Xway b8 is here!
We have just released Xway b8, the latest version of our next-generation program for visual web design.
You can download it from our website.
Documentation
Xway comes with a detailed reference manual, which you can access by choosing Xway User Guide from Xway’s Help menu. This also includes an appendix with a list of new features and cross-references to documentation in the user guide — this is a good place to start if you’re upgrading from a previous beta version. If you’re new to Xway, a good place to start is the introduction to the user guide, and the introductory tutorial (see below).
Tutorials
A good way to become familiar with Xway is to work through the introductory Xway Tutorial. Select Xway Resources from the Help menu to go to the Xway Resources section of our website, and click on Tutorials, near the bottom of the page, followed by Download the Xway tutorial on the Tutorials page. This takes you through the steps for creating a simple website.
The Xway Tutorial is the first in a series of tutorials. The next tutorials in this series are the Xway Menu Tutorial, which introduces navigation menus, and the Xway Flexbox Tutorial, which introduces Flexbox layout. All these tutorials, and the documents they create, are available from our website.
These tutorials have been updated for b8—the updated version of the Xway Menu Tutorial shows how to use sticky position with menus.
Sample documents
There are two collections of sample documents that you can download from our website: Ambient and Ambient Light. These were created using the Xway Tutorial, Xway Menu Tutorial, and Xway Flexbox Tutorial.
New features
For more information on new features, see the New Features appendix at the end of the Xway User Guide. This contains cross-references to documentation.
- Lists
- Sticky position
- Display and visibility properties
- Maximum width and maximum height fields for dynamic styles
- Dynamic target styles can be used for popups and collapsible sections etc.
- Export (and Export As…) duplicates the contents of a document’s internal Site folder to an external folder
- Show Export Folder opens an exported folder in the Finder
- Show Site Folder has been removed from the File menu
- Empty Site Folder deletes the contents of a document’s internal Site folder
- Box offsets are displayed in a separate Offsets section of the Box Inspector, just above the Dimensions section (instead of within the Dimensions section)
- Hamburger menus can be set to display below a defined breakpoint, always, or never
- The alignment of hamburger menu items can be set to Left, Center, or Right
- If a folder is selected in the Site panel, new pages and folders are added within this folder
- If a folder is selected in the Site panel, copied pages and folders are pasted within this folder
- The Site panel automatically expands ancestor items when new items are added
Improvements
We made some improvements, including:
- Xway adopts the unified toolbar style in Ventura (macOS 13) and later. This style was introduced in Big Sur, but we previously avoided it because it caused toolbar items to be aligned on the right of the toolbar, making them harder to access. However, Ventura provides a way to centre-align toolbar items. This gives Xway a more modern appearance and more window space.
- Xway preserves the current Inspector pane when switching to a non-layout view and back.
- The Link dialog defaults to the current page (instead of None) for Page links, making it easier to create links to items that are on the current page.
- We’ve improved the error message for YouTube videos that can’t be embedded.
Bug fixes
We fixed some bugs, including:
- The Rename command in the File menu doesn’t strip document extensions (making them unreadable until the extension is restored).
- Iframe PDF previews aren’t vertically flipped.
- Fixed a layout issue that occurred when multiple fixed-position items are used on a page.
- Fixed a layout issue that affected menus within flex containers.
- Fixed an HTML parsing issue that could prevent components from being imported.
- Links to items work in Xway’s Web view.
- Aspect ratio is calculated correctly for flex item images with borders and/or padding.
- Percentage heights are calculated correctly for children of flex items in horizontal layouts.