CorelDRAW 10 Review

CorelDRAW 10 Review

"Now You Can Create Rollovers
With Three Different States"

.

CorelDraw 10 New and Enhanced Features:

PerfectShapes: choose shapes from a library of ready-made objects (New);

Text Handling: create designs with better quality text, especially at small point sizes and low resolutions, with new anti-aliasing (Enhanced);

Drawing Tools: drawing tools have been enhanced to make them easier to use (Enhanced);

Fills, Textures, and Outlines: more control over fills, Texture fills, Interactive fills, and outlines. Create seamless tiles out of any fill with the new Mirror fill option (Enhanced)

Interactive Tools: most of the interactive tools now have presets that let you apply predefined settings to those tools (Enhanced);

Object Handling: it is easier to manipulate objects. Also the Object Manager Docker window now displays layers, master layers and objects within the layers (Enhanced);

Rollover Buttons: create rollover-type effects on almost any object (New);

Publish as HTML: more control over graphics and HTML code (Enhanced);

Page Sorter: view thumbnails of all pages in a document at one time and easily rearrange page order (New);

Macromedia Flash Support: convert animations and vector graphics to the popular Macromedia Flash SWF format. Plus, embed SwF files within a Web page (New);

Multilingual Documents: place multiple languages within the same text box (New);

File Format Support: import Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Microsoft Visio 5 files. Plus, take advantage of the new AutoCAD 2000 DXF and DWG import and export filters (New);

Print Merge: an easy-to-use variable data printing solution that lets you create mass mailings to individuals listed in a data source (New);

Navigator Window (from Photo-Paint 9: pan the display area while maintaining the same zoom level (New);

Undo/Redo Docker (from Photo-Paint 9): a new Undo Docker window, similar to the one found in Corel Photo-Paint keeps track of all the actions you perform, so that you can undo multiple actions in one step (New).

PerfectShapes

The addition of Perfect Shapes in CorelDraw 10 lets you save time when creating complex objects by giving you a library of ready-made objects in a variety of useful categories, such as arrows, stars, callouts, and flowchart shapes. You can also create shapes that include a text object inside the shape. With PerfectShapes, you have a glyph that lets you manipulate the shapes to get the exact variation of the shape you are looking for. PerfectShapes are fully customizable, and you can change the outline, fill, size, position, scale, rotation, and more.

Text Handling

In CorelDraw 10, the Format Text dialog box has been changed to reflect the use of styles and to make it easier to recognize formatting options working at a character level versus a paragraph level. Editing text is easier and smoother in this version. The text cursor flashes when text is being edited; there is no longer a white box surrounding text that is being edited; the Edit Text dialog box has a uniform appearance and can be resized; and Type Assist has been replaced with QuickCorrect, which uses the WordPerfect libraries. Now, all the writing tools have been placed in a tabbed dialog box, letting you access them from a single location. Undo options have been enhanced. Text now shares the same undo list as the rest of CorelDraw, letting you undo the last text change that was performed rather than all text changes.

Drawing Tools

All of the drawing tools, such as the Rectangle tool and Ellipse tool, pan around the workspace when users reach the edges of the current viewable area with the selected object. When opening and closing Docker windows, the zoom resolution is no longer affected. When working with the Bezier tool, the property bar displays the curve properties so that you can modify the curve properties. The Zoom tool and the scroll bars now trigger a screen refresh when you pause the tool for a third of a second. The Pick tool no longer selects a locked object when you perform a marquee selection, but you can still elect locked objects by clicking the object's outline. For the image to the right, I could lock the arrows and then easily perform a marquee selection of the unlocked elements I wanted to work on. This feature allows you to have more control when you have a variety of layered objects and you only want to select certain ones. Plus the Knife tool and Eraser tool have been enhanced so that you can use these tools on bitmapped images as well as on vector graphics. The image to the left shows a vector graphic that was converted to a bitmap and then the Eraser tool was used to erase the text so other text could be applied.

