7.0

Support folders
Some documents which are used to create websites need to reference external files which cannot be
embedded in the .xar design file. For example you may have a Flash (.swf) file which is used on your
website and so you'll want to keep that file with the design file because you can't export a fully working
website from the design file without also having the Flash file. And if you were to send the design to
someone else, or move it to another computer, you'd want the referenced Flash file to go along with the
main design file.
So Xara Web Designer 7 Premium uses an optional "support folder" right alongside the design file to hold
these important external files.
Support folder naming
The design file and its corresponding support folder are tied together by their names. The support folder
for "mySite.xar" is always "mySite_xar_files". This naming convention makes it obvious which support
folder belongs to which design file. So if you rename, copy or move a design file, always remember to do
the same to the corresponding support folder, if it exists! And if you send a design file to someone else,
send any support files folder along with it.
If you load a design that has a support folder, and then subsequently do a Save As
to save another copy of that design, Xara Web Designer 7 Premium will copy the whole support folder
too, if there is one.
Support folder contents
When you use the Placeholder Tab
of the Web Properties dialog to insert a reference to an external file into your website design (using the
Browse buttons), Xara Web Designer 7 Premium will automatically copy that file into the design's
support folder for you. If the support folder doesn't already exist, it will be created.
Note that if you subsequently change a placeholder object to reference a different file, the original file will
not be automatically deleted from the support folder. So if a file is no longer needed, you need to remove
it manually.
You can also manually copy any files you like into the support folder of a design, creating the folder
manually if required. Xara Web Designer 7 Premium will never delete any files from it, whether or not
they are referenced from the corresponding design file. The reason for this is that there are many different
ways in which a design may reference an external file. For example you may insert a complex piece of
HTML code into your design, which somewhere references an external file which you've placed in the
support folder. Or perhaps one of the external files references another external file! There's no way that
Xara Web Designer 7 Premium can be sure that a file is not used by the website, so it never deletes files.
Exporting websites with support folders
When you export a website document, any files in the corresponding support folder are copied to the
folder which contains all the generated images for your website. So if you export "mySite.xar" to
"index.htm", then any files in folder "mySite_xar_files" are copied into the "index_htm_files folder".
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