CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide part 8 pps

2 FIGURE 2-3 Examples of a floating docker and an anchored docker group Close Docker Group Collapse Docker Floating Docker Minimize/Maximize Title tabs Title bar Anchors floating docker

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Left-handed artists are not uncommon; if you’re a southpaw, the order of your mouse buttons is not defined in CorelDRAW, but instead in the operating system’s Control Panel | Mouse Just mirror the instructions in this chapter: if a step tells you to left-click, it’s the right mouse button, and vice versa.

Working with Dockers

Dockers are panels—palettes—where many different commands and controls related to specific tasks are grouped together in one handy location Dockers put more of Corel’s power right at the tip of your cursor without forcing you to dig through lots of dialogs or flit between various toolbars and menus

These controls can be anchored to the edge of the screen and reduced to tabs or title bars; so you can tear them off and float them right next to where you are working in the interface You can also resize them to make your own groups of commonly used dockers And, if you have a multi-monitor setup, you can even drag them out of the application window and stick them on a different monitor so that you have the maximum amount of space for your drawing windows

If you don’t find a docker that fills your needs after looking through the list of 29 dockers

on the Window | Dockers menu, dust off your programming skills, and make your own

custom docker If you’re not a programmer, check the Internet for any third-party developers

who are taking advantage of CorelDraw X5’s capability to use third-party dockers

Opening, Moving, and Closing Dockers

Dockers can be opened using shortcut keys or menu commands, or through toolbars Most dockers are found on the Window | Dockers menu, but some, such as dockers dealing with text formatting, are found on the Text menu and on the text-related property bar For

example, to open the Contour docker, choose Window | Dockers | Contour, or pressCTRL +F9 To open the Character Formatting docker, you can choose Text | Character Formatting

Pop-up menu

Indicates submenu options

from the menu, or pressCTRL+T; additionally you can click the Character Formatting button

on the property bar after you’ve chosen the Text tool on the toolbox Again, the property bar

is contextual

Dockers open to their last-used screen position and state, either docked or undocked,

either open or rolled-up While docked, they are by default attached to the right side of your

application window Alternatively, dockers can be positioned on the left side of the screen or

anchored on both sides of the screen with your document window in the middle, if that suits

you best

While undocked, dockers float above the document window and can be positioned

anywhere on your monitor screen(s) Docked or floating is not an all-or-nothing choice; you

can have some dockers docked and some floating—at the same time The only situation you

can’t have is more than one copy of a specific docker open at one time Figure 2-3 shows

examples of docked and floating dockers

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FIGURE 2-3 Examples of a floating docker and an anchored docker group

Close Docker Group Collapse Docker

Floating Docker

Minimize/Maximize

Title tabs

Title bar Anchors floating docker

Close

Docker Group (Object Manager, Artistic Media, and Envelope)

Roll-up Docker

Close Docker button

Dockers feature a common look: each has a title bar; a Close Docker Group button, which closes only that specific docker; and a Roll-up/Roll-down Docker button, which is used to toggle the display between the title bar–only state and a fully open one While undocked, floating dockers can be resized by click-dragging at the sides or bottom edges

To move a floating docker, click-drag anywhere on its title bar Rolled-up (minimized) floating dockers appear only as floating title bars on your screen Minimized, docked dockers appear as vertical title tabs on the right side of the docker area

If you’re a southpaw or prefer to dock a docker at a location in the interface other than standard right, dockers on the left side of the screen have title tabs on the left side, not on the right.