Fills, Textures, and Outlines

There is a new Mirror fill option for Texture fills and Pattern fills that lets you create virtually seamless tiles out of any fill. Also Texture fills are now rendered at the same resolution as the other interactive effects for overall consistency during output. Node control has been improved, so by double-clicking anywhere on the control vector adds a new node to the fill. Outline control also has been enhanced. You can set an object's outline to None by specifying it in the Outline Pen dialog box or by right-clicking the No Fill color swatch on the Color palette. A neat feature is the ability to change a single outline property for multiple selected objects without affecting the other object outline properties. For example, if you select a circle with a red hairline outline and a square with a blue 4.0 pt dotted outline and change the outline color to yellow, the circle will have a yellow hairline outline and the square will have a 4.0 pt dotted outline. The image to the right is the Outline Pen dialog box.

Interactive Tools

The interactive tools have been reengineered to be more powerful and easier to use. Most of them now have presets that let you apply predefined settings to those tools. You can also create you own presets, and the screen redraw for the interactive tools has been enhanced to reduce flickering while you modify the attributes of the tool.

Interactive Contour tool--use to contour an object or group of objects. You can now control the object acceleration and color acceleration of a contour. The image to the right shows two shapes with the Contour effect applied and the Interactive Contour Property bar with the different options.

Interactive Extrude tool--use to extrude an object to give the illusion of a three-dimensional object. The tool has new drag-and-drop functionality that allows you to drag colors from the Color palette to any of the extruded surfaces and to the bevel. You can also extrude a single object from within a group of objects, or extrude all the objects in the group. There is a new visual rotation control on the property bar that makes it easier for you to rotate extruded objects. The tool's three-dimensional bitmap extrude now uses an object's fill, including texture and pattern fills, as the basis for the extrude and creates the extrude at the same resolution as the other interactive effects. The image to the left shows the Interactive Extrude Property bar and the tool being applied to a rectangle to change the shape and rotate it.

Interactive Drop Shadow tool--use to create drop shadows for objects. You can now select a drop shadow directly by holding down Ctrl and clicking an object's drop shadow, thus allowing you to move the drop shadow independently from the object. The tool has also been modified for consistency with Corel Photo-Paint. The image to the right shows the Interactive Drop Shadow Property bar and an arrow with a drop shadow applied.

Interactive Fill tool--use to create and modify an object's fill properties. The tool has better cursor feedback when you drag a color from the Color palette to a custom fountain fill and when you double-click the vector line to add or delete points. The Pick tools in pattern and texture fills have a new Other button that lets you load specific patterns quickly and easily. The image to the right shows the Interactive Fill Property bar, the new Other button, and text with a texture fill applied.

Interactive Envelope tool--use to distort an object by modifying the object's envelope. The tool now has an Eyedropper tool that lets you copy an object's shape to another object's envelope. The image to the left shows the Interactive Envelope tool Property bar and the effect being applied to text.

Interactive Distortion tool--use to change the shape of an object by manipulating the object's nodes. You can now apply distortions to paragraph frames to achieve interesting text effects. CorelDraw 10 has progress indicators that appear when a distortion is in progress to let you know how long it will take to render the distortion. The image to the right shows the Interactive Distortion tool Property bar and a distortion being applied to a paragraph frame.

Object Handling and Object Management

In CorelDraw 10, the Select All command is now context sensitive and selects all of the same type of item as the currently selected item. For example, if a guideline is selected, the Select All command will select all guidelines; if a node is selected, it will select all the nodes on a path. The Distribute command has a new default shortcut key that can be customized in the same way as the shortcut key for Align and Distribute. Object-snapping has improved, providing you with a smoother feel when snapping objects to other objects. The Nudge feature has a new option, similar to Super Nudge, known as Micro Nudge so by pressing Ctrl and one of the arrow keys, you can nudge an object in smaller increments than with the Nudge alone. Nudge increments can now be controlled via the Property Bar when using the Pick tool and when no objects are selected. The image to the right shows the nudge offset option on the Property bar. Object management has also improved. The Object Manager Docker window has been reorganized to improve usability and now displays layers, master layers, and objects within the layers using a hierarchical tree diagram. You can rename pages, layers, and objects using the Object Manger Docker window. You can also access and modify an object's properties, order, styles, overprint attributes, paragraph text-wraping attributes, and more. The Object Manager Docker window has drag-and-drop functionality that allows you to reorder layers and pages, group and ungroup objects, and drag objects from one page to another. There is a New Master Layer button that lets you create additional master layers with a single click, and the New Layer and Delete Layer buttons let you add or remove layers with a single click. See image to the left for view of the Object Manager.

