Release Notes
13 December 2022 (content)
7 Dec 2022 (v22.5)
10 November 2022 (content)
8 Nov 2022 (v22.4)
24 October 2022 (v22.3)
19 October 2022 (content)
12 October 2022 (content)
5 October 2022 (v22.2)
22 Sept 2022 (content)
5 Sept 2022
July 2022
March 2022
Xara Cloud
Web Designer+ is only sold and supported by Xara. You can find full details on the latest Web Designer+ updates in our + Release Notes.
1200 new Photo Filter Overlays
Another major addition to the Web Designer+ Online Content Catalog.
We've added nearly 1200 new photo filter overlays in 4 new categories in Image Resources > Photo Filter Presets > Overlays (Light Rays, Night Sky, Rose Petal and additions to Light Leak).
Photo overlays can be added to your photo, even on top of other photo filters, to provide a huge choice of creative possibilities. For more info see the Web Designer+ Release Notes.
We've added nearly 1200 new photo filter overlays in 4 new categories in Image Resources > Photo Filter Presets > Overlays (Light Rays, Night Sky, Rose Petal and additions to Light Leak).
Photo overlays can be added to your photo, even on top of other photo filters, to provide a huge choice of creative possibilities. For more info see the Web Designer+ Release Notes.
Explore an almost infinite variety of photo effects with 1200 new photo overlays
Export tables to Word & Powerpoint
Tables created with the new Xara Table tool and exported to Microsoft Word (in docx format) are now fully editable in Word.
Xara tables should now also look visually correct when exported to Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) presentations, although they're not currently editable in PowerPoint (text can be edited but the table won’t update).
Xara tables should now also look visually correct when exported to Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) presentations, although they're not currently editable in PowerPoint (text can be edited but the table won’t update).
Other Improvements
As always we're keeping up the flow of small enhancements & fixes in the Plus editions, including:- Scrolling and text editing performance improvements that should make a big difference when editing larger documents with many pages.
- Line Gallery now opens much more quickly, solving a problem with loss of the current selection.
- Error seen when making a copy of a table by dragging on it with right mouse button down. Fixed.
- Image export setting sometimes changed unexpectedly when page clipping option changed. Fixed.
Unsupported Characters
No more ▯ when you paste in a character that isn't supported by your current font, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean letters.Xara will now check for fonts that support the character and insert the correct character into your text using that font.
Find out more in the Web Designer+ release notes.
Easy access to your Xara account
Web Designer+ now has a new Account menu on the main menu bar, in this first release offering a quick & easy way to manage your subscription including members of your team (if you are a Team+ subscriber).New Web Themes
The template bonanza of 2022 continues with another 12 new website templates, all with the latest animation effects and SEO optimizations - and totally customizable to fit your business or personal website requirement:
- All include mobile variants
- A new wider 1280 pix wide main variant for the best possible results on your 4K monitors (but of course they auto scale to lower resolution on other devices)
- Default image export is now WebP for faster loading, giving a better experience for your visitors, and better SEO results too.
Just a few of the new web themes added to Web Designer+
Pasting & Tables
Hot off the press, a couple of additions to our new Table Tool to smooth your table workflow:
- A new 'paste unformatted' option, so you can copy and paste between table cells without styles if required
- And improved handling of multi-line text when copy and pasting data from external applications such as spreadsheets into your Xara tables
Other Improvements
And some other useful enhancements including:- Print options: The Automatic option is now more helpfully described as Actual size.
- Second and subsequent pastes of the same clipboard contents now work the same way as the initial paste (a list of formats to choose from is shown, if there is a choice). This means if you don’t like the results of the first format you choose, you can simply paste again and choose a different format, without having to re-copy from the source application.
- Lock icons are now shown in an “unlocked” or “locked” state.
Other table improvements
- Extending row selections using the Shift key is now more reliable.
- Tables don’t always redraw correctly after width/height changes. Fixed.
- Error when importing a particular table with color matching. Fixed.
- Error when exporting a PDF while table cells are selected. Fixed.
- Can’t click/drag on a table’s background to select/move the table. Fixed.
Copy external data into tables
Another important step forward for our new Table Tool: You can now copy and paste data from spreadsheets or other external sources straight into your Xara tables.Other Improvements
And a few other small enhancements and fixes including:- Error when pasting list items into an existing list. Fixed.
Other table improvements
- Table reformatting fixes.
- Pasting an image into a selected cell in the Table Tool now works as expected.
- Pasting an image into a cell no longer increases the row height excessively.
- Error deleting rows that are part of a merged row. Fixed.
- Error pasting RTF tables. Fixed.
Almost 1300 new Photo Filter Overlays
Another huge update to the Web Designer+ Content Catalog.
We've added nearly 1300 new photo filter overlays in 4 new categories in Image Resources > Photo Filter Presets > Overlays (Bokeh, Color Gradient, Light Leak and Snow).
