To get the Options tabbed dialog box one click away, you choose Window>Control Bars. You might not use the keyboard arrows keys a lot for the action of nudging, but that might be because you need to go to Options and set the amount, and even though it’s a single step, you can make it a very quick trip to set the Nudge size. You are moved to the next control point along the path, and if this point isn’t on screen, Xara pans your view so you can see it. Zoom way into a control point, select it with the Shape tool and then press Tab. This is great for when you need to check a path very closely for imperfections or unnecessary control points. The screen auto-pans when you Tab through a selected control point.

With the Shape tool, select a control point or marquee select several control points and then press Ctrl+Shift+Z which is the shortcut to Zoom to Selected. This is a very fast way to zoom into a drawing area when there is no small selected shape handy. I wanted to make it 10 things we’ve overlooked because it makes a catchier headline, buy you guys are so good with this software that I doubt I can come up with three more!Īlthough when you’re typing, pressing Backspace erases your text, when you use the Shape tool and the Selector tool, Backspace and Delete do the same thing when a control point or shape is selected. However, I have caught myself on numerous occasions exclaiming, “Wow! How’d you do that?”, and “Show me how to do this!” So in the interest of not being hypocritical for a little while, here are seven things I regularly do in Xara, call them a technique, an abuse of a feature, whatever-that you might not have known about. I’d like to offer the closest thing I’ve ever written to a true Tips and Tricks article, because mostly, I believe they’re a cheat.

Xara designer pro x11