Rollover Buttons

Web designers will be pleased with the new rollover features. You can create interactive graphics, known as Rollovers from the Internet toolbar or the Effects menu. Each rollover can have up to three different states (normal, down, and over) that react to the viewer's mouse actions. Each rollover is automatically cloned, and each copy can be manipulated individually to create different visual effects for each mouse state. The image to the left shows a button in the down state, the Internet Properties Page on the Object Properties Docker, and the Internet Toolbar. You can also attach .wav sound files to the Rollover's down, and over mouse states. These rollovers can be previewed in CorelDraw 10. You can also export graphics to Macromedia Flash format and embed Macromedia Flash objects within an HTML page using a customizable template, letting you convert existing graphics to Macromedia Flash animations for the World Wide Web and maintain scaleable vector graphics. If you have the Flash plug-in installed on your computer you can view the image to the right which is a button with rollover states that was created in CorelDraw and then saved as a Flash SwF file. I then edited the rollovers and saved them as GIF buttons, which I used in the CorelDraw Suite Web page.

Publish as HTML

This feature has been enhanced in CorelDraw 10 so you can preview each graphic individually and optimize the graphic for faster downloading. You can optimize graphics quickly and easily using presets for the JPEG, GIF, and Portable Network Graphics (PNG) graphic formats. You can preview the resulting Web page in a Web browser. See image to the right for view of the Web image optimizer with the 2 x 2 view showing different settings for the original, a GIF, a JPEG, and a PNG.

Page Sorter

With the new Page Sorter, you can view thumbnails of all the pages in a document. The sorter has drag-and-drop functionality that allows you to reorder and manage pages in your document. You can also reorder pages by using the page tabs located at the bottom of the CorelDraw 10 workspace or by using the Object Manager Docker window. See the image to the right for a view of the Page Sorter showing the different pages

Multilingual Documents

CorelDraw 10 now supports text in multiple languages within the same text box, thus you can create and correct multilingual documents without having to change the language of the writing tools. You can specify the language to be used for selected text, and the writing tools, such as Spell Check and Grammatik, will automatically correct the test using the language specified by the user. This powerful new feature saves users time when working with documents that use multiple languages. See image to the right for view of the Select Language dialog box.

Print Merge

The Print Merge is a new, easy-to-use variable data printing solution that lets you create mass mailings to individuals listed in a data source. The Print Merge wizard gives you an easy-to-use user interface for creating data fields, entering data records, and inserting data fields into a document. New point-and-click functionality lets you add data fields from the Print Merge data source to a document. After you have entered all you data records, you can save the data source for later use. Both new and existing data sources can be used, since Print Merge supports common data source formats, including text (.txt), comma-separated values (.csv), rich text format (.rtf), CorelCentral data, Windows Address Books (.wab), and open database connectivity (ODBC) data source. See image to the right for view of the beginning Print Merge wizard dialog box.

Undo/Redo Docker

With the new Undo Docker window, similar to the one found in Corel Photo-Paint you can keep track of all the actions you perform, so that you can undo multiple actions in one step or save a series of actions as a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications script. See the image to the right for a view of the Undo Docker.

CorelDraw is as robust an application as Adobe Illustrator, its main competitor, and the tools are easy to use. CorelDraw offers more flexibility than other illustration programs, and the tools provide great control over the shape and placement of objects as properties such as transparency, drop shadows, and blends can be applied by drag-and-drop features or created in numerical dialogs. CorelDraw 10 is a worthwhile upgrade.

Web Page Editor: Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.0
Graphics: CorelDRAW Suite 10

CorelDRAW 10 Review "Now You Can Create Rollovers With Three Different States"
.


