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Home > Articles > Corel > USING COREL TO CONQUER the advantages to being an independent freelance contractor is that you can control your overhead. Maybe you are like me and already have several programs installed on your computer. Perhaps you do not have an artiller

Using Corel to Conquer

by: Steve Chittendenering

This is the first in a series of articles that will be especially useful to those who provide graphic design and/or web design. It might also be helpful to those who use design services or have a creative person on staff. You can be successful without spending all your profits.

I am about to introduce you to CorelDRAW and why I feel it is the program of choice. Since Adobe enjoys the prestige of dominating the market, and most graphic designers favor Mac, this advice might seem unusual. Adobe programs are considered the industry standard in graphic design. For vector based design, Illustrator is pretty much it. In bitmap or photo editing, Photoshop is the usual choice.

Welcome to a world where Corel rules. I will share secrets where we can laugh at the prevailing attitudes and profit from it. We will do things the big boys either can't do, or need to spend more money to be able to do. We will do it in less time, with less training, and with less effort.

When you read this, you have an unfair advantage. Most design programs maintain their position of power by being difficult to learn. It gives the designer an ego boost when he can master it. How dare someone simplify the process! If you still need to lord your power, Corel has something for you. You can read almost any file in Corel. If you want to be nasty, other programs can't read yours if you don't want them to.

I have some of these expensive programs, but I use Corel almost exclusively. Those like myself that use Corel, are hooked by its advantages. These are just some of those advantages:

Less expensive than most with more lenient licensing terms

Packaged as a suite of programs including both DRAW and Paint

User friendly

Exports files in a multitude of formats, even into Mac

Imports files in a multitude of formats

Automatically calls up the tools needed to work on a selected object

Automatically displays information on a selected object

Totally customizable

Here is one example of something that you can easily do in Corel, that as far as I am aware, cannot be done with Illustrator or Photoshop. I use Corel to create custom animated GIF files. I can even preview them within the program. In a future article, I will show you how to do this.

If you are thinking that I might not like other design programs, that is not true. All of them have their strengths and weaknesses. This could be my disclaimer because I will state here that I just simply prefer Corel. It allows me to be more productive, but there are times and situations when a program like FreeHand, Illustrator, or Photoshop is better.

I have used Corel to successfully share files over the Internet for thousands of production jobs. That does not mean the people producing the jobs were using Corel, I simply converted it to the format they needed to produce the job.

Let's Get Started

I will begin in this article with some of the basics, but in future articles, I will progress toward more complex techniques that can be performed. I welcome suggestions for things you would like to see. I am using Corel 9, so things might be a little different in other versions. Most of the features I illustrate are available in version 8. Version 10 will do all the things I can show you and more.

You cannot be as efficient as possible without first setting up the program, so that is a good place to start. If you have been using Corel and have not ventured beyond the default settings, you might want to see what you have been missing. Corel is fully customizable.

There are ways to customize your tools in other graphic design programs and it can be done in three easy steps:

Open tool box.
Drag tool box to least offensive location.
Close tool box.

It is going to take a little longer than that to show you some of what you can do in Corel. These demonstrations will be done in CorelDRAW, but it is essentially the same in Photo-Paint.

I like the way the Corel people think. Look at the screen for Adobe Illustrator below. FreeHand and others are very similar. Notice when you zoom in on an object, I just used a simple ellipse here, your docked tool boxes partially cover the graphic. OK, so you can get rid of them easily, but you bury the editing options when you do that.

Now look at a screen for CorelDRAW. Notice that the tools all surround the outside, and the graphic is unobstructed. Older versions of Corel did use floating dockers, but in version 9, you get to choose whether you want to float them or keep them out of your way.

If you are using the default settings, your screen will look different from the one above because mine is customized to the way I work.

Beginning with the top of the Corel screen, the menu bar is common to all Windows based applications. The menu bar is one that says File, Edit, View, and so on, for all of you who are definition challenged. Below that, all the other tool bars can be customized any way you choose. You can control the following attributes and more:

The size of the tool bars

Whether you want icons, text, or both

What tools you want in each tool box

Which tool bars to display

Where to place each tool bar

The best way to customize is to determine all the things you can think of for your "wish list" and set your workspace up accordingly. Once that is done, just start working. If you notice that you seem to always need a certain tool that is not where you would like it, you can add it in. Do it right away so you don't forget.

