Local colors and Theme colors

Xara works with two types of color:

Local colors are used in only one place in the document. Each object has a separate color and nothing is shared. This is useful if you want to change the color of an object without affecting other objects. Local colors are the easiest method and best for simple documents that use relatively few colors. "Applying color" and "Editing an object's color" above describe local color handling.

Theme colors (or Named Colors) can be used again and again in the document (as such, they are like styles in a word processor.) Any edits you make to a Theme color are immediately reflected on all objects and parts of the drawing that use that color. You can also copy Theme colors between documents. Theme colors appear on the Color Line and in the Color Gallery. If there are any Theme colors already present in the design and you import or paste templates from Elements containing Theme colors with the same name, you will be asked if you want to match the actual color of the imported Theme colors to the existing ones. The Theme colors in most templates are consistently named so when you import elements from different themes colors are matched perfectly.

Important: If you just select an object on the page that has a named color applied to it, and alter it with the color editor, this will always turn it into a local color instead of a named color (because it is assumed that if you try to edit the color of the object that's what you mean to do. If you really want to change the named color so this and all occurrences of the color change, then you should do so by editing the named color).