The CorelDRAW Screen--Chapter 3

We'll now take you through a quick overview of the interface and its component parts. Remember, this is a first exploration to become familiar with the names and a little bit about each part's function. During the course of the training, you'll learn much more about each part in greater detail.

You will learn

1. The names and functions of the various parts of the CorelDRAW screen.

Title Bar

The Title Bar displays the name of the CorelDRAW file on which you are working. It is also used to reposition the CorelDRAW window on the screen.

Menu Bar

There are 11 pull down menus. All menu commands are found in these pull down menus.

Grace Areas

In CorelDRAW every space has a function including the space between the buttons, called "Grace Areas." When you right-click the mouse in a Grace Area, you evoke a context sensitive property menu to control that section of the interface!

Rulers

Rulers serve as a positioning and sizing aid. They can be turned off optionally. In addition, you can drag guidelines off the rulers to serve as drawing aids.

The Scroll Bars

The Scroll Bars allow you to shift the page horizontally and vertically.

Drawing Window

The large white portion of the screen is the drawing window. The rectangle with the drop shadow is the printable page.

Use the entire area for working. Use the white space on either side of the page as pasteboard or as a test area.

Roll-up Windows

The Transform (Position) Roll-up is shown on the left. Although they are not a permanent part of the interface (they can be if you want), Roll-up windows are nicely packed persistent dialog boxes that remain on the screen as long as you want them. You can use them to control many of CorelDRAW's operations. Their beauty lies in the fact that they can remain active for playing quick "what-ifs without going through the longer process of invoking a standard menu dialog box.

Much of the functionality of the Roll-up has been replaced by the more convenient Property Bar. Our criteria for teaching is always based on ease of learning. Sometimes it is easier to learn from a Roll-up. Other times the Property Bar may offer the better method.

Dockers

New to CorelDRAW 8 is a screen feature called "Dockers." Dockers are a variation of the Roll-up but differ in that they can be docked to the interface shell. In general, Dockers are document managers. For example, there is a view manager docker which defines views; and an object manager docker which is very helpful when your images become more complex. Although we'll show you how they work a little later, you won't have use for them until Advanced training.

Status Bar

Shows the fill pattern, outline, location, movement and absolute coordinates of a selected object.

The Status Bar changes dynamically depending on the action. You can customize the Status Bar to show different kinds of information.

The Color Palette

Allows for the quick application of a colored fill or outline color. Selecting the at the bottom of the palette opens an expanded color palette.

You can choose to view any number of different pre-set color palettes. Alternatively, you can place a custom palette of your own creation. The Color Palette can be turned off optionally. You can also specify how many rows of colors you want showing.

Page Counter

CorelDRAW allows you to create drawings consisting of multiple pages. The total number of pages is displayed in the page counter box along with arrows that allow you to page forward or back in your document.

Hints Windows

As you've already seen in Chapter 2, CorelDRAW 8 provides a series of Hints windows to help you in learning the functions of tools and buttons.

The Standard Toolbar

The Toolbar provides quick access to commonly used features. Almost all of these can be accessed through the Menu bar.

CorelDRAW provides a series of different toolbars for your use. Additionally, toolbars are completely customizable. You can add buttons to invoke just about any command that you regularly use!

HOWEVER...

The more toolbars you display, the less screen area for creating you have, so unless you have the luxury of a 21" monitor, you'll probably want to use a single toolbar of your most often used commands. Over time, we encourage you to memorize certain keyboard shortcuts which are used consistently across all Windows programs.

Ctrl+S=Save; Ctrl+P=Print; Ctrl+Z=Undo; Ctrl+X=Cut; Ctrl+C=Copy; Ctrl+V=Paste.

Keyboard shortcuts are often faster than toolbar usage. Once memorized, you won't need to waste precious space with a Toolbar button.

The Property Bar

The Property Bar changes dynamically depending on the tool being used and the number of objects being edited. As such, it places at your fingertips (mouse tips?) many of the features which were accessible only through dialog boxes and roll-ups in earlier versions.