Nested (Grouped) Dockers

When more than one docker is open, they often appear nested, meaning that multiple

dockers overlay each other on the right side of your application window While dockers are nested, clicking their individual title bars or name tabs brings them to the front of the interface Floating nested dockers, depending on how you’ve sized the group, might or might not feature a flyout button at bottom right (see Figure 2-4); if you’ve sized the group

so that the tabs cannot show, you can easily access the docker you need through the flyout menu It’s fairly intuitive stuff

FIGURE 2-4 Nested dockers can float; you can resize them and access individual dockers

from the flyout menu

Floating nested docker

Flyout menu button

Flyout menu

Although nesting dockers (anchored or floating) are likely the best way to work with

multiple dockers, you can quickly separate them—kicking them out of the nest—if you

prefer To do this, click-drag the name tab identifying the docker (or anywhere within the

fully open docker pane), and then drag away from the nested docker arrangement As you do

this, you see an outline preview of the frame of your selected docker as you drag, indicating

its new screen position when the mouse button is released You can also float

single-anchored dockers by dragging them from their docked position by their title bars To nest

multiple dockers together, click-drag the title bar (while it’s floating) or the name tab of the

docker, and then drag it to a position inside the boundaries of another floating docker

To set whether title bars in floating dockers are visible, open the Tools | Options dialog (pressCTRL+Jor click the Options button on the standard toolbar) to the General page of the Workspace section, where you’ll find an option called “Show titles on floating dockers.”

Finally, if you want to maximize your drawing window area but still keep docked and

nested dockers handy, you can click the Collapse Docker arrow on the title bar of the docker

group Collapsing the docker reduces the nested dockers to a thin vertical set of tabs that

correspond to the currently open dockers, as shown here in the collapsed state:

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Using the Toolbox

All dockers and virtually everything that’s a subwindow of an interface, by Microsoft

Windows convention, is called a child window Corel leverages this definition of the user

interface to make just about everything detachable and capable of floating (if not flying!)

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The toolbox is a component of the application window and is where you’ll find all the tools

in CorelDRAW X5 CorelDRAW offers tons of features, but tools are found only on the

toolbox The toolbox itself may be altered in different ways By default, the toolbox is

docked, but you can undock it to float over your document window, which is often a handy

way to quickly choose tools if you haven’t memorized their shortcut keys To detach the toolbox from its docked position, first, right-click over a vacant area of the toolbar, and uncheck Lock Toolbars (if it’s checked); a single row of dots appears just above the Pick tool Click-drag directly on the row of dots at the top of the docked toolbox Your cursor should turn into a four-headed arrow when you are in the correct position Then move the toolbox away from the edge of your screen, as shown here:

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An undocked toolbox, shown next, includes a title bar and a Close button When it’s floating, you can move it around by click-dragging its title bar Double-clicking the title bar redocks the toolbox Clicking the Close button hides the toolbox from view Right-click anywhere in your document window, and choose View | Toolbox from the pop-up menu to make the toolbox reappear

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Click-drag here to float the toolbox.

Double-click to dock.

Click-drag title bar to move. Close

Drag edge to make more than one row of icons.

The toolbox can feature larger icons and text labels (which are useful when just learning any program), and the orientation of the toolbox can be vertical or horizontal (as shown in the previous illustration) To customize the toolbox, press

CTRL+J to open the Options dialog, and then open the Workspace | Customization | Command Bars section in the tree on the left Individual tools on the toolbox can be customized by opening the Workspace | Toolbox section on the left and then clicking the tools listed.

You can access groups of tools by clicking buttons that feature flyout buttons

Single-clicking the tool button selects the visible “top” tool from the group, while Single-

clicking-and-holding the button opens the tool’s flyout menu You can also separate individual flyouts

from the toolbox and have them float independently To do this, click-hold to open any

group of tools When your cursor turns into a four-headed arrow as you move it over the

dots at the top of the flyout, click-drag the top of the flyout to drag it away from the toolbox

The result is a duplicate of the tool flyout (the original flyout group is still on the toolbox) as

a floating toolbox group that can be treated like any floating toolbar, as shown here To hide

a duplicate mini-toolbox group, click the Close button This hides the duplicate toolbar

group without affecting the toolbox version of the same group

The toolbox must be unlocked to move the flyouts You unlock a toolbox by right-clicking over it and then unchecking the Lock Toolbars item on the shortcut menu.

