Incredibly annoying gradient-related behavior (Possible glitch?)

[Joe]

Hi again.

I have been doing some simple gradient-related programming and have run into a super-annoying behavior. This is in X5 for sure (which I use at work) and, I think, in X6 as well.

Easy to duplicate:
Make a shape, such as a rectangle and give it a gradient fill:


Now run this simple code:

Sub Grablem()
    With ActiveSelection.Shapes.First.Fill.Fountain
    .StartX = 0
    End With
End Sub

And then try to give the object another color and this happens:


It is as if the gradient node is selected. If you click/create other objects you can escape this, but a new problem pops up - I guess internally Corel just really wants to hold on to that gradient node so object size/position updates get thrown out the window - no matter what you pick the Property Toolbar will show the position/size of the last object you actually manipulated.

This gets even worse if you deal with effects since in their case the toolbar becomes completely useless.

As an added "bonus" this behavior stays with you until you close CD, even in new documents.

Does anyone have any idea how to avoid this?