Share

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Video Tour of CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Now Available

When users think of an ebook, they aren't always sure what exactly that means. Of course there are many different flavors of ebooks on the market.

If you are using CorelDRAW X4, the CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed ebook is the best learning tool available. So that you can see exactly how it works, a video tour of the book was developed. You can watch it on the CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Web page, on YouTube or you can download a high-definition version to watch on your computer. Whichever method you choose, I think you'll realize the power of this training resource.

Labels: , ,

Friday, October 10, 2008

Special Deal on CorelDRAW X4 Software

Corel has a special deal available on CorelDRAW X4 upgrades and the full version. The full version sells for $399 ($30 off the list price) and the upgrade sells for $189 ($10 off the list price). Please make sure to buy the boxed version so you get all of the fonts, clip art, photos manuals and more. These are not included with the download version and the boxed version has the same cost.

In addition to the price savings, you get a copy of CorelDRAW X4: The Official Guide. This 892 page page normally sells separately for $49.99. Of course, I'd love it if you would also consider getting my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book as it not only has the written material, but also 11.5 hours of video tutorials.

This is a limited time offer so if you are wanting to upgrade, make sure to take advantage while you can. It is a great way to not only get the software at a discount, but also to get a third-party training resource to help you get the most out of it. Get CorelDRAW X4 and CorelDRAW X4: The Official Guide now!

Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, August 01, 2008

CorelDRAW X4 in Simple Steps and CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed

Dreamtech Press just announced the release of CorelDRAW X4 in Simple Steps. Below is the publisher's brief description of the book.

CorelDRAW X4 in Simple Steps offers you a quick and easy way to learn and master CorelDRAW X4. Simple language and step-by-step approach with lots of illustrations make this book an ultimate reference book. Some of the topics covered in the book are:
  • Basics of CorelDRAW X4;
  • Working with shapes, lines and colors;
  • Working with different tools to convert, format and edit objects and text
  • Understanding Layer Management in CorelDRAW;
  • Handling bitmaps; adding special effects to bitmaps and managing color displays.
Now I need to add some clarification. Dreamtech is located in India and right now the book is only available in India. I have asked the publisher if the book will be available elsewhere and they are hoping to work out distribution deals for Europe and North America. They did provide a Web site for placing bulk orders. This link is for someone who wishes to place a bulk order, not for single copies.

For those of you wanting a CorelDRAW book available worldwide, please consider CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed. It comes in two editions. Each edition comes with a 932 page ebook along with 11.5 hours of tutorial movies. The Premium Bonus Content Edition adds the 125 page Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 Unleashed with two more hours of tutorial movies and Jeff Harrison's top 37 Powertips with another hour of tutorial movies. We also load up the DVD-ROM of the Premium Bonus Content Edition with clip art, plug-ins and other valuable content.

The standard edition of CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed is shipping now. The Premium Bonus Content edition will begin shipping on August 5, 2008. We have a huge number of pre-orders so any new orders will not ship until a few days later as it will take us time to catch up on the existing orders.

As I mentioned earlier, we can ship CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed anywhere in the world. The best price for shipping outside of North America is less than $2 more than shipping within the United States. Get your copy now and start getting more out of CorelDRAW X4!

Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Premium Bonus Content Edition Nearing Completion

For us, it seems like a good news and a bad news situation. The vast majority of orders we have received for CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed are for the Premium Bonus Content Edition. That's awesome and we think you've made the right choice. The bad news is that it takes longer to complete than the Standard Edition.

Not a day goes by that someone asks us why they haven't received the copy they ordered a while back. We clearly labeled the product page to say that it wouldn't ship until the end of July and that we would not charge credit cards until the book was ready to ship.

Today we hit another milestone towards completion. All writing is finally finished. Given that I started writing last September, I am thrilled to have the writing done. That just leaves some minor editing and the physical production. We are still targeting a shipping date of July 31 though it is possible that it will slip to August 5 or 6 at the latest because of the time it takes to produce the discs, package them and prepare them for shipping. If you have already ordered a copy, we'll send you an e-mail as soon as your copy has shipped. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, get your order in now so you get your copy as soon as possible.

Where else are you going to get over 1100 total pages of written instruction and over 14 hours of video training at such a bargain price? In the days of CorelDRAW 9, you would have paid over $400 for a package like this and we sell it for only $74.95. Wow, all of this writing must have affected my sanity to allow such an awesome resource to sell at such a low price.

