Xara Designer Pro X9 Includes the Kitchen Sink

Xara's approach to software development creates a mix-and-match system that includes 4 applications that are based on the same underlying environment, but each of the applications is intended for a specific type of user and various features are available in some components but absent from others. This makes a system that is extremely easy for users because everything learned in one component can be applied to the others, but it creates a difficult situation for reviewers because so many features are shared from one application to the other.

Previously I've reviewed or at least touched on Web Designer, Page & Layout Designer, and Photo & Graphic Designer. Now it's time to take a look at Designer Pro X9, which contains all of the features from all of the other applications and a few more just for good measure.

Many of the additional features of Designer Pro X9 are improvements for those who deal with text.

The text tool makes it possible to add 3 types of text: Click on the page and type to get what Xara calls "basic text". There are no bounds and the text will not wrap, but pressing Enter starts a new line. Create a column by clicking and draging horizontally on the page, then type. Text will automatically wrap at the edge of the column. Or, create a text area by clicking and dragging diagonally to create a text frame. The frame can be linked to another frame to allow text to flow from one to the other.

None of that is new, but now it's possible to create a text frame and then add columns to the frame. This makes the process of creating a multi-column layout on a page considerably easier.

Page design programs usually lack basic word processing functions, but Designer Pro X9 recreates some of that functionality. When text flows off the bottom of one page, or out of a text area, it can automatically create a new page using the previous page's layout specifications and flow the text onto the new page. When text exceeds the boundaries of its container, you'll see an overflow arrow on the bottom edge of the text frame. Dragging the arrow to an empty text area will tell Xara to flow the text into that area or you can click the arrow to reveal a menu that includes the option to create a new page.

Click any of the smaller images for a full-size view. Press Esc to dismiss the large image.

Here's a 3-column print layout.

The symbol at the bottom of the left column (1) shows that text will be flowed and the arrow indicates where the text will be flowed to. In this case, it's the second column. Note that the arrow goes to the top of the middle column (2) but there's no text there. That's because the graphic has been set (3) to repel text.

One feature that Xara hasn't yet been able to provide is the ability to span multiple columns with a headline. This is something that Ventura Publisher was able to do in the 1990s but that Adobe InDesign didn't add until just a year or two ago. Xara will undoubtedly add this capability someday.

Brochure-Like Layout for the Web

Designer Pro X9 makes it possible to replicate the look and style of a print document on the Web without reverting to the creation of a PDF. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends both on your point of view and your intended use.

If the goal is to present a document that will print and appear very much like the hard-copy document, it's good. If the goal is simply to port your print documents to the Web, I urge caution and I'll explain why in a moment. First, though, let's look a the good points.

Designer Pro X9 offers the ability to use a variety of typefaces, either your own installed typefaces (and this will depend on how they are licensed) or any of the more than 600 Google Fonts. When you select a Google font, it will be downloaded and installed automatically.

This process is not without its challenges. When I tried it earlier with another of the Designer applications, that application crashed. The same thing happened when I tried to download a 3-column layout that used a Google font. The font was installed, though, and when I opened the template a second time, all was well.

On the Web, Google Fonts are served by Google's content delivery network.

If you have graphics in your design, Designer Pro X9 creates both standard resolution versions for the Web and high-resolution versions designed for Apple's Retina devices.

The most significant difference, though, is the ability to place images anywhere and wrap text around them. As Xara describes this, "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 because the pages are created using HTML5.

And now, the downside.

This sample page from Xara shows the print design on the left and the Web design on the right. I have added the red box, the arrows, and the numbers.

The Web, by current definition, is a landscape environment while print is primarily a portrait environment, so pages are tall and screens are wide.