CorelDraw 10 New and Enhanced Features: PerfectShapes: choose shapes from a library of ready-made objects (New); Text Handling: create designs with better quality text, especially at small point sizes and low resolutions, with new anti-aliasing (Enhanced); Drawing Tools: drawing tools have been enhanced to make them easier to use (Enhanced); Fills, Textures, and Outlines: more control over fills, Texture fills, Interactive fills, and outlines. Create seamless tiles out of any fill with the new Mirror fill option (Enhanced) Interactive Tools: most of the interactive tools now have presets that let you apply predefined settings to those tools (Enhanced); Object Handling: it is easier to manipulate objects. Also the Object Manager Docker window now displays layers, master layers and objects within the layers (Enhanced); Rollover Buttons: create rollover-type effects on almost any object (New); Publish as HTML: more control over graphics and HTML code (Enhanced); Page Sorter: view thumbnails of all pages in a document at one time and easily rearrange page order (New); Macromedia Flash Support: convert animations and vector graphics to the popular Macromedia Flash SWF format. Plus, embed SwF files within a Web page (New); Multilingual Documents: place multiple languages within the same text box (New); File Format Support: import Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Microsoft Visio 5 files. Plus, take advantage of the new AutoCAD 2000 DXF and DWG import and export filters (New); Print Merge: an easy-to-use variable data printing solution that lets you create mass mailings to individuals listed in a data source (New); Navigator Window (from Photo-Paint 9: pan the display area while maintaining the same zoom level (New); Undo/Redo Docker (from Photo-Paint 9): a new Undo Docker window, similar to the one found in Corel Photo-Paint keeps track of all the actions you perform, so that you can undo multiple actions in one step (New).



PerfectShapes
The addition of Perfect Shapes in CorelDraw 10 lets you save time when creating complex objects by giving you a library of ready-made objects in a variety of useful categories, such as arrows, stars, callouts, and flowchart shapes. You can also create shapes that include a text object inside the shape. With PerfectShapes, you have a glyph that lets you manipulate the shapes to get the exact variation of the shape you are looking for. PerfectShapes are fully customizable, and you can change the outline, fill, size, position, scale, rotation, and more.

Text Handling
In CorelDraw 10, the Format Text dialog box has been changed to reflect the use of styles and to make it easier to recognize formatting options working at a character level versus a paragraph level. Editing text is easier and smoother in this version. The text cursor flashes when text is being edited; there is no longer a white box surrounding text that is being edited; the Edit Text dialog box has a uniform appearance and can be resized; and Type Assist has been replaced with QuickCorrect, which uses the WordPerfect libraries. Now, all the writing tools have been placed in a tabbed dialog box, letting you access them from a single location. Undo options have been enhanced. Text now shares the same undo list as the rest of CorelDraw, letting you undo the last text change that was performed rather than all text changes.

Drawing Tools
All of the drawing tools, such as the Rectangle tool and Ellipse tool, pan around the workspace when users reach the edges of the current viewable area with the selected object. When opening and closing Docker windows, the zoom resolution is no longer affected. When working with the Bezier tool, the property bar displays the curve properties so that you can modify the curve properties. The Zoom tool and the scroll bars now trigger a screen refresh when you pause the tool for a third of a second. The Pick tool no longer selects a locked object when you perform a marquee selection, but you can still elect locked objects by clicking the object's outline. For the image to the right, I could lock the arrows and then easily perform a marquee selection of the unlocked elements I wanted to work on. This feature allows you to have more control when you have a variety of layered objects and you only want to select certain ones. Plus the Knife tool and Eraser tool have been enhanced so that you can use these tools on bitmapped images as well as on vector graphics. The image to the left shows a vector graphic that was converted to a bitmap and then the Eraser tool was used to erase the text so other text could be applied.

