Xara Web Designer MX review

Although Web Designer MX’s DTP metaphor is a very welcoming way for novices to put together a web page, it’s less successful at designing an entire site. Pages appear in a flat list in a ‘gallery’ at the far right of the window and this gives no clue to the site hierarchy, which means the user must either remember how one page relates to another, or use the more detailed navbar ‘properties’ view to see their relationship — assuming a navbar is used, of course.

Thankfully, our criticism of Xara Web Designer’s lack of interactive web elements in an earlier review no longer applies and this new MX version provides forms, embedded streaming media, social media tools and photo galleries in the form of widgets. The selection isn’t as comprehensive as that offered by the similar Serif WebPlus X5, but all the basics are covered and there’s enough to keep a fledgling web designer busy.

Xara Web Designer MX isn’t as capable as the very similar Serif WebPlus X5, but its learning curve isn’t as steep, nor its interface as imposing for someone who’s new to web design. The HTML Web Designer MX generates isn’t particularly elegant, but since the user need never see it, we won’t hold that against the application. It’s a great buy for beginners.