I will be showing you how to add an icon to your tool bar, so that with a single click, you access the tool options. Once you are comfortable with all your customization, you need to save the settings. It is highly recommended that you also create a backup. I will walk you through that process later.

The top row of icons in Corel is there by default, but I have added some to it. The second row is one of the features that have caused me to love Corel. It is called the Property Bar. It changes for every task you are working on. When you have nothing selected, it displays general information like page size and orientation, unit of measurement being used, and so on. You can add anything you want, as long as there is room, or you are comfortable with how much space it takes up.

Click on the graphic above for a larger
image and more detailed information.
(Link to Toolbar explanation)

Ready for more great ideas coming from the Corel people? Every object you select will change the Property Bar, and the tools will be just what you need to work on the selected object! It gets better. You can customize every tool bar!

Let's start with adding the icon to your top tool bar so you have instant access for all the fine tuning you will want to do. Make sure that no objects are selected. Click on Tools from the menu bar and select Options. Using the combination of the Control and J keys will do the same thing.

This will bring up the Options box shown below.

From the menu on the left, under Workspace, click on the + (plus sign) next to Customize.

Then click on Toolbars.

In the window under Commands, scroll down and click the + next to Tools, then the + next to Options.

The first icon that looks like a couple check marks is Workspace Options. Click and drag that icon onto the very top row of icons on your workspace, then let go of the mouse button. You get to choose the position, but on the end of the tool bar is a good spot.

Now click the OK button in the Options box and new icon will stay there.

This procedure will be used for every tool bar you want to customize. To customize the Property Bars mentioned above, click on the type of object you want to work with, then use the Options button you just added. You will find that the default settings are usually all you need, but if there is something you would like that is not there by default, you can add it.

Exactly what you will want to include depends on the design work you do. Go ahead and explore all the options. Find out what each tool does and decide if you want it more easily accessible or not. All of the features you can place shortcut icons for on your tool bars can be accessed through the menu bar. Many of them have a combination of shortcut keys. These shortcuts are always listed either by holding the mouse pointer on the icon for a couple seconds or on the drop down menus.

Here is another Corel idea I really like. There is a Status Bar which by default is on the bottom. Mine is customized so yours will look different. It displays information about the selected object, and yes, it can also be customized. Using the procedure described above, you can select Status Bar from the list to customize the information displayed.

This is the same screen as the one above, except the ellipse is selected. Now the Property Bar shows the tools needed to manipulate the ellipse, and the Status Bar at the bottom displays object information.

Here is something even many Corel users are not aware of. Everyone knows to fill an object; you select it, then click a fill color from the palette. If you right click on the palette, you will be selecting the outline color. If you click and hold the mouse button on a color for a couple seconds, you will get a flyout of several shades of the same and similar colors. On the PMS palette, you will get a 0% to 100% gradient scale in 10% increments. Pretty cool, eh.

By the way, if you notice the multiple palettes I have, that is an option added in version 9. I have the default palette for simple design work, the PMS palette for most graphic design, and the Internet palette for designing web graphics.

Once you have reached the point where you like the workspace you have customized, you need to save it. Here is how to do that.

Click on the Options icon you added earlier. The Options box shown below will come up and the _default will be automatically selected.

Click the New button to bring up the following box.

When you type in a name and click OK, it will be automatically set. That is all there is to it. To make a backup, the file will be on the following path by default. This assumes you installed Corel on the C drive, otherwise substitute the drive you used.

C:\Program Files\Corel\Graphics9\Workspace\CorelDRAW9

I will refer back to this in future articles as I show you how to do some fun design tricks. I keep the tools I need readily available without having to pursue them down some daunting list of hide and seek options. Until next time, see how you can use this information to increase your productivity.

Link to Toolbar explanation

Steve Chittenden

Steve Chittenden owns and operates Creative Business Services which is dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes save money through strategic contracting. Services include:
• Graphic and web design
• Computer consulting
• Computer optimization
• Business writing
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