This means that when you load a portrait page into your browser, you have two option. First is to fit the entire page to the screen, which will leave a lot of blank space on the left and right and probably reduce the size of the text so much that it will be unreadable. The second option is to fit the page width to the screen, meaning that you'll need to start at the top (1) scroll down to read the column, (2) scroll up, (3) and then scroll down to read the second column. Most people don't like to do this. But, as I said, depending on your intent, this may be a good thing and if your page is a landscape page, it would be a very good thing.

Making Everything Easy

Xara's interface can be puzzling. Often users spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how to do something the hard way only to find that the easy, obvious way works. Case in point: Adding photos to a layout.

I started with a layout that includes some sample title text, 8 sample photographs (each with a caption), and some explanatory text.

Replacing the text is easy. Just select the text tool and then click anywhere in any piece of text. Or don't bother to select the text tool and double-click any piece of text.

Simple.

The photos are much harder!

Open a file browser (Windows Explorer or any Explorer replacement that you prefer), find a photo that you'd like to use. drag it over the existing sample photo, and drop it.

It doesn't get much easier than that. Rotating an image inside the frame, moving it horizontally or vertically, or making it larger or smaller is just as easy.

Here's the final version. Creating it took only a few minutes.

By "a few minutes", I mean that literally: It was less than 5 minutes from start to finish.

The photos are part of a family challenge. We're presented with a list of words and told to create photographs that illustrate the words. These challenges are a lot of fun and you'll find that they force you to learn more about your digital camera and to develop an eye for images.

I'm happy that I managed a couple of double-plays this month (Rust and Architectural Detail) as well as a triple-play (Shiny, Logo, and Me but not my face).

Helping Users Get the Most From the Application

Many programs offer daily tips, as does Xara Designer Pro X9. But in addition to the daily tips, Xara has a robust online presence with instructional videos, galleries where users can show off their work, the Xara Outside newsletter, tutorials, and a support center.

And, after you've completed the application's trial period and have purchased a license to use the application, be sure to check the Help menu. You'll probably find that some additional files and features are waiting for you to download them.

Support for 64-bit Systems

Designer Pro X9 and Web Designer 9 Premium provide support for 64-bit operating systems. Page & Layout Designer and Photo & Graphic Designer do not. The 64-bit versions can take advantage of increased memory. Older 32-bit systems are limited to 4GB of RAM and can provide only about 3GB of memory to applications while 64-bit systems are essentially unlimited, at least by today's standards.

Most current-generation computers include 64-bit hardware and a 64-bit version of Windows.

Note that some photo effects 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 effects are not supported by the 64-bit system, but the new Live FX functions are 64-bit compatible.

As Usual, Xara Provides More Functionality than Expected for Less than You Anticipate Paying

At $300 ($200 for upgrades), Xara Designer Pro X9 is the most expensive member of the Xara Designer family, but the application can be used to edit photos, create illustrations, develop websites, and lay out individual and multi-page docucments. Besides Xara's cost advantage, there's the usability boost that's a result of maintaining a common interface for each of the application's major functions. Xara's interface differs from those of most other applications, but once you've learned it, you know how all of the components work. Additional details are available on the Xara website.

Can Google and Facebook Sell Your Picture and Endorsements?

In a word, yes, but you can tell them not to. Google says that it will begin showing users' names, photos, ratings, and comments in its vast advertising network. Facebook has similar functionality and makes it relatively difficult for users to opt out. Google at least seems to be trying to make the process easier.

Possibly there's an underlying question here. The question might be whether users should be concerned or maybe whether it's ethical. The question of legality seems already to have been answered.

Google would use photos that you've shared publicly and words that you've posted publicly. Clearly I am not an attorney, but the very fact that a person has posted information publicly and without expectation of payment seems to tilt the ethics question in favor of Google. Granted, copyright law technically provides some protection for any work the instant it has been created. Also granted that different standards exist for commercial speech and personal speech. Perhaps the Supreme Court's decision that corporations are people will reduce or eliminate the distinction between personal and commercial speech. But that's all immaterial to opting out, if you want to.

Maybe you don't want to.

