New to this

[steve.ledger]

Still learning the terminology with this program. My immediate goal is to figure out how to make white background of a pic transparent without making the white text transparent also - such as with the HTML5 logo.

Many simple drawings and logos are best created by hand using the vector tools available in Xara P&GD7, the HTML5 logo is a perfect example of one that should take no more than 15 minutes by a complete novice.
Rather than using bitmap plugins and faffing around placing white shapes behind the white areas you wanted to retain, just lock the bitmap then use the Shape Tool to trace it by hand.

You'll find plenty of tutorials at the XaraXone, both Xara user forums, YouTube and the Xara help file itself regarding use of the shape tool.

The beauty of creating your own vector drawing is it is resolution independent meaning it can be resized smaller or larger without any loss of quality.