Why not explore the new overlays this autumn and see what you can do ensure your photos stand out from the crowd.
For more info see the Web Designer+ Release Notes.
We've added nearly 1300 new photo filter overlays in 4 new categories in Image Resources > Photo Filter Presets > Overlays (Bokeh, Color Gradient, Light Leak and Snow).
Why not explore the new overlays this autumn and see what you can do ensure your photos stand out from the crowd.
For more info see the Web Designer+ Release Notes.
Explore the new creative possibilities with 1300 extra photo overlays
100+ New Templates
Christmas has come early with this massive update to the Online Content Catalog of Xara Web Designer+:- 2 website themes (in addition to the 20 added last month in Websites > Creative Websites)
- 57 extra tables, so you can make the most of our brand new table tool
- 42 social media buttons to help you maximize the potential of your social media
Why not check them out right now in the WHAT'S NEW folder in the Online Content Catalog.
For more info see the Web Designer+ Release Notes.
For more info see the Web Designer+ Release Notes.
Template bonanza, including web themes and social media buttons
Table Improvements
Our great new table tool gets even better. Whatever your requirements - presenting data, comparing products, displaying prices to name just a few examples - it'll be quick and easy in Xara:- you can now re-order rows & columns with a simple click & drag
- an automatic way to convert old Smart tables to the new tables
- a host of other minor improvements & fixes, listed in full in the Web Designer+ Release Notes, including an interim 22.1.1 release
Mouse over the row header and simply click & drag
New Repeating Objects Option
We've made the Repeating Objects feature a whole lot more powerful by introducing a new 'Make Repeating' option. This turns the current selected object into a Repeating Object, without automatically copying it to all pages - you can then copy it onto selected pages.Selection Improvements
Some changes to selection in response to user feedback and requests which should make object selection, the most basic and frequent of actions, more intuitive and consistent:- Selector tool transform handles are now slightly offset so they can't obscure any part of the selected object
- A new rotate and skew mode
- Double-clicking on a SmartShape now switches to the Quickshape Tool where all the handles are always available (just as double-clicking a photo switches to the Photo Tool)
- If you don't want to maintain the aspect ratio when stretching, Alt+Stretch now consistently allows you to do so.
Stretching without distortion vs stretching with distortion (stretch + Alt)
Other Improvements
As with all + version updates, this release includes a large number of small enhancements and fixes including:- Inconsistent font sizes when pasting same sized text into ‘Shrink on overflow’ text boxes. Fixed.
- Icon line widths wrong when replaced with SVG. Fixed.
- Check and (when necessary) fix the Windows Explorer ‘thumbnail view’, automatically during program startup.
- When replacing a color in an object, Xara will no longer preserve shading if there is only one shade of the color used. The user’s chosen color is applied directly instead.
New Web Themes
A major boost to your web design choices with 20 all-new website templates for Web Designer+ only. All fully customizable, and all with ready-made mobile variants.Check out the new themes in the Web Designer+ Online Content Catalog > Websites > Creative Websites.
Just a few of the new web templates in Designer Pro+
NEW Table Tool
If you want to make your websites stand out from the crowd, then try adding some really slick tables. Maybe you want to compare products, plans or prices for example - but whatever your requirement, we've now got the table tool to make that easy!You'll find the new tool at the bottom of the left hand toolbar, full instructions in our Release Notes and more than 20 new professional table templates in the Online Content Catalog (all old ones are revised to work with the new tool too so that makes almost 50 - and you can easily create your own tables from scratch).
Check out the new library of table templates
Other Improvements
As with all Designer+ updates, this release includes a large number of small enhancements and fixes including:- Issue with pasting list items from external source. Fixed.
- Scrollbar thumbs now more visible against scrollbar backgrounds.
- Installation problems for some users caused by missing MS VCRUNTIME DLL. Fixed.
- Occasional error when opening Docx file. Fixed.
- Inserting components via the Insert menu will now always automatically brand the components with the current document styles and colors.
- Missing handles in Mould Tool. Fixed.
- Can’t scroll to all pages in Page & Layer Gallery due to new page name position. Fixed.
New Xara Web Designer+
We’re happy to introduce a brand new subscription option called Xara Web Designer+.It offers all the advantages of a subscription model, namely frequent delivery of new features and content, as they are developed, and the fastest possible response to new compatibility issues and bug reports. You can always be sure you’ll have the latest version. What’s more Web Designer+ comes with direct support from Xara, via chat.
Online Help
The Help file has been moved online, which will allow us to update it between software upgrades, and integrate it with the online knowledgebase articles, to create a more comprehensive and up to date help resource.Building Better Websites with SVG
We can now export more types of graphical object to web using SVG, to fully take advantage of the great support for SVG among modern web browsers. Flat, linear graduated and circular graduated fills, elliptical fills, wall shadows, mix and multiply transparency, all now export as SVG. We've also improved support for exporting groups as SVG.Bottom line: It’s now possible to build graphically rich websites and web documents that have no bitmap images to download at all, and that means your pages load faster. That's great news for usability and for SEO, since faster pages bring better page rank. Bonus: your content will look a lot sharper as SVG.
