >
New menu: 955 pix Presentation.
The size is not important because
you can change the page size to fit
your needs. What is important is a whole new environment for creating
presentations that you can present on your computer, on your website,
or hosted and open by invitation only (called a Webinars—web based
seminar), that you can host on Xara’s secure servers.
There is a new tool bar that helps you produce your
presentation shown on the right. The first foot print icon
creates a new step, the push pin automatically moves a
selection to the Mouse Off layer, Duplicate Step is used for things like
duplicating a list item or bullet point. As you may have guessed the foot
with the X deletes a step, the list lets you reorder a step, and finally
the criss crossing X shape lets you add a transition effect.
Let’s build a page using the pre-designed components.
When you press the “Next Step” arrow (the right triangle) Web
Designer 7 Premium advances to the next step layer. The next step can
be a photo, a chart, text, even I would think, an animation or video,
though I have not tried this yet. And when you have cycled though all
the steps on your page, the right arrow transitions to the next page.
Each of these steps can have an animated transition effect, or if you
are a purest, an instant transition. On the other hand, try to remember,
just because you have 10 Step Transition effects and 22 Page
Transition effects does not mean that you are obligated to use each
and every one. Practice restraint and aim for consistency. OK?
Here is a small demo presentation I whipped up to explore some of the
new Presentation features. It is four pages long and demonstrates
some of the capabilities. There is a link back to this
Workbook page on the last page of the presentation. Click
here to see my XaraPoint Presentation.