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Whether you're a time-pressed designer or a complete novice, you can create professional-quality graphics and photos for the web with just the click of a button.
Webstyle's customizable professionally-designed templates give you almost limitless possibilities, from button bars and banner ads to photo albums and complete page layouts. More Info: Click here !
EVERYONE can make quality web graphics with Xara Webstyle, whatever your skill level. From banner ads to complete web pages, simply customize the templates...
Professional, high-quality NavBars & DHTML menus at the click of a button. Xara Menu Maker takes the mystery out of dynamic hierarchical menus and lets literally anyone create cool and clever DHTML menus.
2. Start a new page, or open the existing page into which you wish to insert your add-on.
3. Select 'Imported Files & HTML' from the Element Palette and then click the 'Insert HTML' button to open the 'Element Editor'. When this window appears, select the 'Edit HTML' button and paste the short HTML snippet for your add-on into the text area and click OK. (To paste the HTML snippet, hold down the Ctrl key and press the V key)
4. You can only add one add-on snippet to each HTML window in Homestead.
5. Resize and move the subsequent text box to your desired location. Please note that resizing the box will not resize your add-on.
6. Save your page, and view. You have now added an add-on to your web page.
How to insert an add-on into your web page using Homestead
Web Design Tips
Before diving head first into your site, stop and think about what you want. Try to take the perspective of your visitors. What would they want from the site? Navigation is important to any website. If it is hard to find what you are looking for or links go to nowhere, visitors will simply go elsewhere and that's not what we want.
Your Home page will be the first page visitors will see, so decide what information and graphics will attract them to carry on surfing your site. Plan what information you are including and prioritize it. Draw up your website structure and layout so the site provides a clear navigation path for visitors and allows you to provide branding for your pages.
As with most things in life first impressions are important. When designing a site you need to instantly attract your visitor's attention and entice them to stay and look around. Graphics help spice up a site, but remember that size and download speeds do matter on a website. The smaller the better.
Plan your layout and navigation on paper first before starting to build your site
Errors - Spell check and proof read your site. No one likes errors on a page. Remember a spell check will only check the spelling not the grammar e.g. you might put wood, rather than would, which would not be picked up by the spell check. Get a friend or colleague to check the site as you have worked on the site so much you will not always spot the errors.
Text - Break up long sections of text either with gaps, dividers or headings. Using sub headings will allow visitors who are skimming to look for keywords. A visitor is more likely to read text if it is broken up into small sections. Try to avoid stretching your text across the page as it makes it difficult to pick up the next line. Ideally your text should be 400 to 480 pixels wide.
Branded Look - Use the same structure and design thoughtout your site, keeping your theme consistent. It can confuse visitors if each page looks different.
Colors - Too many colors can ruin your design, giving a crowded look. Try to keep to a maximum of three colors. Remember you can use lighter or darker variations of your color theme.
Homestead Design
Text Appearance
Errors
Colors
Structure and Design
Designs tips to always follow
Follow these tips to build a great looking professional site.
Navigation bars are easy to follow and understand.
Navigation is consistent throughout the site
Visitors know where the links will take them
Links are underlined and are color co-ordinated with the site
Background colors compliment your text color
Graphics are not too big
Pages download quickly
Consistent design and structure throughout
These basic rules will help you build a top quality professional site to impress your visitors and keep them coming back again and again.
Using Xara Modules With Homestead
For the first time ever it's now easy to create amazing web pages containing cool animated photos, customized web graphics, even photos that expand when you click. What's more all this can be done using Homestead and Xara Modules in just a few seconds.
Web Designer tools for the Do-It-Yourself - Homestead Builder
Most Xara elements are free. Some have premium versions that offer more features
Add-On's
Xara Modules add-ons range from the simple hit counter to powerful database web applications to enhance any website.
A complete auto-sales database. Perfect for any car dealer.
Search engine optimization - Search engine optimization (SEO) for your web design is the technique used when designing your website to achieve higher rankings in the worlds search engines. Achieving higher search engine rankings than your competition will guide customers to your products or services.
Web Design - Web design is the creation of professional websites with the design, navigation and features developed to achieve a user experience that leaves them informed and impressed with your image and understanding of their needs. A quality web design will convert browsers to customers.