Labels: , , ,

Thursday, June 26, 2008

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Now Shipping!

CorelDRAW X4 UnleashedWe will begin shipping CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed on June 27th. Anyone who has pre-ordered the book will be processed first and then any new orders will be processed next. The Premium Bonus Content Edition will begin shipping near the end of July.

I am always thrilled when I finish and book and it begins shipping. This book definitely took more time for me than previous books. It has a total of 932 pages. If you are counting, that's 180 more pages than CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed. There were also modifications made to the page layout to allow more information to fit on a page. What does this mean to the reader? It means there is an enormous amount of new information! The new information certainly covers the new features in CorelDRAW X4, but it also provides more detailed information on features that have been around for a few versions.

There are also eleven hours and 34 minutes of videos. That's five hours more than CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed. The Premium Bonus Content Edition will add even more information and even more videos including Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 Unleashed and 37 of Jeff Harrison's best Powertips!

Get your copy ordered today!

Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

FoxIt Reader Provides Small, Fast PDF Reader

Everybody needs the ability to view PDF files, right? For most users this means you install Adobe Reader. A full install of Adobe Reader v8 takes up 210 MB on your hard drive and it can be a bit slow to load. A new version is on the way with even more features and I fear it will be even larger and slower. We'll soon find out.

The good news is that you don't have to use Adobe Reader to read PDF files. Foxit Reader is much smaller and faster. It only takes 7 MB to install (2.55 MB to download) and it loads lightning fast.

For the past few months I have been working with Foxit Reader and I was hesitate to include it with my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book because it wouldn't automatically open the Bookmarks panel even if it was specified in the PDF file. Foxit Reader 2.3 was released about a month ago and it solved this issue. So we're including both Adobe Reader and Foxit Reader with CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed and the user will have the option of which to install, if any.

For those of you developing PDF files, you really need to have both installed so you can test your files in both products. For the rest of you, I'd highly recommend you use Foxit Reader for its smaller footprint and superior speed!

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Monday, June 23, 2008

CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack 1 Available for Download

When a new version of software comes out, there are always a few areas that could use tuning up to get it working just right. Corel released the first service pack for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 today and it is available for immediate download. It is a 42 MB download and should take 5-10 minutes to install.

All of the details for what has been fixed along with the download link can be found on the CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack 1 page.

Once I've had more time to work with the new version, I'll discuss it a bit more.

Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Adobe Unveils Acrobat 9

About a week ago there was an announcement from Adobe about the upcoming Acrobat 9. One of the biggest features is that Acrobat has native support for Adobe Flash technology. This means you could embed Flash video inside of a PDF file.

The new version will begin shipping on June 26th and I'll be anxiously awaiting a chance to try out the new version. My CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book uses both PDF and Flash technology to deliver the written word and movies respectively. If I understand the new features correctly, I would be able to embed the movies directly into the PDF file in the future. This will make for one huge PDF file, but it would also integrate the two main features of the book in a really cool way.

Sure, there are other new features and I'll let you read the release to learn about all of them. But it is the integration with Flash that has me excited. If you'd like to order a copy, I've put together a page listing each of the flavors of Acrobat 9 as well as related books.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Technology Preview of Corel DESIGNER X4 Available

What do you do with CorelDRAW? Are you often creating technical illustrations? If so, you might want to download the technology preview of Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4 and give it a try.

Corel DESIGNER is built on the same technology platform as CorelDRAW. So if you are already familiar with CorelDRAW, you'll find many things to work exactly the same way in Corel DESIGNER. What you'll find is more tools for technical illustration and more import filters geared towards technical file formats, including importation of 3D CAD files.

This is a pre-release, a beta, so please be careful if you choose to download and install it!

Labels: , , , , ,

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Popular Macros Updated to Work with CorelDRAW X4

Alex Vakulenko is one of the most prolific programmers creating macros for CorelDRAW. He works for Corel during the day and creates these macros in his spare time. He has just finished updating all of his macros to work with CorelDRAW X4. Most of them work in CorelDRAW 10-X4 as well as Corel DESIGNER 10 and 12. Half of the macros are free and half of them have a cost associated.

Rather than describe the details of each macro, I'm simply going to provide you a list of links to the pages with those details. Calendar Wizard is a more powerful version of the macro included with CorelDRAW. If you have a need to create calendars in CorelDRAW, you'll want to check this out. Copy to Adobe Illustrator makes it easier to copy artwork across the clipboard from CorelDRAW to Adobe Illustrator and back.