Sharpen your images with SVG (just one of the advantages!)
Better Mobile
We've made some changes that will improve the user experience for your all-important mobile visitors:- page animations have been improved on pages with vertical scrolling
- a vertical swipe will no longer change page on pages with vertical scrolling
- a swipe will no longer change pages if there is text selected (since the viewer is probably trying to change the selection not the page)
More intuitive Auto-Fit
Auto-Fit is a great time-saving feature that automatically adjusts the font size of text to its container as you type (we also offer Shrink Text on Overflow, that only fits the text to its container when it runs out of space).Based on user feedback we've changed the behaviour, so that if you try to change the font size of text with Auto-fit or Shrink Text on Overflow on, it is automatically switched off and the font size change applied.
Shape Tool
A nice improvement for vector illustration, with the introduction of an easy way to maintain the angle of the bezier curve when you drag its handles to change its length in the Shape Tool.
Extra control in the Shape Tool
New User Interface
To mark the release of our new subscription version, Xara Web Designer+ has a brand new clean and modern look, that will enhance your everyday usage:- The new darker background puts more focus on your design, with less user interface distractions
- There are new, clearer icon designs throughout
- All icons and mouse pointers are now High DPI, so they look sharp and clear on high resolution displays
- And other minor tweaks and improvements - for example in the Page & Layer Gallery, the Page names are now separated from the page thumbnails, so both are clearly visible.
Switch to Microsoft Edge
There are several tools that open a web browser window within Web Designer to display content, namely the Widget Editor, Symbol Picker, Google Font Finder and Erase Tool Guide.We previously used Microsoft Explorer for this, but with support for Explorer falling off (including among Widget providers), we have switched to the latest Microsoft Edge technology, ensuring a smooth workflow and support for the widest range of widgets.
Faster Websites
In addition to the SVG changes, we’ve made some refinements to the exported code that will significantly improve page load speeds, for the benefit of your SEO. In our tests mobile page load speeds were 15% faster!
Multi-Line SmartFields
SmartFields are another great time-saving feature of Web Designer, offering an efficient way to deal with commonly used text phrases that you want to insert in multiple places in your document.In this release we've increased your opportunities to benefit from SmartFields by adding support for multi-line SmartFields, postal address being a common example.
Extended Support for Numbered lists
Now you can insert more sophisticated numbered lists, including a parent number.
More control over numbered lists
Other Improvements
This Web Designer+ release includes a large number of small enhancements and fixes to smooth your workflow - too many to list here, so check them out in our v22 Release Notes!To Help With SEO
When it comes to SEO a great position is built on a mountain of small improvements - and here's a few more that are worth working on!- You can now set Canonical tags to deal with the problem of duplicate content
- There's a new option to quickly set the original photo filename as the Image Name
- noopener and noreferrer attributes are now added to any target="_blank" links
Self-Hosted Google Fonts
We've reacted quickly to the latest legal developments in Europe, which cast doubt on whether calling Google to display Google Fonts complies with GDPR.
No-one wants to give up their Google Fonts, so Web Designer will now automatically publish the fonts to your own web space and no longer reference Google, offering instant compliance. You don't need to do anything other than re-publish your website.
What's more, with the great font support in modern browsers the balance of advantage has been moving in favor of self hosting, so you could also benefit from speed improvements for your web page, with all the SEO benefits that brings. Double win!
No-one wants to give up their Google Fonts, so Web Designer will now automatically publish the fonts to your own web space and no longer reference Google, offering instant compliance. You don't need to do anything other than re-publish your website.
What's more, with the great font support in modern browsers the balance of advantage has been moving in favor of self hosting, so you could also benefit from speed improvements for your web page, with all the SEO benefits that brings. Double win!
Other Improvements
We've included a host of small but useful enhancements and fixes, which include:- 21 new Google fonts offering new and interesting typography options
- PDF, Powerpoint and Word import improvements
- Fixed an issue with AI files in the Online Content Catalog
- When pages are re-ordered, page breaks are now added to prevent text moving between pages
Web Designer benefits from seamless integration with Xara Cloud, which makes it a great additional service.
Xara Cloud is an ultra-simple way to edit and share your Xara documents and websites online in a web browser, using any computer or tablet. The Team version of Xara Cloud also gives you the ability to work on Xara documents and sites or Xara Cloud templates in collaboration with friends, colleagues and clients, commenting and editing together in real-time.
Xara Cloud is being constantly enhanced, and new features are made available as and when they are ready - you can find news of the very latest updates here.
You can find out more about the Free and premium Xara Cloud options & register here.
Edit your Xara designs in a browser using any device