Website made using only Xara Web Designer, and no other graphics or software tools.
Read Me First
This is a short tutorial, and a working website document you can experiment on.
If you’re reading this in Web Designer then feel free to experiment and explore the
features of the program. If you’re reading this as a web page, then this is an example
of what you could be producing with Xara Web Designer.
This is how to create a great looking website in 6 easy steps, using Xara Web
Designer.
1) Open the Designs Gallery and select a design
OK we don’t actually need to do this because this document is already open. It’s
based on the template design called ‘Beta’. You can see all the templates by
moving your mouse over the ‘Designs Gallery’ label on the right side of the
window.
Preview your website: Select File -> Preview Website or just click this icon on the top bar. This button has a
‘fly-out’ showing two options. The first previews just the current page (quickest) the other previews the whole
website. Try it now to see what this website looks like in a web browser.
In the Preview window check out the buttons along the top, and move over the various objects, such as the photo
above right, or click the links, such as the one immediately below here to see various layer effects.
2) Edit the Theme Colors
Click to find out more about the Color Editor.
Move the mouse pointer over the left end of the Color line at the bottom of the screen and click on any of the square
color patches. Select ‘Edit’ to display the color editor, and you can now select different colors. For the best results
we suggest making Theme Color 1 and 2 similar or matching colors. There are theme colors for all the main design
elements of this design.
Color Schemes. To make color editing even easier we provide some ready-made color
schemes that you can drag ‘n’ drop onto the page. Open the Designs Gallery, go to
Examples -> Example Web Templates folder and scroll down to the bottom and you will
see a variety of Color Scheme thumbnails. Drag any onto this page to see all the website
colors change in an instant.
3) Edit the text on your website
Click the big T icon on the left set of tools (the Text Tool). Now click on any text and start editing. Try the heading
and replace it with your own. When using the Text Tool, the bar across the top allows you to change font, size, etc.
The ABC icon at the end is a spell checker control. Text editing is like in any word processor, for e.g. drag to select
text.
You can change button text the same way. Some buttons are ‘stretchy’ and can accommodate
any text label. Try this button to the right. Using the Text Tool, click on the ‘stretch button’
text and edit it, and you’ll see the button graphic change.
4) Re-arrange your objects
Now let’s try some object moving and resizing. Choose the Selector tool (the large arrow at the top) and drag on the
photo on the top right of this page. See how the text flows around it. Try dragging on the headings or the ‘Stretch
button’ above and Preview your website again. What you see in Web Designer is exactly what you get on your web
page. Anything, anywhere.
To resize an object drag on one of the corner handles shown around the selected object. Try it on this pale flower
symbol under the text. Click on it with the Selector arrow, then drag a corner handle.
This flower is special in one other way - it’s a Repeating Object and appears at the same position on every page of
your website. There is more information about Repeating Objects on the Advanced page.
To rotate an object click on it again so you get rotate handles in the corners. Drag on these to rotate the object. Try
it with the petal shape or a text heading even. This way you can easily move, resize and rotate just about anything on
the page.
Step 5 continues on the next page:
Drag here to change the hue to be any color of the spectrum
Click here to see more
advanced controls
such as showing the hex
RGB color values.
Drag in here to change the
shade of the selected color,
to be lighter or darker.
When changing Theme
Colors, it’s normally best to
not adjust the shade by too
much.
You can drag the
eye-dropper
anywhere on
screen to pick
colors from the
screen
The Color Editor
This panel is created as a pop-up layer which, for the more advanced users, you can see in the Page &
Layer gallery. The round-cornered panel background was created with the Rectangle Tool, and made
very slightly transparent with the Transparency Tool. It was given a soft shadow using the Shadow
Tool. The arrows were drawn as simple straight lines using the Shape Editor Tool, and given an arrow
head from the Line Gallery.
Web Designer includes all tools to create just about any graphics and photo effects you’re likely to
require. And no HTML or JavaScript knowledge required at all.
Click anywhere to hide this layer.