What are the Worst features in XPro

[Albacore]

Recently we have had a wave of requests of features in this forum all stating they would like this a that in their version of Xara. My beef is, I would like what I have improved. Opening this topic is your chance to state what you don't like in your current version of Xara whither it is XPro or Xtreme.

My only beef in the product I use is the following:

Brushes; They are clumsy and take some much time to get the effect that you want!
The Alignment Tool; It is very basic in its approach although it works, needs refined.
Bugs; Just sort out the major ones like the Tiff export and so on!

And that's all as I am really happy with the current version of XPro its so easy now to use. It has increase my work flow hugely and I now use Illy just as a check to see if the colour is correct in CMYK

[handrawn]

Sorry everyone, but I think the previous post was still chaotic so I'm abandoning it and starting again, can't seem to think straight today - must be going down with flu or something..

Albacore I agree with brushes and bugs, which would be the two highest on my list.
The brushes are hamstrung by inflexibility - time and again you have to start from scratch to make the changes you need.
Bugs I guess are obviously bad, there seem to be quite a few that have been around for ages.....

The 2 other things I mentioned before, I think I'll let rest.

There is one feature that I haven't mentioned that I will need to think about before I post because it is important to me.
I'll go away and think it through

[huorn]

i agree about tiff export, it's xtreme!!!
for aligment need simple buttons, not that ugly window

but worst thing in xara - bitmap correction

xpe (levels) - just useless, xara have great feature - curve control for trans/feather, it works fine, why not have it for bitmap fills? it must be same window with additional tabs for rgb channels

xara don't have link option for import,.. it can increase speed for file saving and color correction... just imagine,.. only shapes with bitmap coordinates, all pictures lay in folder and always available for editing

also need selection menu (like in rhino3d) and object snaping options (snap in center, midle of curve, perpendecular... etc)

i hope that someone developer read what i writte and will be able to understand pardon my english

[MarkMyWords]

I would agree with the alignment buttons, the one in inkscape works much better and (apart from the 'clump' buttons), I guess is pretty standard.

Brushes are fairly good, they have a lot of options and much can be done with them, but Xara must fix the option to allow custom brushes to use the current fill colour. As it is, their use is practically crippled by constantly reverting to their original colours.

And the accuracy of the slice and subtract operations should be improved, having to go back and 'correct' dozens of inaccuracies just adds to the workload.

Why doesn't the Envelope warp bitmaps (beyond simple perspective warps)?

I could happily live without the pen tool, the shape editor does the same job and more. All the path options should be available for both the freehand and the shape editor tools, I spend a large part of my time flipping between the two, to access various options (I do a lot of linework). I use the line shapes and then often have to flip a path. Simply allowing the buttons for these options to be put on a custom tools palette would be fine.

Management of files in the galleries needs to be better, drag and drop would be favourite, especially for adding clip art.

[tekarts]

I am using the trial version of Pro. I sorry of this is a dumb question, but what are the "brushes" you are talking about? Is this part of the picture editor?

[GeoBen]

I disagree about the Pen tool. I DO use it, especially for drawing irregular 'clip' lines, which give a more organic feel to the resulting objects w/o the need for crating new points.

check on the warping of bitmaps.

tekarts,

'Brushes' in Xara is a bit of a misnomer. Brushes are the variations on line shapes, textures etc in the line gallery. If you look at the forum just a bit above where you entered this one, (Swap Shop - Brushes) you will see lots of them.

geo.

[Egg Bramhill]

Although I never use either now, the frustration of creating image slicing and also nav bars and having XX tell me there's an overlay or some such error!!! The tools work, but it can often be a nightmare to get them working correctly.

I 'd also like to see the slicing errors eradicated. As for bugs, I believe a lot of these are system dependant and very difficult to pinpoint. The only one I suffer from is the dreaded XPE progress bar.

But then again there's times that I think my wife's not perfect either

[amoore]

Number one complaint: No option for aligning to a selected object rather than to the extreme.

Otherwise, I actually prefer the alignment window to all those icons. I find it easier to read.

I'm also a fan of the Pen tool. Almost never use the Freehand tool.

[handrawn]

Agree with Geo about the pen tool - sometimes I prefer to walk rather than fly, especially when I'm tired - I make less mistakes....

In post #2 above I mentioned a deficiency in xara that was bugging me - well here it is: color does not have a transparency attribute - you cannot apply a fade down to an individual color element of an object - only the object as a whole.
[ If you can please someone tell me how ]
As mentioned elsewhere this could go part way to providing a vector eraser of a sort. Another major deficiency.

See attached xar [bit complicated for an image post]

[tekarts]

Ah, Gotcha. Thanks handrawn.