Adding and keeping the Pen tool on the Toolbar

[mwenz]

The point is that manually editing the registry or using XaReg to do it, it is the same value change. Once the checkbox indicated in the screen shot in XaReg is checked or the registry is manually edited in the proper location as indicated by Rik, it (the pen tool) stays where it is put. All XaReg is doing is editing the same registry entry from a 0 to a 1 (or vice versa).

Peace, love and all that.

[handrawn]

it was good of Rik to do that... I don't tend to do that anymor,e unless specifically asked, on the grounds that anyone who does not know where ' ....Options\FlyoutBars' is or what values are the default on/off, maybe should not be editing the registry

[Rik]

The Pen Tool was discussed August last year.
When Designer Pro X9 was released and it was decided by Xara that the Pen Tool should vanish!

So, I decided to see where the registry entry was, and to change it.
Not because I use the Pen Tool, but, because someone else had made the decision for me.
Good software gives you choices. The option to make the decision yourself.
Just as you can with all the other tools.
You decide if you want a tool on your menu bars, or not.

[Gare]

I have a sneaking suspicion that because there are over a million lines of tight code in Xara, the programers have to be careful not to break an existing feature in order to create a new one. And perhaps they can't get rid of the Pen tool without breaking something, so they hide it instead.

I gotta say that diversity in Art is one of the things that makes it Art, and if everyone expected to accept the Shape tool as the de facto drawing tool, and to shun the Pen tool just because TPTB hate it...you might as well bring out the handcuffs, and reread "Welcome to The Monkey House" by Vonnegut!

Me, I'd go one step farther and in addition to the Pen tool, which essentially is a Bézier tool, I'd love to see a B-spline tool, which produces perfectly smooth curves, ideal for calligraphy work; a curve described by two control points and then governed by a third off-curve point. It take a moment or two to get used to it, but it's a booth for mechanical engineering and anyone who wants perfect curves, reality editing.

There'a Canadian software company who's had the tool for two versions, and Creature House Expression has always had a B-Spline tool, and instead of living in Xara, I have to go "'round the block" to create smooth splines.

But I come right back, then!

—Gary

[Inspector]

XaReg 2.5 doesn't work for X10...is there a newer version?

[mwenz]

Inspector...not yet. I suspect there will be a notice once it is.

[zaphodeist]

It does work. The "Run Selected Program" button may be greyed out in Windows 8.1 but changes are made as you click on them as long as the relevant Xara program is closed at the time :-)

[gwpriester]

2.5 works OK for me. Windows 8.1, 64-bit.

[Inspector]

Got it! Thanks.

[browj2]

I just gave the Pen tool a short cut and stuck a little note on the shortcut card that Xara sent me.