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Working with Toolbars

Like other interface devices, toolbars can also appear docked or floating This doesn’t just

include standard and custom toolbars, but also the menu toolbar, the standard toolbar, and

the property bar While the toolbars are docked, you’ll see a small line of dots on the

toolbars themselves To undock any docked toolbar, first right-click over the toolbar and

uncheck the Lock Toolbars option; then click-drag their line of dots away from the edge of

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Click-hold to reveal

group; then

click-drag to detach it

from toolbox.

Floating Tool Group

the window Undocked toolbars each feature their own title bar and Close button, as shown next Usually, it’s not a good idea to close the toolbars—instead, return them by double-clicking their title bar However, if you’ve closed a toolbar you need, such as the property bar, you can easily retrieve it by right-clicking over any other toolbar, and then choosing the toolbar from the pop-up menu, with any tool chosen

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Using the Color Palette

The Color Palette is, by default, the vertical strip docked to the right of the workspace and is

the most convenient place to get colors for filling in your document’s objects By default, a single column of colors is shown; you can change this display, and it has scroll buttons to advance and rewind the colors visible in the column Like all Windows child windows, the Color Palette comes undocked, you can resize the floating palette, and you can dock it to any side of the application window, in any toolbar location, above or below the status bar, and to either side of the toolbox or a docked docker

Viewing Palette Colors

The tiny squares of color you see in this palette are referred to as wells Hover over a color

well to display a tooltip containing that color’s name (by default, tooltips are enabled; if you turned them off, go to Tools | Options | Workspace | Display).To scroll the Color Palette color well collection, click the up or down arrow buttons at the top and bottom of the palette Single clicks using your left mouse button on these arrow buttons advance and rewind the palette, one color well at a time Single clicks on these arrow buttons with your right mouse button produce a Page Up and Page Down effect, scrolling the visible color selection a complete column up or down Clicking the bottom left-arrow button expands the palette to show all the color wells (it retracts after you click to make a color selection) At the top of

Close Click-drag here.

Floating Property Bar Double-click to return property bar.

the palette is the right-arrow Options flyout button for loading different color palettes,

saving, renaming, and so on

Scroll up

Scroll down Click to expand palette.

Options flyout

You float the Color Palette exactly as you do with other interface child windows: by dragging the palette into the drawing window by its dots While the Color Palette is floating (shown next), click-drag its title bar to move it around your window, or click the Close button to hide it from view Choose View | Color Palettes and select any palette to display it

in its last used state Double-click the title bar to return the floating Color Palette to its original docked location in the workspace

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As with other day-to-day child windows, it’s best not to close the Color Palette, particularly if you’re new to the program, because it’s a hassle to restore it If you’ve by chance closed the Color Palette, the quickest way to restore it to the workspace is by right-clicking in the drawing window to get a pop-up menu Choose View | Color Palettes, choose any palette you like from the submenu, and life is good again.

Hovering over any of the Color Palette’s scroll buttons or the Expand button produces a tooltip that displays the name of the Color Palette collection you are using, for example, Default: Default Palette

Changing Palette Options

The Options flyout button (shown next) on the Color Palette features several important commands, letting you apply fill and outline colors (as opposed to using left and right mouse button clicks to apply colors to objects) and control how the palette itself is viewed

Click-drag to move.

Double-click to return the Color Palette to its default docked location.

Close Palette

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Using the Options flyout provides some, but not all, of the options available to you for

getting and using colors CorelDRAW has an extensive color library including Pantone and

Trumatch from onscreen simulations of printing press colors, as well as other colors for web

work However, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, some workspace elements in

CorelDRAW are tool-specific, while others belong to global elements—and the color library

that appears on the Color Palette is a global resource Therefore, with the Pick tool and

nothing selected in the drawing window, you right-click to display the pop-up menu, choose

View | Color Palettes, then choose from the submenu, which also features the Color Editor

dialog (see following illustration) Displaying the child window called Color Palette and

choosing a collection with which you populate the Color Palette are two different things and

require different commands: Chapter 17 walks you through all the different ways in which

you work with color in CorelDRAW

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Color Palette Options button