Curveworks adds a number of CAD-related functions to CorelDRAW. Most users are familiar with Fit Text to Path. Fit Objects to Path is a macro that let's you place any objects along a path. Function Plotter will plot a graph from mathematical equations you enter. Jigsaw Puzzle Creator creates puzzle shapes out of any graphic.

SecuriDesign makes it simple to create guilloche patterns in CorelDRAW. These are often found on certificates and bank notes but can add cool designs to your drawings. Select Guidelines allows you to marquee select guidelines. Selection Manager allows you to save and restore selections.

It is all the great add-ons available for CorelDRAW that make it such a great product. I'm sure you'll find several of these macros are useful for your workflow.

Labels: , ,

Monday, May 19, 2008

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Available for Pre-Order

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed is almost all wrapped up and boy will I be happy to finally get it all done. I just keep coming up with more information to include and that has led to the book shipping much later than I had originally planned.

There will be two versions of the book for you to choose from. First is the the standard version which will ship in early June. It will contain approximately 920 pages and eight hours of tutorial movies.

Approximately one month later, the Premium Bonus Content Edition will ship. It includes the same 920 page ebook and eight hours of movies adds a book on PHOTO-PAINT that will be around 100 pages plus accompanying movies. Jeff Harrison will have 20 Powertips and accompanying movies. Plus the disc will be filled with free clip art, plug-ins and much more. You'll find a complete list of bonus content on the Web site.

You can pre-order either version of the book now. We will not process your order (or your credit card) until the book is ready to ship. Learn more about the book and order your copy today!

As more details of the book are finalized, we will update the Web site with as much information as possible.

Labels: , , ,

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Speeding up CorelDRAW X4 Opening and Saving

Ever since CorelDRAW X4 was released there have been comments from a small percentage of users about how the speed of opening and saving files had decreased quite a bit from previous versions. I'll describe what is causing the slowdowns for these users and also give you some ways to speed things back up. I can't guarantee this will solve the problem for everyone, but it should help the majority of users.

Let's start by reminding everyone about a major change to the CorelDRAW file format. Starting with CorelDRAW X4, CDR files are simply ZIP-compressed files renamed with the CDR extension. Those who want to peek inside can certainly rename their files with a ZIP extension (please do this on a copy of your file) and unzip the file to see the various parts. Why change to ZIP compression? I can only guess the true reason though it isn't hard to make some logical guesses. First, Corel Corporation also own the WinZip program so they have the technology in house to use ZIP compression. It is also a very common compression format and it is always good to follow standards when possible.

This means that anytime you open a CorelDRAW X4 file it will have to be unzipped and anytime you save it will have to be zipped. The larger the file, the more processor time it will take for these operations. By default, all previous versions would also compress files using a different compression format. Therefore you should see very little, if any, difference in save times if you used the default settings. Some users would turn off compression in previous versions to get the fastest possible save times. That just isn't possible in CorelDRAW X4 as all files use ZIP compression. In the Advanced portion of the Save dialog box, you can turn off compression for the internal parts of the file. This may speed things up a bit, but the file will still be compressed in the end. Unless you are saving very large files (over 100 MB), I don't think you will notice any significant speed difference.

When opening files, the ZIP file will be uncompressed. This also takes time, though again it shouldn't be any different from previous versions since they were also compressed for the vast majority of users. Those few who turned off compression may have seen a slight speed increase. If you have seen a large slowdown in opening files, the source of the problem is most likely not the compression. It is probably your anti-virus software scanning every CDR file when you attempt to open it. The reason for this is because the anti-virus software notices it is a ZIP file in disguise and is worried that it might have some unwelcome contents. Go into your anti-virus software and tell it to not process CDR files. Each anti-virus software is different so I can't provide you the exact steps to do this. I personally use the Zone Alarm Security Suite and I haven't noticed that it has any effect on CorelDRAW X4 files. If you are looking for security software, you can save $20 when you download ZoneAlarm Security Suite today.

There are certainly some things that we can hope Corel will implement in future versions of CorelDRAW. Right now CorelDRAW will only use a single processor core to compress and decompress files. Many users have computers with two or more processor cores. If they could re-write the code for compressing and decompressing to use all available processor cores, the speed of those processes would increase with each core you have on your computer. This definitely won't be something that happens in a service pack for CorelDRAW X4, it is just wishful thinking for future versions. While I don't know the WinZip technology well, I don't believe it uses multiple cores either. So if Corel develops the technology to do this for WinZip, it should be fairly easy to use it for CorelDRAW as well.

