Hi pegbert

This isn't a solution (just an alternative idea), but you could try creating a medium sized rectangle (or other simple object) near to your animation objects. When selecting this rectangle Ctrl+Shift+D or U will move it backwards or forwards a frame. Effectively selecting prev/next frame using a keyboard shortcut (I'm using an older version of Xara so the actual keys used might be different for yours).

Obviously the downside is that you still need to click/select the rectangle to move it, meaning a click and keyboard combo (as opposed to just a click on the prev/next frame arrow keys or frame gallery select). Although, you can also select the rectangle using either the Home and End keys ... this isn't ideal if you are moving the top and bottom stacking order of other objects in between moving the rectangle.

The only way this might be a bit easier, maybe, is that the rectangle would be nearer to your animated objects and larger to click on than the prev/next arrows, or no need to leave the frame gallery open for navigation ... if that is an issue.

Alternatively: you could store the rectangle, or indeed any copied object/s, in the clipboard and paste (Ctrl+V) then move, then cut (Ctrl+X) as you go. But unless you really prefer keyboard shortcuts to clicking arrows etc (and can perhaps customise the Ctrl+Shift one to just Ctrl + something - ie hold down Ctrl hit V, then say Q to move, then X to cut), then this looks like it would be a bit of a fiddly option.

Not sure if any of this would work for you or not, but it might be worth having an experiment with.

Regards

Su