Fills, Textures, and Outlines
There is a new Mirror fill option for Texture fills and Pattern fills that lets you create virtually seamless tiles out of any fill. Also Texture fills are now rendered at the same resolution as the other interactive effects for overall consistency during output. Node control has been improved, so by double-clicking anywhere on the control vector adds a new node to the fill. Outline control also has been enhanced. You can set an object's outline to None by specifying it in the Outline Pen dialog box or by right-clicking the No Fill color swatch on the Color palette. A neat feature is the ability to change a single outline property for multiple selected objects without affecting the other object outline properties. For example, if you select a circle with a red hairline outline and a square with a blue 4.0 pt dotted outline and change the outline color to yellow, the circle will have a yellow hairline outline and the square will have a 4.0 pt dotted outline. The image to the right is the Outline Pen dialog box.

Interactive Tools
The interactive tools have been reengineered to be more powerful and easier to use. Most of them now have presets that let you apply predefined settings to those tools. You can also create you own presets, and the screen redraw for the interactive tools has been enhanced to reduce flickering while you modify the attributes of the tool. Interactive Contour tool--use to contour an object or group of objects. You can now control the object acceleration and color acceleration of a contour. The image to the right shows two shapes with the Contour effect applied and the Interactive Contour Property bar with the different options. Interactive Extrude tool--use to extrude an object to give the illusion of a three-dimensional object. The tool has new drag-and-drop functionality that allows you to drag colors from the Color palette to any of the extruded surfaces and to the bevel. You can also extrude a single object from within a group of objects, or extrude all the objects in the group. There is a new visual rotation control on the property bar that makes it easier for you to rotate extruded objects. The tool's three-dimensional bitmap extrude now uses an object's fill, including texture and pattern fills, as the basis for the extrude and creates the extrude at the same resolution as the other interactive effects. The image to the left shows the Interactive Extrude Property bar and the tool being applied to a rectangle to change the shape and rotate it. Interactive Drop Shadow tool--use to create drop shadows for objects. You can now select a drop shadow directly by holding down Ctrl and clicking an object's drop shadow, thus allowing you to move the drop shadow independently from the object. The tool has also been modified for consistency with Corel Photo-Paint. The image to the right shows the Interactive Drop Shadow Property bar and an arrow with a drop shadow applied. Interactive Fill tool--use to create and modify an object's fill properties. The tool has better cursor feedback when you drag a color from the Color palette to a custom fountain fill and when you double-click the vector line to add or delete points. The Pick tools in pattern and texture fills have a new Other button that lets you load specific patterns quickly and easily. The image to the right shows the Interactive Fill Property bar, the new Other button, and text with a texture fill applied. Interactive Envelope tool--use to distort an object by modifying the object's envelope. The tool now has an Eyedropper tool that lets you copy an object's shape to another object's envelope. The image to the left shows the Interactive Envelope tool Property bar and the effect being applied to text. Interactive Distortion tool--use to change the shape of an object by manipulating the object's nodes. You can now apply distortions to paragraph frames to achieve interesting text effects. CorelDraw 10 has progress indicators that appear when a distortion is in progress to let you know how long it will take to render the distortion. The image to the right shows the Interactive Distortion tool Property bar and a distortion being applied to a paragraph frame.

Object Handling and Object Management
In CorelDraw 10, the Select All command is now context sensitive and selects all of the same type of item as the currently selected item. For example, if a guideline is selected, the Select All command will select all guidelines; if a node is selected, it will select all the nodes on a path. The Distribute command has a new default shortcut key that can be customized in the same way as the shortcut key for Align and Distribute. Object-snapping has improved, providing you with a smoother feel when snapping objects to other objects. The Nudge feature has a new option, similar to Super Nudge, known as Micro Nudge so by pressing Ctrl and one of the arrow keys, you can nudge an object in smaller increments than with the Nudge alone. Nudge increments can now be controlled via the Property Bar when using the Pick tool and when no objects are selected. The image to the right shows the nudge offset option on the Property bar. Object management has also improved. The Object Manager Docker window has been reorganized to improve usability and now displays layers, master layers, and objects within the layers using a hierarchical tree diagram. You can rename pages, layers, and objects using the Object Manger Docker window. You can also access and modify an object's properties, order, styles, overprint attributes, paragraph text-wraping attributes, and more. The Object Manager Docker window has drag-and-drop functionality that allows you to reorder layers and pages, group and ungroup objects, and drag objects from one page to another. There is a New Master Layer button that lets you create additional master layers with a single click, and the New Layer and Delete Layer buttons let you add or remove layers with a single click. See image to the left for view of the Object Manager.