Hopefully the processes described above will help you to get as much speed as possible when opening and saving files in CorelDRAW X4. And we'll all keep our fingers crossed that the software can be coded to be even faster in the future!

Labels: , , , , , ,

Monday, March 24, 2008

Unleashed FX X4 Now Available

The Unleashed FX add-on for Corel PHOTO-PAINT has been updated to work with Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4. As Unleashed FX works with the macro language inside PHOTO-PAINT, it is very version specific. Both a full version and an upgrade are available.

If you aren't already familiar with Unleashed FX, it puts 300 special effects available at the push of a button. Those effects can be applied to any existing object in Corel PHOTO-PAINT or they can be automatically applied to a new piece of text in the font and size of your choice. Now you can create really cool effects with minimal effort.

Check out the Web page for Unleashed FX. You can find information about how it works, tips, samples and more. Give it a try by downloading a trial version including the full documentation.

Labels: , , , , ,

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Buy CorelDRAW X4 From Corel and Save 10%

I've been talking with the folks who run the Corel estore in hopes that they would give a special deal to loyal Unleashed visitors. They responded with a special coupon code for 10% off of your purchase. This code is valid for purchasers in the US and Canada. Sorry, I lobbied for a way to help those of you outside of North America.

There are several steps you need to follow in order to get the discount. Nothing difficult, I just don't want you to miss out by missing a step.

Step 1: If you are in the US, click here to go to the CorelDRAW X4 shopping page. Canadian customers should click here.

Step 2: Select the product you want and press the Add to Cart button. Note: I highly recommend you purchased the Boxed version so you get the manuals and the DVD with all the clip art, fonts, photos, etc. You should get a serial number right away so you can download and use the software before the box arrives.

Step 3: When you get to the shopping cart, enter the coupon code "unleashed10" (see box in lower left marked in red). Click Apply and the discount should show up on the right side as marked in red below.

Step 4: Continue the checkout process and you'll be all set.

This code also applies to other Corel software such as Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite 12, Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 + FREE T-Shirt, WordPerfect Office X3 , InterVideo WinDVD 8 Platinum HD/BD, WinZip 11.1, and Corel Painter X. Enjoy the software!

Labels: , , ,

Monday, March 03, 2008

ROMCat v6 Now Released with CorelDRAW X4 Support

A little over a month ago I wrote about the apparent demise of ROMCat. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "the rumors of ROMCat's death have been greatly exaggerated."

Actually, it is the users who are to thank for the reincarnation of ROMCat. As I stated in my earlier post, the author has gotten so few donations that he had no motivation to work on a new version. So a big thank you has to be extended to everyone who donated. Your donations gave him the motivation to update ROMCat.

If you haven't already donated, I ask that you select Help | Donate to ROMCat's Author and send the author a little financial love. If you've used ROMCat, you know just how wonderful it is and he is certainly deserving of a contribution.

So without any further ado, the new version is posted on the Graphics Unleashed Web site and ready for download. Enjoy!

Labels: , , , ,

Friday, February 29, 2008

CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed Nearing Completion

It seems like I get an e-mail nearly everyday with someone asking my if there will be a CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed. Absolutely! I've included information in our last two newsletters stating that it was in the works. Now I'll try to give you as much information as I can right now. No, I'm not withholding any information, there are just aspects that are still unknown at this point.

I don't have a release date though I'm going to estimate that it will be sometime in April. That is pretty vague, but I don't want to promise it too early and have people asking why it was late. Believe me, I want to get it done! But I also want to make sure it contains the best information possible so I'm not going to rush it out if it isn't complete.

Until it is finished, I won't have a page count. The CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed book was 752 pages and I'm estimating that CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed will have at least 900 pages. The same goes for the amount of video content. CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed had around 6.5 hours of video content and I'm guessing CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed will have over 8 hours.

You'll definitely find the new book to be more colorful. You'll find the video segments are even more clearly marked. I've even added a chapter to help you get the most out of the book.

Another new addition is that I've brought in another expert to write a few chapters. Jeff Harrison has written three chapters in the book which include videos on the subjects he covers. Since Jeff works in a production environment, he can bring some expertise on his techniques for more creativity and amazing productivity.

