Quote Originally Posted by phillipgarding View Post
I didn't know the history of the app; that's helpful. I fully expected (and continue to expect) to do some learning when starting with a new program. Overall, I've been pretty happy with the app. This was one case, though, of a feature that seemed fundamental but I couldn't find. The real failing for Xara here is that the help file doesn't say anything about how to change color. I have noticed that the help file tends to be a description of their UI without treating scenarios. There is a whole chapter on Text Handling, but there is nothing in there at all about text color because it isn't on their text toolbar. I tried dragging colors from the color bar and dropping on text (as the tip of the day suggested for objects), and that didn't work at all...

Thanks again!
Aside from the fact that most all drawing applications do not bear any resemblance to a word processor—which is about the only application I can think of that does have a color function on the main tool bar in the text properties area—it would be really difficult to miss the color bar at the bottom of an Xara application's window...

BTW, the first hit in the help file (for XDP anyway), if one searches for the phrase "change color," is for an entire explanation of the color bar, its various parts and how to use them. A couple hits further down is specifically on the color editor. And, of course, there are links to the color editor in that first hit.

As for dragging and dropping color onto text, that's one way and I have zero idea why it is not evidently working for you. As you drag a color to a non-selected object, you should see a change in the cursor once you are actually over the object. But with a selected object, you can just left click on a color as well. And if the colors in the color line are not appropriate (I make up my own color lines and save them in my templates), ctrl + e will bring up the color editor. As will clicking on the multi-colored icon to the left of the color line.