does xara save control bars with templates? or with page documents?

[Stealth]

ive spent a good deal of time making a control bar only to to have it go missing on reopen of document.

[gwpriester]

Make sure the control bar is not on a layer that is invisible.

If you saved the document with a control bar, then it is still there.

[Soquili]

Stealth if you created a control bar using the Window > Control Bars and gave it a name, it is saved in the registry. You should be able to have it display by going to the Window menu > Control Bars and clicking on it's name.