I recently purchased Xara Photo and Graphic Designer 9. My only experience doing any photo manipulation has been with Gimp, and only to resize and apply artistic filters. Reading through some of the posts here, I wonder if I have walked into the Twilight Zone... (a bit overwhelmed)

I purchased this software to help me improve the looks of my website that I have built using only the tools available with my webhost (yahoo). On my site, I sell hand crafted wood items specific to outdoor pursuits here in the U.S.A. (trying to be specific in a generic kind of way) I use pictures of the products that I build, as well as nature related pictures.

I hope to use this software to produce a printable logo. I want to include a manipulated photo and text. Here are the first few questions that I have...


1. Once I download type fonts from the internet, how do I utilize them in the Xara software?

2. If I create a line of text (think logo) using drop shadows or 3-d effects, how do I manipulate the angle/position of this text? (rotate, modify from horizontal position to a diagonal position, etc.)

3. Can I fill text with a photo instead of simply a color? (thinking photo of feathers) If so, how?

Thanks in advance for your consideration and assistance!