Xara Designer Pro X9

Click any of the links below to jump to the corresponding description. Multi-Column Text Text Flow & Page Creation Word Import & Export 64-bit DTP for the web New Logo Graphics

Xara Designer Pro X9 Release Notes

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This allows you to convert a single text area into multiple linked ones.  Or, if there are already multiple linked columns in a set then you can adjust the column count. Note: these multi-column sets are based on text frames or boxes, and not ‘text columns’ (which have no lower edge so cannot flow.)

Text Flow & Page Creation

Pro X9 can now act like a word processor so that when text flows off the bottom of one page (or out of a text area) it can automatically create a new page (a copy of the previous layout) and flow text into this new page. When text overflows a text area you see a small red overflow arrow on the bottom edge of the text area. You can drag this to any empty text area to direct the text flow. Or just clicking it will show a short menu that allows you to set the automatic creation of new pages. Selecting this option will cause new pages to be created as text overflows. The new pages will contain a copy of the flowing text areas from the previous page. For example, if you have a page with 3 connected text area columns, as text overflows the last area a new 3 column page will be created.

New Document Templates

There are new empty document templates available in the File  New menu such as ‘A4 1-column’ or ‘US Letter 1-column’ that contain one main text area

Xara Designer Pro X9 Release Notes

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covering most of the page, set to auto-create a new page when text flows off the end. So using these documents, the program will act like a word processor and just create new pages as required. If you are creating a multi- page document, a brochure or report say, it is recommended to start with one of these templates. To make any of these templates multi-column just right click and the select the Columns.. menu.

Create your own templates

You can easily save your own templates by selecting the File  Save Template menu. If you select the Use as default template check box, this template will be used whenever you click the new document icon.

Adjusting text area sizes

If you adjust the size of a text area (you can use the Selector Tool to do this, or in the Text Tool to drag on a corner handle) that is repeated on multiple pages e.g. it has been created using the auto-flow feature, you will be asked if you want to replicate the change across all similar frames. So this is an easy way to make a global change to all copies of a text area. Usage Note: The behaviour when using the Selector Tool to change the dimensions of a text area has changed in this release. Previously if you used the side handles, it would squash or stretch the text contents. In this release it only changes the dimensions of the text container and not the contents. The exception is if the text area is inside a group, then adjusting the aspect ratio of the group using the Selector Tool will still change the aspect ratio of the whole contents of the group.

Page Numbers

With the text cursor in the text, a new Insert  right click menu is available, with a selection of page number styles.

Page and Column Breaks

The same right click Insert  menu provides an option to

insert a column or page break.  Inserting a column break will move the following text to the start of the next column, which if there’s only one column per page, is the same as to the next page.  Inserting a page break will move the following text to the start of the following page. If your document is arranged in a Double Page Spread fashion (File  Page Options dialog, and check the Double-Page option) then you have an additional choice of forcing a page break to be to the right side or left side of the document.

Invisible Character Symbols

When you insert a paragraph return (using the enter key) or a page or column break, it puts an invisible break character in the text. These become visible when you select text and are shown like this: A Soft Return, or line break is inserted with Shift+Enter. This does not cause a new paragraph, but just starts a new line, useful for bullet or numbered lists to start a new line without a number or bullet.

Strikethrough

Version 9 brings a new Strikethrough text control, via this icon on the Text Tool InfoBar:

Word Import and Export

Included in this release are two new import /export converters for Microsoft Word .docx file format. You can import a .docx file by selecting File > Open or Import. Or alternatively simply drop a .docx file onto the title bar to create a new multi-page document with the correct text styles and graphics. To export as a Word .docx file select File > Export and select Word (.docx) as the export file type. Note there are some Xara features not supported by Word and vice versa, so there will be documents that cannot convert. However most normal Xara documents and Word document should convert with good fidelity.

Xara Designer Pro X9 Release Notes

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Xara Designer Pro X9 Release Notes

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Note: The Word import / Export is work-in-progress, and we will continue to improve both. If you have a Word document that doesn’t work, please submit a support ticket and provide details (and include the problem document) at xara.com/support.

64-bit version

Designer Pro X9 is the first version available as a 64-bit option.  The main benefit is that it can take advantage of increased RAM memory available on modern computers.  (32-bit Windows could never provide more than 3Gbytes of RAM to applications. With the increase in resolution and thus size of digital images, it’s relatively easy to reach that 32-bit limit.) This requires a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or 8. Most computers sold nowadays include 64-bit Windows. There are two trial versions available, 32-bit or 64-bit. You can install both and they will run side-by-side if required.  The DVD delivered version also includes two installers. There are a few photo effects that are not available on the 64-bit version. The Photoshop plug-ins supported by Designer are not available in 64-bit versions, and some of the Live FX are not available. However the new Live FX (see Photo & Graphic Designer 9 release notes) are fully 64-bit compatible.

Web Document

Publishing

Perhaps the most common way of disseminating ‘brochure style’ documents to a wider audience is via PDF, often published on the web as a download. PDFs have the advantage of completely accurate WYSIWYG (what you see in Xara Designer is exactly what you get and see in the PDF) and you have complete design freedom. This means you can use all the Designer Pro tools, and design any type of document. Websites and HTML have, by contrast, been severely restricted from a design point of view.  It’s been difficult or impossible to implement advanced layouts involving multi-column text or ‘flow-around’ text effects and websites have provided limited resolution graphics and photos. Different web browsers wrap and flow text differently and that combined with limited font

availability, made it near impossible to ensure what your design is what your customer sees. Websites also require some method of navigating the pages. Print documents and PDF have accurate pagination and easy navigation. This is why, even today, brochures, reports and any type of document where the designer wants precise control over the design, fonts, layout and pagination, are created as PDF files. Designer Pro’s PDF export capability is outstanding, and it’s easy to create high quality PDFs of any document. But PDFs have a downside. They require plug-ins or extra programs to be installed to view. These can be slow, and there are many poor quality PDF readers available. For example Windows 8 includes a new Microsoft provided PDF reader built-in, but it’s buggy and does not correctly display some PDF files.

DTP for the web

Designer Pro X9 introduces a new way of publishing ‘print style’, or DTP-style documents that does not involve PDFs. These provide: • Font Freedom. The ability to use a vast range of fonts. Either use your desktop fonts (the fonts are automatically embedded, assuming the license allows) or any of the 600+ fonts from Google Fonts (this document for instance uses Open Sans family of fonts). Google Fonts use the world-wide Google content delivery network (CDN) to serve fonts, saving time and bandwidth. • High resolution photos and graphics. Typically websites were limited to 96dpi graphics and photos. Pro X9 includes automatic ‘Retina’ compatible hi- resolution 192dpi text and graphics. • Layout freedom: mix graphics and text, ‘anything anywhere’ on the page. Multi-column text stories, with flow-around irregular shapes and photos. • Pixel accurate WYSIWYG results. The document you design in Designer Pro is exactly what all viewers see, with the exact same fonts, word wrapping and pagination. • No plug-ins or separate readers required. Pages are created using HTML5. Your document is just a web document.

Xara Designer Pro X9 Release Notes

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Xara Designer Pro X9 Release Notes

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