It not surprising that Xara look to continue down the line of web development.... in one year, Web Designer has achieved one third of the threads and almost one quarter of the posts of their flagship Xtreme on Talkgraphics. With the major upgrade to WD6, Xara/Magix'x revenue from the little sibling is likely to increase and that's the way the cookie crumbles. Enhanced vector tools that hav been long requested may or may not appear in Xtreme 6 but the question begs, "Is that a priority for the developers any more?" To them, selling units and making a profit is what matters and if developing web capability is what produces sales, that'll likely be the way they go. Another query might be, how easy would it be to introduce the new vector tools that have been requested, Xara's engine has been around a while, can it be done without a major refurb, only Charles can answer that one.

The use of Xara in schools was mentioned a page or two back. Whilst the educational discounts are pretty favourable, few people that I know in schools ICT have heard of Xara unless they're an oldie like me and date back to the days of Impression and Artworks. I teach ICT using a rival's products that teachers basically get as freebies but all my resources as Xtreme based, including the college website (www.hhtc.org.uk)! Whilst the discounts are there to be taken advantage of, Xara don't market themselves aggresively in education so it's never going to happen in that sector.

At the end of the day, we'll have to see what Xtreme 6 brings but at this stage in the game with a likely release not too far away, whatever we say or do isn't going to affect the outcome as the building blocks for XX6 will have long been set in place. Perhaps better to make suggestions for XX7!