We found the process overly complicated but it was effective once we grew accustomed to it. To adjust the appearance of buttons in the various states, you have to flip back and forth between the Selection tool and the Button and Nav Bar tool. In short, you create or import a button from the Gallery, use the Button and Nav Bar tool to create a button set, and request that Xara create mouse states (layers, actually).
One caveat: We found the rollover and navigation-bar features the most confusing aspect of the program, and we had to watch the tutorial movie several times before the process became clear. You can create JavaScript rollovers, navigation bars, and animated GIFs, and the program includes a good Web optimization export. Xara offers a raft of features for creating Web graphics.
Interactive transparencies use the same variables as gradients, so you can assign transparency shapes and repeating units as well as direction and percentage.
One aspect of the Font gallery is especially helpful, and unusual: When you select a font included in Xara’s font library from the neatly categorized list of available fonts, Xara will automatically install it for you if you haven’t installed it already. A variety of selections and functions are available from a set of gallery palettes: bitmap fills, line styles, colors, clip art, fonts, and the like. For example, when you select the Bevel tool, the button bar lets you adjust bevel type, contrast, elevation, and light angle, and it allows you to choose an inner or outer bevel. The interface itself comprises a main toolbar and a context-sensitive button bar that offers functions specific to the current tool. If you want to graze through Xara’s feature set, you can watch any of the 80 tutorial movies provided on a separate CD shipped with the program CD. Xara doesn’t ship with a printed manual, but we rarely had to resort to the on-line help - the program is that easy to master.
Its most striking characteristic is its avoidance of dialog boxes: You carry out almost every function either through drag-and-drop operations performed using interactive handles or through buttons, sliders, and context menus. Of course, consistency among interfaces can be a good thing for users, and Xara adheres firmly to the Windows interface standard, but it also manages to one-up the interfaces of its competitors. Most Windows illustration programs look and act pretty much alike these days and tout about the same features.
It’s amazingly fast, robust, and loaded with cutting-edge features such as interactive drop shadows, transparency, and bevels, plus a compact selection of Web-centric tools for creating rollovers, buttons, and navigation bars. But after a few days with Xara, I was tempted to use this app for all my drawing needs. This reviewer admits to being a CorelDraw chauvinist, having used it since version 1. is marketing a considerably enhanced version named Xara X ($149). The agreement expired last year and now Xara Ltd. and Corel kept it in the understudy role behind CorelDRAW, wearing the CorelXara name. For years XaraStudio was a remarkably agile drawing program just waiting to be discovered, but a marketing deal between Xara Ltd.