I'm with Pauland and brianlj.

Xara is a very, very good app, but I find it really strange that its weaknesses are so strongly defended by so many.
And the alignment box is one of its rare weaknesses - in usability-wise.



3 points of objective thinking (instead of subjective) in this matter;

1. imagine a newbie using it for the first time -> lots of hits and misses, guessing, reading, waste of time and frustration. The dialog just does not self explain fast enough what you should do with it, or is very slow to use. And providing 2 methods in one dialog for one simple function just proves Xara wasn't sure how to do it. The fact that some diehard Xara users like it doesn't mean it's good. They just don't want the change so that they would have to learn the old stuff anew.

2. has any other app adopted Xara's alignment method -> No! If it was good some would have adopted it. Good stuff gets copied, as simple as that.

3. What is the most common way presenting alignment functions in applications in general? Those examples Pauland and brianlj just gave us (and similar). Why are they so widely used? Because most people understand them almost right away and because they are fast to use. It's good usability!

I think there is too much exaggerated fear in this community that improvement suggestions will spoil Xara, make it bloatware or make it like the others are. Surely there must be reasonable protection to keep it unique. One should be thinking the masses (of users), not just yourself. If you were able to use Xara productively until now, surely you will do so in the future even if some features were standardized and some murky corners were cleaned.

Now, this post may sound offensive, but it's not and for writing this I refuse to become an enemy. I have a high respect for all you diehards out there.

Ps. speed tip for those of you strugling with the align box; try using SHIFT or CONTROL while clicking the little "screen". That should speed you up. At the same time forget about the dropdown boxes. Just concentrate on using the little screen.