You'll get glimpses of its different functions in various exercises throughout this book but we save a complete discussion of the Property Bar until Chapter 12 because its real value can't be appreciated until you learn a few more basics.

The Toolbox

The Toolbox provides you with (surprise) operational tools! They are briefly summarized in the graphics on the following pages. We'll explore each tool in much greater detail later in the training.

To facilitate your learning, we have divided these tools into a few basic categories:

• Utility Tools.
• Diagramming Objects.
• Interactive Tools.
• Painting Tools.

Utility Tools

The Pick Tool

• For selecting objects.
• For moving, sizing, rotating, and skewing objects.

The Shape Tool

• For editing the shapes of the diagramming objects and text.
• The Shape flyout gives you access to the Knife tool; Eraser tool and Free Transform tool.

The Zoom Tool

• For changing views.
• The Zoom flyout gives you access to the Panning tool.

Diagramming Objects

All of the following tools are uses to place objects on the page. We call these "diagramming objects."

Four Tools for creating basic drawing primitives

The Freehand (Curve) Tool

• For drawing straight lines, curves.
• For auto-tracing a bitmap images.
• The Freehand flyout gives you access to the Bezier (Curve) tool; the Natural Pen tool; Dimension Line tool and Connector Line tool.


The Rectangle Tool

• For drawing rectangles and squares.


The Ellipse Tool

• For drawing ellipses and circles.


The Polygon Tool

Note The Polygon tool and its flyout is special and behaves a little differently than its partner objects. Therefore, we give it special attention in our training.






• For drawing multi-sided shapes like stars or polygons.
• The Polygon flyout gives you access to the Spiral tool and Graph paper tool.

One Dedicated Tool for placing text



The Text Tool

• For placing Artistic text and Paragraph Text.

Three Specialty Interactive tools



Interactive Fill Tool (Advanced Training)

• For placing various fills on the page interactively.


Interactive Transparency Tool (Advanced Training)

• For creating transparent effects interactively.


Interactive Blend Tool (Basic & Advanced Training)






• For applying blends interactively.
• The Interactive Blend flyout gives you access to the new Distortion tool; Interactive Envelope, Extrude and Drop Shadow tools.

Two Tools to "Paint" the Diagramming Objects



The Outline Tool






• For setting outline thickness and color.
• For creating line ending attributes.
• For creating calligraphic effects.
• For applying dash line patterns.


The Fill Tool






• For setting fill colors and screens.
• For creating fountain fills.
• For applying pattern tile fills.
• For applying texture fills.
• For applying special PostScript fills.

The Status Bar

Note Not only can you customize the Status Bar, but you can customize virtually every aspect of the interface to your way of working. This includes changing the Property Bars and keyboard shortcuts. You can even create your own menus! Furthermore, if you are working in a shared environment, each user can create and save their own workspace with their own customizations.

Corel introduced the Property Bar in Version 7, and with it the Status Bar lost some of its "status!" It still plays an important role. However, in an attempt to conserve screen space, Corel has minimized the information being shown in the Status Bar, making it less useful. Fortunately, you can customize the Status Bar back into usefulness, and we definitely recommend that you do!



Customizing the Status Bar

1. With the mouse directly over the Status Bar, right-click the mouse.

Observe!

• You can customize the Status Bar.
2. Choose Size | Two Lines.

Observe!

• Even if you only have a 15 inch monitor, the additional information provided in the larger Status Bar is well worth the screen space sacrifice.





Note We found that our Status Bar behaves finicky in the initial release of Version 8. If you find this happening to you, Right Mouse click over the Status Bar and choose Reset Status Bar. Note this is fixed in the maintenance release.







This document is Copyright © 1998 by Retlab Graphics Inc used with permission by Unleashed Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of these documents shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from Retlab Graphics Inc. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. For information, address Retlab Graphics Inc., 1972 W. Foster Ave., Chicago, IL 60640.

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_{Last Updated September 10, 1998.}


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