We'll be including some sample files and some useful macros in addition to the book and movies. I'm hoping we can fit all of that on a CD.

OK, so that explains the CD-ROM version (assuming it fits). What about a "Special DVD-ROM Edition" as we did with CorelDRAW X3 Unleashed? There will definitely be a DVD-ROM edition and it will follow the CD-ROM around a month later. I'm working on a 100 page or so book on Corel PHOTO-PAINT that will only be on the DVD. Of course it will come with sample files and videos. The length of the book and the videos is unknown at this point as there is still a lot of writing to do. Jeff Harrison is also compiling Powertips to include on the DVD. That is in addition to a wide variety of valuable software that we will include on the disc.

Whew. That's a lot of information and hopefully it has whet your appetite for the new book. There is still a lot of work to do, so I'll stop blogging and get back to working on the book. As soon as the book enters final production, we'll get information up on the Web site so that you can pre-order a copy and be one of the first to get the book in your hands.

Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

CorelDRAW X4 Font List

One of the questions that always arises with new versions goes something like "so what fonts are included?"

As a writer, I often get my hands on the discs a little before the public and I do have a copy of the DVD for CorelDRAW X4 in my hot little hands. Overall there are 1191 font files though 96 fonts are duplicated. That leaves 1095 fonts if my math is correct. That number may still be off by a little bit as I haven't actually counted all of them.

The fonts of biggest interest to engravers will be the 10 single line fonts that make their debut in CorelDRAW X4. I'll let you look at the full font list and decide for yourself which fonts are new to you.

Did I mention that the installer will automatically copy (not install) the fonts to a folder you specify on the hard drive? It will also copy clip art, photos and other extra content on the DVD. All in all, there are some great things to like about the extras included with this release.

Labels: , , ,

Friday, January 25, 2008

ROMCat and CorelDRAW X4

Upon seeing this title, I can see many of you ready to click on the link to download the new ROMCat and catalog for CorelDRAW X4. Unfortunately I've got some bad news to report. There won't be a new version of ROMCat for quite some time and it is possible that it will never come.

The first thing to understand is that each version of CorelDRAW introduces a new file format. Typically this has very little impact on ROMCat as the changes don't affect the thumbnail and metadata portions of the CDR file that ROMCat uses. CorelDRAW X4 introduced a radically different file format. In fact, a CDR file is a Zip file in disguise. Go ahead, rename a copy of a CorelDRAW X4 file (please don't play with the only copy) to have a ZIP extension. Open it up in Winzip. Voila, you can now see the guts of the new CDR file!

Inside you will find a bitmap for the thumbnail, named thumbnail.bmp, which is 256 pixels square. That's a lot bigger thumbnail than in previous versions. You will also find one bmp file for each page in your document. This is a thumbnail of each of the pages. That's pretty cool as well. There will be XML files with data on links, metadata and textinfo. This means that any human can look at these XML files in Notepad and see data that was once only viewable by hex editors and programmers. Lastly you'll find the actual graphic data in a file named riffdata.cdr.

Now I don't really expect any of you to regularly look inside a CDR file like this. I just wanted you to understand that this was a big change. And it is the kind of change that would allow ROMCat to show us much better thumbnails and allow us to include much better metadata in our files for ROMCat to catalog.

Unfortunately such a big change means that it takes the man behind ROMCat many hours to add support for the new format. As he says "It's more work than I can justify — ROMCat doesn't pay my bills." Remember, ROMCat is completely free so it doesn't really pay any of his bills.

Prior to the updates of ROMCat v5, he was asked to add some new features at the request of enthusiastic ROMCat users. These users would gladly pay if the features they wanted could be added. So ROMCat v5 was released with many of the requested features and the ability to donate money to the author. Let's just say the total of all the donations he has ever received wouldn't even buy him a nice dinner. And none of those donations came from the users who begged for the new features.

That's brings us to the problematic fork in the road. ROMCat would need a lot of programming work to be made compatible with the new CorelDRAW file format. Just by supporting that format there would be a number of really cool improvements most notably nice big thumbnails. Sadly there is no way to justify the work for the pittance that has been donated to date.

