Since there's no NODE TOOL, how do you select multiple nodes

[gwpriester]

There is no Ctrl R such as CorelDRAW has or used to have when I used it. My guess is that if it were easy to accomplish with the current code, it would have been done a long time ago because we gave up asking for this feature back when Marc Goodell was still working for Xara, which was a long long time ago.

[Egg Bramhill]

And is there a repeat past action type of shortcut in Xara (like there is in Corel)?

No, Xara is not Corel Draw. But Xara has Duplicate (Ctrl+Alt+D). The duplication offsets can easily be set in the Utilities / Options / General / Document Editing / Duplication Distance.

[gwpriester]

Not really the same thing Egg. If I remember correctly, and it has been over 20 years since I used CorelDRAW, if you did a series of actions to a selected object or group, let's say, change an object's fill, resize, and rotate the object, then selecting another object and hitting Ctrl R would do all those things. It has always been a very powerful command. If you selected a line and rotated it around the base 12 degrees, then you could hit Ctrl R 29 times and create a circular object.

[Egg Bramhill]

Thanks Gary, I've no idea what the command did and like yourself haven't used CD for many years. Just looked up a few videos re Corel Draw re Repeat. I was an Acorn computer user and Artworks vector program just flew. CD at that time plodded along, really plodded along!

Interestingly from your reply if you convert the original grouped shape (in my video) to a "Live Copy" changing one changes all.

If you selected a line and rotated it around the base 12 degrees, then you could hit Ctrl R 29 times and create a circular object.

Not following you here but that's probably my misunderstanding of CD's repeat feature.

[Promidi]

From Xara, Press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+B to bring up the Control Bars dialogue.

Look to the bottom of the list to select "Button Pallete"

A dialogue box with a plethora of buttons will appear. Look for the icon to the left of the Rectangle tool (near the top). It's called the "Pen Tool" (Mouse over it to confirm the name)

This tool, I believe, may be the closest to what you're after.

If you wish to add this tool to a tool bar (may the side tool bar for example), hold down ALT while dragging it to where you would like it to be placed.

Experiment with this tool for a while to see if it is indeed what you're after.

Hope this helps.

[IcyPRO]

Thanks for the video. Though I already understood that much.

I only stated was that this tool is not the same as typical node tool. Why?
- because for example you can't select objects with this tool, it will place a node down instead starts drawing a line
- if you have selected last or first node of the line, clicking anywhere will add up to the line (this is usually what polygon tool is for)
- and holding shift can only be used to adds up nodes to the selection, not to remove them from selection too

[IcyPRO]

From Xara, Press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+B to bring up the Control Bars dialogue.

Look to the bottom of the list to select "Button Pallete"

A dialogue box with a plethora of buttons will appear. Look for the icon to the left of the Rectangle tool (near the top). It's called the "Pen Tool" (Mouse over it to confirm the name)

This tool, I believe, may be the closest to what you're after.

If you wish to add this tool to a tool bar (may the side tool bar for example), hold down ALT while dragging it to where you would like it to be placed.

Experiment with this tool for a while to see if it is indeed what you're after.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice, though I already knew about the button palette and yesterday I created my custom palette for tools I want to use and added the pen tool you're talking about.
I was kinda surprised that it wasn't included in the main panel already..

Anyway, I don't want to give up on this program, just because there are few things working differently than I'm used to, I'm just asking to understand it better and to figure out what it can and cannot do. That's all.
Thanks for all your help so far, I appreciate that.

[handrawn]

Thanks for the video. Though I already understood that much.

I only stated was that this tool is not the same as typical node tool. Why?
- because for example you can't select objects with this tool, it will place a node down instead starts drawing a line
- if you have selected last or first node of the line, clicking anywhere will add up to the line (this is usually what polygon tool is for)
- and holding shift can only be used to adds up nodes to the selection, not to remove them from selection too

I probably don't need to say this, but in case you do not already know, alt+shift will deselect a node from the selection in the same way as it deselects objects from a selection

if you want to select, whilst in the shape tool, you can press and hold down alt+S which will toggle you to the selector tool and return when you release [you can customise the keystroke]

its a different workflow you just have to get used to it - check out the options in utilities/customise key shortcuts - experiment - read the manual.... watch a few [more] videos

[IcyPRO]

Thanks! I swear I tried all the button combinations for deselecting, but I guess I overlooked it.. (Edit: Are you sure Alt+Shift works for deselecting? It doesn't seem to work for me..)

I already customized selector tool to space and shape tool to x, so it's easy to switch between them. Toggle button could work well too.

Now sadly having both tools on space doesn't work. I was hoping I could use one button to switch between them.

[handrawn]

alt+shift when clicking on node deselects for me

you can only have one tool on a keystroke afaik - so make sure it is assigned to toggle to selector tool

you then do not need to worry about what the keystrokes are to switch tools, you just toggle