Problem with drawing lines in colour in Xara XS

[walshrp]

No matter what I try my copy of Xara XS 2.0 will only draw lines and curves in black. Other drawing packages work fine on my Windows XP Home PC. What am I doing wrong? I can change the colour after I have drawn it but I cannot set a colour before drawing it.

Thankyou.

Bob Walsh

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference Bob

Are you right clicking on a color?

Left click on a color applies a fill color. Right click applies an outline color.

Gary

[walshrp]

Thanks
This works fine on a line I have already drawn, but new lines are all the same colour. When I try now all new lines are in red which I can change to my desired colour after completing the stroke. Is the modus operandi of Xara XS to do the colouring after drawing?

[MarkMyWords]

In the menu; Utilities/options and under the general tab the option to "Give new objects most recent attributes" controls this.

When checked this option gives each line/object you draw the colour (and other attributes) of the last line/object you drew. It will keep using that colour until you select a new one.

[walshrp]

Result

I unchecked the tickbox then applied this state. No immediate improvement. Then I rechecked the tick box and Shazam!!! the program went from weird to very interesting in a oner. It works fine now. Brilliant!

Thanks

Bob Walsh

[gwpriester]

Ah, I see what you are saying.

You can also right click on a color with nothing selected, to set a default outline color. You can do this for the fill color. Transparency effect. Default font, size, and style. Some of these remain in effect until you change them, other last only as long as your current session in the drawing.

Some of us do not like to have the last applied effect applied to the next object and so this method of setting a temporary default is better.

Gary

[MarkMyWords]

That's handy to know, thanks Gary.