I have saved the best for the last. SuperWidgets. SuperWidgets?
SuperWidgets! SuperWidgets (is there an echo in here?) are a collection
of smart widgets that include photo and text animations and other cool
things that you can customize, but in which all the programming has
been done for you. OK, you say, eyebrows raised, give me an example.
Drag and drop this Twitter Widget onto your page. Double click on the
gadget and a new window opens and prompts you to replace the
XaraGroup Twitter name with your own Twitter user ID. Drag and drop
your avatar to replace the Twitter T logo, and close the editing window.
You’ll be asked to save your work, and when you do so the editing
window closes and when you Export and Preview your page, you will see
your new avatar, your edited tag line (I added “I am all a Twitter!”) and
your most recent tweets. I did not use my Twitter account because my
last tweet was several years ago. So I used the default setup which is
XaraGroup. OK. So, what else? More examples please.
The slide show above is from the Eyecatcher Widgets folder. Double
click on the widget to edit and replace the photos with your own or
your own designs. Add more photos or images. Press Save and you’re
good to go. You can click the buttons or just play automatically.
[This is updating
this very minute!]
Another Eyecatcher Widget is called Easy Accordian (shown above).
Double click on the widget (in Web Designer not on this page!) to edit
and replace the photos with your own or your own designs, clever text
and links. Save and you’re done. Xara will automatically add more
SuperWidgets to the Designs Gallery as they become available.
There are some awesome Flash animations such as this one.
And there are quite a number of sample Flash animations such as the
one above that teach you various Flash animation tricks. Plus several
Flash photo animations that you can modify using your own images.
There are lots of pre-designed headers, and buttons,
that you can quickly and easily modify.
For example, I dragged the three blue button sample
shown on the left (Button Text 1, etc.) onto the page.
Double clicked to edit and checked Site Navigation
Bar which automatically changed and linked the
button names to the actual page names for this site.
There are quite a few nicely designed photo gallery
objects which you can edit and replace with your
own photos, and a ton of very swell looking icons and
graphics as shown below. Most can be scaled up or
down to suit your design needs tastes.
Last but not least, there are some excellent media players (probably
the number one question raised on TalkGraphics—How do I add an audio
or video player to my website? Answer: Quite easily, with the Magix
Audio and Media players. A free membership is required and the free
media player does have Magix branding (do you think they are trying to
get you to upgrade to the paid version???)
There are a bunch of e-commerce widgets. You will need an active
account with one of the providers, PayPal, Google Checkout, Ecwid,
eBay, Amazon, Cartfly or Shopit to use the widgets.
Remember the features covered here are in Xara Web Designer 7
Premium. Check the Xara.com website for a comparison list of features
for the two versions.
To sum up. There are a ton of things to like about WDP7. As with all
Xara products, you get a lot of features and function for a modest
investment. If you are serious about web site design, then WDP7 is the
way to go. The improved streamlined user interface with the cleaner
clearer type is a joy. The added tools (like the 3D Extrude Tool), the
Freehand and Brush Tool and the Straight Line Tool, and additional
transparency types give you a lot more Designer Pro features. The
SuperWidgets and Designs Gallery contents put a lot of power at your
fingertips. I love the transitions. And the improved publishing options
and presentations mode make this an even better overall package.
I would like to hear your thoughts, questions and comments. Click the e
on the navigation bar or use the e-mail link below.
Gary W. Priester
Your editor
Send e-mail
(I really love these graphics!
and they are vector so you
can edit and resize them.)
To make the pendulum rotate as gracefully and realistically as it does,
the pendulum object has been named “rotate <>pendulum. Rotate
causes the pendulum to swing back and forth and the angle brackets <>
accelerates and slows down the swing.
Pre-designed
buttons
One click
modifies the buttons
to navigate
this Workbook