Launched today is Xara Web Designer 6 which goes beyond the realms of other website builders. Unlike other website builders, Xara Web Designer is the only truly free-form WYSIWYG web design tool, that allows complete freedom of web page design including the the ability to draw shapes. You can position text, graphics and photos anywhere on the page, at any size or angle, overlaid or with transparency and Web Designer will produce a pixel accurate, perfect web page.

Xara Web Designer 6 can do things that are regarded as near impossible with other web-authoring software, such as repel text around irregular shapes and photos and the ability to draw anything from simple shapes to complex company logos and graphics using its advanced vector graphic tools. Xara Web Designer 6 includes automatic optimization of graphics that not only produce optimized resolution images, but automatically detects repeating elements across the website thus producing faster, more optimized websites.

Aimed at graphic designers who do not want to learn HTML or scripting languages, it's also the perfect 'rapid website prototyping' tool for graphic designers and webmasters. The simplicity of Xara Web Designer means that even the beginner can create professional looking websites with ease.

"Xara Web Designer 6 provides no programming tools, no script editing and doesn't even provide an 'HTML view'", says Managing Director, Charles Moir, "Our design philosophy is this: You don't need to know the PDF programming language in order to produce PDF files, so neither should you have to know anything about HTML or Javascript in order to create great websites."

Xara Web Designer 6 supports CSS layers with advanced features such as full or graduated transparency, mouse-over effects, animated photo pop-ups and more. It creates cross-browser, cross-platform XHTML compatible websites. With its new, modern re-designed appearance, Xara Web Designer 6 introduces a number of new innovative web authoring software features some of which are :

• New NavBars with DHTML sub-menus, intelligent, automatic stretching as you enter text and automatic linking to all the pages of your website.
• New photo slideshows and improved, more slick, photo thumbnail pop-ups.
• Drag 'n' drop multiple photos in one go to populate a gallery page.
• Enhanced text tool to include bullets, numbered lists, indents and fully justified text wrap around images and graphics.
• Anchored graphics so photos and graphics can flow with the text.
• Gallery changes include auto-updating designs gallery, drag 'n' drop Widgets from the Designs gallery, a new Widget library, lots more designs in the Template Gallery, enhanced 'Page & Layer' gallery providing a quick way to view and re-arrange pages by simple drag & drop and pre-built color schemes.
• Easy MP4 video upload and built-in video player.
• Ability to support rounded corner pages, and with drop shadows.
• Paste HTML snippets in directly with an automatic preview/placeholder created.
• Easy way to add links to (and upload) external files such as PDF and Word files etc.
• Better page color and background support so you can color the pasteboard separately from the page.
• Automatic backups and save of open documents on application closedown.
• Incremental Publishing for faster upload so only the changed files are uploaded.
• FTP details can be stored with the document including password. As if that isn't enough, Xara Web Designer 6 also comes with a free web hosting offer.

Xara Web Designer 6 costs just \$49 for US customers, £39 for UK (inc VAT) and €39 (inc VAT) for the EU. It operates on Windows XP/Vista/7.

For more information see - xara.com
Example website tutorial - webdesigner.xara.com
Demo Movies - xara.com/webdesigner/demos

More information and downloads

Please see the press center at xara.com/presscenter/webdesigner
This includes press materials, graphics, screenshots, boxshots, product information and a full list of new features.

Contact

For more details or a serial number to unlock the trial version please contact: Nova Fisher, [email protected] Tel: +44 1392 209509

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About Xara Group Ltd Xara has been at the cutting edge of software design since 1981, specializing in creative design and publishing solutions, with award winning titles from the era of the BBC Micro right up to and including the latest cloud based, online services. Innovations have included technology firsts such as the first real time anti-aliasing & transparency controls, and spell check as you type. Xara Cloud is the latest venture, the culmination of decades in software design for the publishing industry. You can find more information about the latest updates on the website of our official worldwide reseller magix.com.

About MAGIX MAGIX has been a leading international provider of high-quality software, online services and digital content for multimedia communications since 1993. The MAGIX product range is targeted towards both laymen and professionals alike, going beyond the PC platform to include seamlessly integrated online and mobile applications. MAGIX operates internationally from branches in the USA, Canada, the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands.