Release Notes August 2021 March 2021 Xara Cloud

Release Notes

You can find full details on the Web Designer updates in our V18 Release Notes.

August 2021

Improve Your Web Presence with Open Graph

Present the best possible image for your site on social media by adding an Open Graph image, title and description. They'll be displayed when sharing your link on social media, so you can be sure that viewers will see an image, title and description of your choosing, rather than an automatically generated one that might not do you any favors!

Don't forget to include your keywords in the title and description to help your page rank!

We've included 15 Open Graph image templates to help get you started if you're new to Open Graph.

Advanced Object Locking

We've introduced some flexible new locking options, perfect for situations where you are creating websites in Web Designer that are edited by other members of your team in Xara Cloud. Now you can avoid any accidental brand breakages by restricting editing rights!

More info in the Release Notes.

An image with Size & Position locked (no resize handles) and with Aspect ratio locked (no width & height handles)

Other Improvements

  • The possibility of many new typographic options with 21 additional Google Fonts
  • As with every Web Designer release, we've introduced improvements to import and export formats like Powerpoint, SVG, Word and PDF import.

WebP Support

The new WebP image format developed by Google promises both top quality images and small file sizes. And with page load speed being an important factor in page rank (especially with the imminent release of Core Web Vitals) that's just what you need!

Web Designer Premium can now import WebP images, and export them either individually or for the whole site.

You can find more info in the Release Notes.

Check out the SEO benefits of WebP

New Smart Timelines

Smart Layouts offer an ultra simple way to customize graphical components to your exact need, with edit handles that let you add, remove and re-order the internal elements of your component without ever breaking the whole.

We've added a selection of new Smart Layouts to timeline component category of the Online Content Catalog, offering some great new opportunities to add a bit of visual excitement to your websites!

March 2021

High DPI Support

Get the most from your screens with the new high DPI support. Pin sharp resolution for 4K monitors and devices like Surface Pro tablets, but a bonus even for lower resolution screens.

New Content Type: Headers

We've added 10 professional new header designs to the Online Content Catalog, ideal for presentations and the perfect place to get started with a blank document. They're set to 'repeating' by default and automatically size and position themselves at the top of the page on insertion. A great time saver!

Some of the new header templates in the Content Catalog

Enhanced Web Export Options

The Web Export options have been moved into the Web Properties dialog, alongside all other web settings  - a more logical arrangement that will improve your workflow - and we've added some new controls:
  • Firstly you now have a finer level of control over transition effects, with separate controls for transition effect and transition direction, giving you scope for all sorts of new and interesting transition effects.
  • We've also added greater control over the new features introduced to presentations and web documents in the past few releases, so you can choose separately whether you want to display the PDF download option, page navigation panel and Xara logo next to your presentations or web documents.
  • When you preview a website it now opens in your default local browser instead of the internal preview window, for a faster and more reliable preview.

Other Improvements

  • New typographic options with 44 additional Google Fonts - there are now more than 900 Google fonts to choose from
  • As with every Web Designer release, we've introduced improvements to import and export formats like SVG, Word and Powerpoint.

Smart Duplication

A quick and easy way to create multiple copies of objects or components, horizontally or vertically, with a single click-drag, and a really simple way to handle object spacing. 

The new Smart Duplicate feature will help you cut down tedious repetition in your design work, and make experimention easy!

Drag on the Smart Duplication handles to create multiple copies. Adjust the spacing with the Spacing Handle

New & Improved Handles

We've continued the work to modernize and simplify the handles, to give a cleaner and more productive workspace for both the Shape Tool and Quickshapes.

New Shape Tool handles

Updated CMYK Color Profile

A much requested improvement to the display of CMYK colors on screen, and in any export formats that require the conversion of CMYK to RGB. A change to the default color profile means you will see a more accurate representation of CMYK colors on screen.

New Content

There's a bumper addition to the Online Content Catalog (available if you have an active subscription to Xara Cloud+ or an active Update Service for Web Designer) including the first designs in our new Header category:
  • 10 new presentation templates in Presentations > Presentation Themes
  • 6 new diagrams in Components > Print & Web Components
  • 9 new header designs in Components > Print & Web Components (*New category)
  • 4 new text panels in Components > Print & Web Components
  • 5 new tables in Components > Print & Web Components
  • 3 new photo frames & Photo Panels in Components > Image Resources
  • 30 new Facebook templates in the Social Media category
  • 30 new Instagram templates in the Social Media category

Xara Cloud

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