Both Google and Facebook spin these changes as an attempt to offer users better personalized services, and that's true. But the overarching reason for the change is monetary. The problem from users' positions is partially the privacy, partially security, and partially monetary. Product endorsements are often paid for by the sponsor and those who have posted images or comments about products or services probably have done so without expectation of payment.

To have these words and pictures used by Google and Facebook to make money might be a concern. From my point of view, I have two personas. The first is as TechByter Worldwide. Anything I post here, any review I write, and any image I post is explicitly covered by Creative Commons that states: "You are free to share this work in any manner if you provide appropriate attribution, do not use the work for commercial purposes, and do not create a derivative work based on this work."

When a company whose product or service has been reviewed here requests permission to use a quotation from the review, with attribution, I always grant permission.

My other persona is Bill Blinn and that is the identity that is associated with anything else that I post. Occasionally people ask for permission to reuse something that I have written personally. In general, I grant permission for those uses, too, and generally without restriction.

When dealing with posts on the Internet, I have always assumed that anything I post in any format at any location (whether public or private) is essentially a public post. There is something strange about people posting information to a public resource and then expecting privacy. In a way, this reminds me of the military's practice in the 1950s and 1960s (and possibly later) of classifying "TOP SECRET" issues of Life Magazine that they purchased from a news stand. Once the information is generally available, you can't stuff it back into a container and claim privacy.

The new policy goes into effect for Google on on November 11 and Google will begin showing "shared endorsements" on Google sites and on more than 2 million sites that are in Google's display advertising network.

If you follow a pizza joint on Google Plus, your photo and endorsement might appear in online ads for the restaurant. Essentially this moves word-of-mouth marketing to a new level because we humans tend to consider recommendations from friends as being more valuable than paid ads.

Facebook was the first to try this approach and it did so without seeking explicit permission from users. The result was a class-action lawsuit.

Google's approach has been to announce the change far enough in advance that users can opt out if they want to. Users who are less than 18 years old will be opted out automatically. Users who have opted out of certain Google+ features already may find that they're already excluded from this, too. Ratings and reviews posted to Google Plus Local are automatically public, though, and they can be used unless the user opts out.

How to Opt Out

Google makes the process relatively easy. You'll need to navigate through the settings panel to endorsements. Endorsements may or may not currently be on your menu, so this link will take you there: https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en

There's a long page of text that explains the procedure from Google's point of view and tells you how much you'll miss if you decide to opt out. Read it if you wish. Eventually, you'll end up at the bottom of the page, where you can uncheck the permission box. (If you opted out of some functions earlier, the box may already be unchecked.)

If you uncheck the box and continue, Google will warn you: "Are you sure?” it will ask. When you disable this setting, your friends will be less likely to benefit from your recommendations."

For Facebook, the key things to remember are these:

• You can control individual posts by selecting who is allowed to see them. This is a setting you'll check or modify every time you post something.
• Examine the Activity Log to see what you've already shared. If you find something that you would prefer not to share any longer, you can delete them or untag photos you're in. You can also use the log to change the privacy settings of past posts.
• You can also ask people to remove anything they may have shared about you that you don't want on the site. The effectiveness of this approach will depend on how conscientious your friends are.

And even if you do all of this, keep in mind that anything you've posted anywhere on any network, public or private, is probably on a backup drive somewhere.

So ... enjoy your illusion of privacy. If you really want privacy, sell the computer and get off the Internet.

Short Circuits

Windows 8.1 Finally Has Been Released. Whoopee!

Either a lot of people wanted to download the Windows 8.1 update on Thursday or the same people who designed Healthcare.gov also designed the Windows 8.1 update site. A 3.8GB file should take 40 to 45 minutes, an hour the most, but after an hour, the progress bar was sitting at about 1%. The entire process consumed nearly 5 hours!