So I'll ask all of you to stop and think for a second about how important ROMCat is to your workflow. If you have found it useful, please consider making a donation. This donation goes to the author and I don't get anything from it. Just select Help | Donate to ROMCat's Author within ROMCat. If you are like most users of CorelDRAW, ROMCat has been a big help to you and this is the least you can do for the man who has brought it to you for free for fifteen years. Even a dollar for each year you've used it seems like the least you could do.

Now I'm not making any promises. There may never be another ROMCat. But maybe if we all show the author the appreciation he deserves then he'd be more willing to spend some time and upgrade it. If not, he still deserves some reward for all the hours that he has put into the program over the years. To get the ball rolling, I've already donated more than he had received in total prior to today for my appreciation of ROMCat.

Labels: , ,

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Photos Included in CorelDRAW X4 Greatly Improved

You looked over the feature list of the CorelDRAW X4 Graphics Suite and there were some things that probably caught your eye. As you got to the end of the list, some of the "extras" were listed.

In this post I'll specifically address the line reading "1,000 professional, high-resolution digital photos". Just to check, I looked at the press release for CorelDRAW X3 and the photos were simply lumped in with the clip art. How many of you saw this and jumped for joy? Probably not many and that's too bad because this is one of those hidden improvements.

The photos included with CorelDRAW X3 were stored in the JPEG 2000 format and their size in pixels was 768 x 512. They might be usable for a Web site, but there just wasn't enough detail there to use them in a print project.

Now we jump to CorelDRAW X4 and there is a huge improvement. Photos now are stored as JPEG files with minimal compression. Even better is that they are of a size that is usable for a lot more types of projects. All of them are 3000 pixels in the longest dimension. Also I feel there is a better selection of photos. This batch was licensed from the online stock agency, iStockphoto where you would pay $6-$10 each for the pictures Corel includes for free. Now obviously you aren't going to have a need for every one of these photos. Let's just assume that you have a need for even 50 of the 1000. That's a minimum of $300 you've saved by Corel including them for you.

One other cool feature in the installer is that you can have it "install" the "extra" content for you. This includes clip art, photos, tiles, patterns, fonts and all the other cool stuff that is normally hidden on the "other" discs. Now that Corel has shipped CorelDRAW X4 on a DVD, they can pack it with great content and make it easier to use.

Read the CorelDRAW X4 press release and see what else is new. When you are ready to order a copy, check out our CorelDRAW X4 page. We certainly appreciate your support in buying CorelDRAW X4 from our site.

Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

CorelDRAW X4 Education Edition Delivers VBA

In a previous post, you know I have been very critical about the Student and Teacher (Academic) Edition of CorelDRAW X3 because it does not include VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).

I've got good news for you. The Education (still Academic) Edition of CorelDRAW X4 does include VBA. It still has some of the legal restrictions of past versions. You can't use it to make money so if you want to buy it for your business, you are violating this restriction. It is not eligible for upgrades so you will either have to continue buying the Education Edition in the future or pay for the full version at some point. There are no printed manuals, though you could order these separately. Software-wise, the Education Edition is identical to the full version costing much more.

Even if you don't think you need or use VBA, you will inevitably find a use for it. Our friends at macromonster.com are adding new features to CorelDRAW on a regular basis and they all require VBA. You can now use CorelDRAW's built-in macros for calendar creation and swatchbook building. What school doesn't have a need to create calendars?

Why did Corel have such a change of heart with this release? Sure, part of it has to do with making users happy and this was a problem area. The biggest reason is that they were able to negotiate a new licensing contract for VBA with Microsoft and it is now financially possible to include it and still keep the price low.

If you are a student, teacher or somewhat qualified to use CorelDRAW in an academic environment, go ahead and order your Education Edition of CorelDRAW X4. The list price is $99 so it is a real bargain. Those of you in the business world who have a previous version of CorelDRAW will have to look to the Upgrade for CorelDRAW X4. Business users without a previous version of CorelDRAW will have to look to the full version of CorelDRAW X4.

Labels: , , , , , ,


Beauty Unleashed · Books Unleashed · Digital Cameras Unleashed · DVDs Unleashed
Electronics Unleashed · Gourmet Food Unleashed · Health and Personal Care Unleashed · Kitchen Unleashed · Jewelry Unleashed
Magazines Unleashed · Music Unleashed · Posters Unleashed · Software Unleashed
Sporting Goods Unleashed · Tools and Hardware Unleashed · Toys Unleashed · Video Games Unleashed · Videos Unleashed

Copyright © 1995–2010 Unleashed Productions, Inc., All Rights Reserved.