As I said, FreeHand's Pen Tool is the best I've encountered. That doesn't mean a still better Bezier drawing interface can't be devised.

What Xara users need to understand is just how far behind Xara is in this matter. It not only falls far short of FreeHand, but also of Deneba Canvas, Corel Draw, and even cumbersome and convoluted Adobe Illustrator.

Meanwhile, modest little Serif Draw's Pen Tool (more in the same class as Xara, and priced considerably lower) also puts Xara's to shame. In fact, it even has an innovation not present in FreeHand: Press Ctrl while dragging a curve point to shorten/lengthen the outgoing handle while the incoming handle remains the same length.

As I've said elsewere, this matter is Designer "Pro's" Achilles heel. The primary Bezier path drawing tool is the heart and soul of a vector drawing program. Most of those disgruntled Illustrator users will not tolerate the lack of a properly full-featured Pen tool. They'll look elsewhere.

Xara needs to get real about this. Soon.

JET