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How would you like it if you could be halfway done with each project as soon as you got started? In many ways, that is what a good template can do for you. Now if you have looked at some of the templates supplied by Corel in older versions of CorelDRAW, you are thinking I'm crazy. Sure, those aren't the best examples of a useful template. There are templates available for purchase from third parties that are extremely useful. In this article I'm going to focus on creating your own templates rather than purchasing a solution.
There are numerous things that can make up a template. Start with changing the page size for the project at hand. If it is a name badge, then you'll have a page of something like 3" by 4". If there will be more than one page, add those extra pages. Add in guidelines where needed. Change the duplicate offset as it is a document sensitive setting. Adjust the nudge values. Any other settings that are document sensitive should also be set to exactly what is right for the project.
Once you have all the settings just right, then you can think about adding graphic elements to the file. That could include a company logo, text that is common to the project or other graphics that would be used. If text is to be added on each project, put some placeholder text in place with the appropriate font size, style and color. How about adding any symbols that may come in handy to the Symbols Library? I think a lot of users who haven't spent a lot of time in CorelDRAW 11 or 12 have yet to discover the usefulness of symbols. Now is a time to look at them in more depth.
Another feature that many users don't use is Styles. You can create styles for Artistic Text, Paragraph Text and for Objects. I'll cover Styles in a future article, but remember that they can be part of a template. To access the Styles for a file, open the Styles Docker by selecting Window | Dockers | Graphic and Text Styles. An example is shown at right.
Before you save the template, make sure you have included everything that you possibly can include. The more elements you include in the template, the less work you have to do on each project. The good news is that if you do miss something, you can always update the template later.
Saving a template is almost the same as saving a file. Choose File | Save to get the dialog box shown at right. Make sure to choose CDT - CorelDRAW Template from the Save as type drop-down list. This is what makes the file a template. If you expand the dialog to what is shown at right by clicking on Options, you have the ability to choose Embed Fonts using TrueDoc. This will embed any fonts you have used into the template so that even users without those fonts can use them.
I would highly suggest that you create a folder where you store all of your newly created templates. If there are going to be several of them, you may want to create subfolders for different categories of templates.
Now that you have created a template, it is important to open it in the proper way. If you simply choose File | Open, it won't work as desired. If you are wanting to change the template, then you will use File | Open. To use a template, you must choose File | New From Template. This will bring up the dialog box shown at right.
Along the top of the dialog are a series of tabs. Each of these tabs points to categories of templates supplied by Corel. When you are creating your own templates, the Browse tab is the only one that matters. Once in that tab, navigate to the folder where your templates are stored. After you've opened one template from that folder, the folder location will be remembered when you browse for templates in the future. At the lower right of the dialog box is a checkbox labeled "Include graphics". If you want the graphics in the file to be opened along with the template, make sure this is checked. Otherwise you will only get the settings from the template.
When you open a template, it will have a generic name like "Graphic 1". It is important to immediately save it with the file name you want for the project at hand. Then make any changes you need to the project, save it a final time and output the project.
I hope by now that you can see exactly how templates can save you time on a project. The amount of time saved is very dependent on how much work can be included in the template. Some projects will only require very minor changes from the template. In other cases the template will be a nice starting point with lots more work required to finish the project. Just remember than any repetitive work that you can eliminate by including them in the template will free up time to work on other projects and will boost your overall productivity!
I'm sure that some interesting templates will be created by users after reading this article. If you create something you think others would find useful, I'd like to see it. Just e-mail it to foster@unleash.com and I'll give it a look.
If you need to make similar designs on a regular basis, you will undoubtedly have found the information in this tutorial useful. It could save you hours and allow you to earn more on your projects. We'd certainly appreciate it if you would make a donation to Graphics Unleashed to support our authors.
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CorelDRAW X6 Font List · CorelDRAW X5 Font List · CorelDRAW X4 Font List · The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT · CorelDRAW X3 Font List · Cropping and Rotating Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · The Magic of Color Styles · CorelDRAW's Find and Replace Wizard · Shorten Your Design Time with Templates · CorelDRAW's Multi-Faceted Eyedropper Tool · CorelDRAW and Special Characters · The Easy Way to Create Calendars in CorelDRAW · The Wide World of Labels in CorelDRAW · Including Variable Data with Print Merge · Resaving, Resizing & Resampling Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · Creating Your Own Fonts in CorelDRAW · The Evils of Using JPEG Files · Speeding Up CorelDRAW 11 and Windows XP · Symbols and Imposition · The Easiest Way to Recreate Logos · A Few Guidelines to Follow · Square Corners Can Be Sticky -- Rounding Corners in CorelDRAW · Creating Complex Shapes Easily with CorelDRAW · Identifying the Mystery Font · Two Ways to Create a Split Front Design · Last Word in Font Management · Calibrating Your Printed Colors with a Color Chart · Graphics Computing in 2001 · Hottest R.A.V.E. In Town · Get the Red Out of Eyes · Secrets of Color Management · Dressing Up Your PDF Files · How Adobe Acrobat Can Make Life Simpler · Why You Want PDF in Your Workflow · Converting a Scanned Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Designing 360 Degrees · Customizing Your Interface in CorelDRAW 8.0 · Fitting Text to a Path · Creating Cool Graphs Without a Spreadsheet · From CorelDRAW to Macromedia Flash, A Simple Example · Getting Rid of That Darned White Box · Converting a Bitmap Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Finding Clipart with ROMCAT
Xara Xtreme Pro 5.0
Serif WebPlus X2
Xara Web Designer 5.0
Xara Xtreme Pro 4.1
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional
Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom Digital Camera
Procreate KnockOut 2
Hemera Photo Objects Volume I and II
Wildform SWfx
Macromedia Fontographer 4.1 and FontLab 4
Caligari iSpace v1.5
Xara X
Macromedia Fireworks 4
Web Site Design Made Easy
Alien Skin Eye Candy 4000
Swish 1.51
Macromedia Flash 5
Corel KPT 6
Dreamweaver Ultradev
1st Page 2000
Adobe Illustrator 9
Corel KnockOut v1.5
Xara 3D 4
Cool 3D 3
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