Tony Thomas' Techtrends: Xara Web Designer 11 Premium

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Xara Web Designer 11 Premium

by Tony Thomas

Well, the folks at Xara finally turned it up to 11! With the introduction of version 11 of their Web Designer program, they have taken an already solid program up another full notch.

The first question that anyone would probably ask is: Who needs a web design program in the age of cookie cutter web site creation tools? The answer should be obvious. Anyone who desires to produce websites that stand out from the rest of the pack.

While anyone can produce a simple website with very little time or effort these days using online web authoring tools, if you want to produce a website to customize to your heart's content, look no further that Xara Web Designer 11 Premium.

New features in Web Designer 11 Premium include:

Sticky Objects: These are objects that stay put as the user scrolls to other parts of a page.

Text Handling Enhancements: Enhancements include custom abbreviation expansion, automatic URL creation, a text background color option for highlighting words, and much more.

New Object Animation Features: New features include animate on mouse-over, animate on click and animate on reveal.

Document Sync with Google Drive and Drop Box: This is a welcome feature for those working on multiple computers. Older versions of files are also saved and can be reverted to easily.

Slideshow Widget: You can create slideshows using TaskPilot.

New Templates: To get you going quickly, there are more than 30 new general website themes, including mobile variants.

TaskPilot "Website M" Hosting: 12 months (2GB of storage and one domain name) included free.

Other Features: They include SFTP and FTPS secure upload options, PDF import, Word import improvements and export support for Apple Retina files.

In use, the program maintains its clean and ergonomic interface. If you have used previous versions of the program, you will be up and running with little time or trouble. As someone who has used Xara for almost 20 years, just about all the features are programmed into my head. Xara products have become my "go to" graphics tools.

Web Designer 11 Premium sells for a very affordable $99.99 US. A slimmed-down regular version is only $49.99 US.

For More Information:

http://www.xara.com/us/web-designer/

What is Techtrends?

A better question might be, who is Tony Thomas and why did he create this web site? Well, I have been a professional writer for more than 30 years. In 1978, I started as audio editor for SCENE Magazine in Cleveland, OH, a post I held at two different times over a two decade period. In the 80s and 90s, my articles and reviews appeared in numerous publications including Scene, Recording, Mix, AV/Video, Roland Users Group, Millimeter, Recording Engineer and Producer, Transoniq Hacker and others. I was also the Technology Expert on the WERE morning show in the early 90s.

In the world of technology, something new is happening every nanosecond. As a writer, one of my biggest frustrations is the length of time it takes for my articles to see the light of day. By the time my work hits the stands, it is often weeks or months out of date. With the emergence of the Internet, there is a unique opportunity to promulgate information instantaneously to a worldwide audience. Because of that, I feel that it is a wonderful forum to impart news, views and reviews of new and emerging technologies with the immediacy that print can never duplicate.

Some of my interests include music, computers, digital audio, photography, graphic design and electronics. Here, I'll attempt to give you the freshest scoop on products and trends that I find enlightening and revolutionary. I hope you enjoy it and welcome your feedback!

Tony Thomas
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Tony Thomas' TechTrends