Acorn,
Thanks for the feedback. I have not run Designer as Admin since installing. Upon your suggestion, I see that I do not have a Right Click menu item for "Run as Administrator" on Designer. I never noticed that before. I am the Admin on my computer, and should have this access. I also was not aware of the decreasing load times on various Designer versions. I do recall that I thought x12 was much more responsive and that response times have been decreasing with version updates. From your other post, I see that Xara is on x21. I guess it's time for me to shell out for another year of updates... I noticed the price went up again this year (due to bundled software...).

If you believe I may have an incorrect DDL file, do you think reinstalling might fix that? It is absolutely possible because I have multiple versions of Designer on this computer, x12, x16 and x17 (which I'm on). I fear I may need to uninstall all of them. I originally wanted multiple version so I could have multiple software instances open (working on graphics or text - where I don't need to worry about file compatibility). Multiple instances seem to only work with my v9, the latest version I have from before the whole SaaS change. I have 4 'x' licenses in total and many computers in my home, it's confusing to keep all the software versions aligned.

In any case, if you agree that the DDL could be the causal factor, what might you suggest? Uninstall everything I have that's under version x?
Many thanks Acorn,