Cliff Welcome to Talkgraphics!

I think in you second question you where asking about manuals/tutorials. In that reguard Xara does better than all the others... The help menu is very good, but as exciting as help menus get.

The Videos, on the other hand are very good and informational. Between the movies and the help files most computer graphics folk need little else to start drawing.

If you are a pen/pencil/brush artist, then using a computer might take a little while to become accustomed too.

If you want to draw, but have no idea how... Or would like to hit the ground running then go to the http://www.xaraxone.com/ and there you will find over 100 step by step tatorials on how to draw almost everything by some very talented artists The main artist being Mr Gary Preister who can make this program sit up and beg. What is even better he shows you how to do it step by step in his tuts.

IF you need more than that, there is always this forum where you have xara users from around the world that typically answer your queries quickly and many times with two or three different ways to accomplish your task.