This wasn't a big deal because I was only trying to bring a notebook computer up to the latest version. Windows 8.1 is free for all users of Windows 8. I had updated a desktop and two notebook computers to Windows 8.1 in September, but because a tablet computer and another notebook computer still had OEM versions of Windows 8, it wasn't possible to install a disc-based version of 8.1 without first formatting the drive. Those updates had to wait until the new version was generally available.

After the 5-hour ordeal with the notebook system, I wasn't looking forward to the process on the tablet when I started it at 6am on Friday, but it was much less painful. The download completed in slightly less than 30 minutes and the entire update process took only 72 minutes, from start to end. Apparently Microsoft had been able to fix overnight whatever the bottleneck was. Good luck trying to download it from the Windows Store.

I've already told you what's new, so you won't hear that again. I'm not even going to bad-mouth the pundits who insisted that Microsoft return the (now useless) Start button.

To discuss the reduced sales volume of desktop computers, I'd say that tablets are selling like hot cakes, but I've never seen a hot cake that's capable of displaying a website. So maybe tablets are selling like tablets and desktop system sales are currently down.

Microsoft is about to release a new version of the well regarded but slow selling Surface tablet. There's not much new on Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia. Microsoft is still looking for the person who will replace Steve Ballmer.

So for this part of the program, I guess that's all there is.

Lower Earnings at Intel in the Post-PC Era

Whether this really is the post-PC era or not is open to question and I think it isn't. At least not yet. Desktop systems are still needed for many business applications and for most high-powered video, photo, and audio editing. Still, more people will find that what they need to do can be performed with a notebook, a tablet, and sometimes even a smart phone.

Intel has processors for desktops, notebooks, and some tablets. But not for phones.

Intel used to own the market for central processing units (CPU), but now Intel is just a player in the market. Still a very large player, granted, but no longer the one that calls all the shots.

Intel remains the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductors, but it can no longer depend on selling much of the hardware that went into computers. So it was little surprise when this week's quarterly earnings report indicated a smaller figure than in the same period last year. Not a lot lower, but lower is lower. Wall Street doesn't like lower. It's even worse when the company's results are lower than analysts' expectations, but Intel escaped that fate.

Yes, the company turned a small profit -- just a little under 3 measly billion dollars and only earned shareholders 58 cents per share. Analysts had expected 53 cents per share, but Intel lowered its guidance for the 4th quarter.

Overall, it's a tough time for hardware manufacturers.

With Windows 8.1 Out of the Way, Microsoft Updates its Phones

When times are tough for hardware manufacturers, Microsoft starts making tablet computers and buys Nokia. How well that will play out over the next several years is uncertain, but it is certain that Microsoft phones are due for an upgrade during the next several months.

Windows Phone Vice President Darren Laybourn says new models will feature a larger Start screen, more customization, and better accessibility. Windows Phone 8 Update 3 phones will begin showing up in the next "few months", so that could be before or after the end of the year.

Laybourn says the company had 3 primary goals for this version of the phone:

• Enable new Windows Phone devices.
• Enhance the platform with new capabilities for current users and partners.
• Improve overall quality.

New phones will have 5-inch and 6-inch touch screens. At that size, they're rivaling small tablets and might require someone with pockets the size of Captain Kangaroo. (Maybe you remember him?) Talking on a phone that large would be somewhat like holding a paperback book up to your ear, but the larger 1080p screens will allow more Live Tiles.

Some of the phones will feature quad-core Qualcomm processors that should improve screen response times and displays.

They're adding a new "Driving Mode" that "helps you get from point A to point B with fewer distractions." It's designed to "limit notifications on the lock screen-including texts, calls, and quick status alerts-until you're safely parked." Of course, a reasonable human being would just stow the phone when driving, but apparently we can't depend on that level of intelligence among drivers.

The phones will have improved accessibility features that are intended to make them easier to see and hear, rather like the wolf-in-grandma-clothing in Little Red Riding Hood.

So now we know what to look forward to.