Rollover Buttons
Web designers will be pleased with the new rollover features. You can create interactive graphics, known as Rollovers from the Internet toolbar or the Effects menu. Each rollover can have up to three different states (normal, down, and over) that react to the viewer's mouse actions. Each rollover is automatically cloned, and each copy can be manipulated individually to create different visual effects for each mouse state. The image to the left shows a button in the down state, the Internet Properties Page on the Object Properties Docker, and the Internet Toolbar. You can also attach .wav sound files to the Rollover's down, and over mouse states. These rollovers can be previewed in CorelDraw 10. You can also export graphics to Macromedia Flash format and embed Macromedia Flash objects within an HTML page using a customizable template, letting you convert existing graphics to Macromedia Flash animations for the World Wide Web and maintain scaleable vector graphics. If you have the Flash plug-in installed on your computer you can view the image to the right which is a button with rollover states that was created in CorelDraw and then saved as a Flash SwF file. I then edited the rollovers and saved them as GIF buttons, which I used in the CorelDraw Suite Web page.

Publish as HTML
This feature has been enhanced in CorelDraw 10 so you can preview each graphic individually and optimize the graphic for faster downloading. You can optimize graphics quickly and easily using presets for the JPEG, GIF, and Portable Network Graphics (PNG) graphic formats. You can preview the resulting Web page in a Web browser. See image to the right for view of the Web image optimizer with the 2 x 2 view showing different settings for the original, a GIF, a JPEG, and a PNG.

Page Sorter
With the new Page Sorter, you can view thumbnails of all the pages in a document. The sorter has drag-and-drop functionality that allows you to reorder and manage pages in your document. You can also reorder pages by using the page tabs located at the bottom of the CorelDraw 10 workspace or by using the Object Manager Docker window. See the image to the right for a view of the Page Sorter showing the different pages

Multilingual Documents
CorelDraw 10 now supports text in multiple languages within the same text box, thus you can create and correct multilingual documents without having to change the language of the writing tools. You can specify the language to be used for selected text, and the writing tools, such as Spell Check and Grammatik, will automatically correct the test using the language specified by the user. This powerful new feature saves users time when working with documents that use multiple languages. See image to the right for view of the Select Language dialog box.

Print Merge
The Print Merge is a new, easy-to-use variable data printing solution that lets you create mass mailings to individuals listed in a data source. The Print Merge wizard gives you an easy-to-use user interface for creating data fields, entering data records, and inserting data fields into a document. New point-and-click functionality lets you add data fields from the Print Merge data source to a document. After you have entered all you data records, you can save the data source for later use. Both new and existing data sources can be used, since Print Merge supports common data source formats, including text (.txt), comma-separated values (.csv), rich text format (.rtf), CorelCentral data, Windows Address Books (.wab), and open database connectivity (ODBC) data source. See image to the right for view of the beginning Print Merge wizard dialog box.

Undo/Redo Docker
With the new Undo Docker window, similar to the one found in Corel Photo-Paint you can keep track of all the actions you perform, so that you can undo multiple actions in one step or save a series of actions as a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications script. See the image to the right for a view of the Undo Docker.



CorelDraw is as robust an application as Adobe Illustrator, its main competitor, and the tools are easy to use. CorelDraw offers more flexibility than other illustration programs, and the tools provide great control over the shape and placement of objects as properties such as transparency, drop shadows, and blends can be applied by drag-and-drop features or created in numerical dialogs. CorelDraw 10 is a worthwhile upgrade.


Web Page Editor: Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.0 Graphics: CorelDRAW Suite 10

CorelDRAW 10 Review

"Now You Can Create Rollovers With Three Different States"

"Now You Can Create Rollovers
With Three Different States"