Product Reviews & Technical Support » Draw and Publish Web Content » WebDesigner » Topic: WebDesigner by XARA In Review
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Author Topic: WebDesigner by XARA In Review  (Read 2396 times)
Rick
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« on: April 09, 2009, 06:28:42 PM »
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WebDesigner type applications (Javascript/HTML editor) are not new. The recent release of WebDesigner version 5.0 brings about a web authoring studio for the non-coder that utilizes a wealth of Javascript/DTMHL functions and nicely integrates other Xara products. This is achieved generally by way of a collection of pre-built objects. Xara builds upon its flagship product, XaraXtreme, a Photshop competitor, by giving WebDesigner the same familiar user interface. For the exception of just a few added tools, Xtreme and WebDesigner look very much alike.


Upon testing, I found several interesting discoveries.
 
  • The HTML text has a fixed number of words per line, thus there is no auto word wrapping This is a major drawback. (see examples)
  • There is no repository or library for assets, for example, there is no button library. Nor a library for custom object types that you would like to reuse for other projects.
  • Text flow or “repel” is not reliable as it depends upon correctly calculating the font’s width tables as described in the first item.
  • WD previews using its built-in browser and does not have the option to output to your preferred browser. You would first need to publish then open the web file.
  • Imported images do not for some reason import at original size, they are usually scaled smaller.


Summary
WD has a great future and will most likely compete with DreamWeaver like products. The inclusion of Javascript functions brings in for the author, a truly expressive way of presentation while at the same time adding many functions for those visiting the web page. Art, function, and presentation are all about Xara’s WebDesigner addressing the needs of the non-coder.

What seems to lack a no word wrap function, seriously hampers working with WebDesigner. With the built in XARA graphic tools, beautifully styled templates, and a number of pre-made functions, WebDesigner seem to be a perfect solution. The lack of what seems to be the full implementation of the <DIV> tag, allows text to collide with other objects, rendering the "Repel" function useless.


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« Last Edit: May 29, 2009, 08:37:45 AM by Rick » Logged
Michael
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« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2009, 06:04:40 PM »
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I took a look at the source code, and there seems to be overuse of the "div" tag. Take the following code (generated by WD) as an example:

Code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<!-- saved from url=(0020)http://www.xara.com/ -->
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7"/>
<title>xar9A97</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252"/>
<meta name="Generator" content="Xara HTML filter v.2.1.0.665"/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="xar9A97_htm_files/roe.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="xar9A97_htm_files/default.css" />
</head>
<body style="">
<!--[if IE]><div class="xr_ap" id="xr_xr" style="width: 760px; height: 700px; top:0px; left:50%; margin-left: -380px; clip: rect(0px 760px 700px 0px);"><![endif]-->
<!--[if !IE]>--><div class="xr_ap" id="xr_xr" style="width: 760px; height: 700px; top:0px; left:50%; margin-left: -380px; clip: rect(0px, 760px, 700px, 0px);"><!--<![endif]-->
<script type="text/javascript">var xr_xr=document.getElementById("xr_xr")</script>
 <div style="left: 44px; width: 267px; position: absolute; font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; text-align: left; top: 61px;">
  <div style="">
   <div class="xr_tl" style="left: 0px; top: -13px;">line1</div>
  </div>
  <div style="">
   <div class="xr_tl" style="left: 0px; top: 2px;">line2</div>
  </div>
  <div style="">
   <div class="xr_tl" style="left: 0px; top: 16px;">line3</div>
  </div>
 </div>
 <div id="xr_xo0" class="xr_ap" style="left: 0; top: 0; width: 760px; height: 100px; visibility: hidden;">
  <a href="" onclick="return(false);">
  </a>
 </div>
 <div id="xr_xd0"></div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">xr_aeh()</script>
</body>
</html>

This section
Code:
  <div style="">
   <div class="xr_tl" style="left: 0px; top: -13px;">line1</div>
  </div>
  <div style="">
   <div class="xr_tl" style="left: 0px; top: 2px;">line2</div>
  </div>
  <div style="">
   <div class="xr_tl" style="left: 0px; top: 16px;">line3</div>
  </div>
 </div>

This clearly has redundant div tags on each line. It should only use 1 "div" tag encapsulating lines 1 - 3.
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