CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide part 9 doc

CorelDRAW X5’s Welcome Screen When CorelDRAW opens, the Welcome/Quick Start tabbed screen appears, where you can quickly open a new or existing drawing file, access learning tools, check

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When an artist creates art, the most successful pieces are drawn from a generalization to the specifics, from a coarse outline to filling in the details Similarly, CorelDRAW deserves

a coarse examination, as covered in this chapter, but as you progress to later chapters, the details are filled in You’ve got a general idea of how to navigate in this chapter; it’s time to move from the interface to the palettes and options you have when building objects, filling them, and changing them Chapter 3 sits by your side as you cruise the menus and palettes in X5; take a guided tour of CorelDRAW’s resources right around the page

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CorelDRAW’s Ins and Outs: Importing, Exporting, and

Saving Design Work

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One of the very first things you learn as a new computer user is how to open and close files and how to use the Clipboard to copy data from one document window to another

To accomplish these basic tasks working with CorelDRAW X5, you have nothing new or

exotic to do But version X5 has additional functions and options, such as file handling and

data import and export, to make your design experience efficient and the results professional

In this chapter, you’ll learn about file-saving options that let coworkers who are using previous versions of CorelDRAW work with your files and learn how to use timesaving templates and other file types You’ll also see how to protect your work with CorelDRAW’s automatic backup feature, how to make the Clipboard work overtime for you, as well as how

to store and retrieve scrapbook items and symbols and how to import and export graphics, text, and data into and out of CorelDRAW

Download and extract all the files from the Chapter03.zip archive to follow the tutorials in this chapter.

CorelDRAW X5’s Welcome Screen

When CorelDRAW opens, the Welcome/Quick Start tabbed screen appears, where you can quickly open a new or existing drawing file, access learning tools, check for program updates, and set automatic checks for program updates You can also view the latest gallery

of art created by fellow CorelDRAW designers This launch pad is shown in Figure 3-1 The first tab along the right edge, Quick Start, is your jumping-off point for opening a file Here, in the Open Recent section, you are presented with a list of the last files you opened and closed in CorelDRAW Hover over the name of one of these files, and a thumbnail preview for that file appears along with the document information Click the name of the file, and the Welcome dialog closes, and the file you selected opens If you want to open an existing file that is not among the five most recent files you’ve opened, click the Open Other button to close the Welcome screen page and to open a standard Open Drawing dialog

To start a new drawing document from the Quick Start tab, go to the Start New section, and click the New Blank Document link, or click the New From Template link if you want

to create a document from one of the special design layouts that ship with CorelDRAW or from a template you previously created

The other tabs lead you to the following areas of interest:

● From the What’s New tab, you can click your way through the CorelDRAW New

Features Tour slideshow

● The Learning Tools tab contains links to launch documentation from your hard disk

such as CorelTUTOR, and Insights From The Experts as well as a link to Corel’s online learning resources If you purchased the DVD of the CorelDRAW install instead of the electronic download version, you can also easily access the tutorial videos from this page

● The Gallery tab displays a changing selection of artwork created in CorelDRAW It

also contains a link to the CorelDRAW.com Community page, where you can create

an online gallery of your artwork for the world to see and enjoy, participate in online forums, and download helpful files like custom media strokes, textures, and macros

● The last tab is the Updates tab At the top of the tab window is the word “Settings.”

If you click this link, the Update Settings dialog opens It contains two options that are turned on if the box next to the option is checked, or turned off if it is unchecked

Your choices here are “Notify me of available product updates, news, and tutorials”

and “Automatically download product updates and ask me before installing.” These are useful and helpful options to keep up to date both your copy of CorelDRAW and your knowledge of things related to CorelDRAW

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FIGURE 3-1 CorelDRAW welcomes you with a tabbed launch pad after loading

Enable/disable Welcome

screen at startup Open file not listed New file based on template Updates

If these boxes are checked (they are by default), every time you start CorelDRAW it will access your Internet connection in the background and check in with the Corel website to see

if any updates or files should be downloaded for you So don’t be alarmed if your computer’s firewall software pops up a notice that CorelDRAW is trying to access the Internet If CorelDRAW displays a message that it could not find an Internet connection, you will probably have to open your firewall software and give CorelDRAW permission to access the Internet If you don’t want CorelDRAW checking the website every time you start CorelDRAW, uncheck both of these boxes, and then click the close box in the corner of the Update Settings dialog to apply the changed Updates option settings

If you don’t want to use the features offered by the Welcome screen, click the close box

To never see the Welcome dialog again, click to uncheck the “Always show the Welcome

screen at launch” check box To open the Welcome screen at any time, choose Help | Welcome Screen, or click the button directly to the left of the zoom percentage field on the standard toolbar

Opening Your First New Document File

If you are not using the Welcome screen, choosing File | New (CTRL+N) or clicking the New button on the standard toolbar, shown here, opens the Create a New Document dialog, where you choose the settings such as color space and document resolution, and can also choose not to display this dialog in the future If you check “Do not show this dialog again,” new

documents are based on the current settings If you do want to see this box again because the

default settings aren’t right for your type of work, click the Options button on the standard toolbar, and then under Workspace | General, check the “Show New Document dialog box” check box

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Open a new

document

Create a New Document that Suits You

The Create a New Document dialog, shown next, is new to version X5, and although new

users might feel a little intimidated by the number of options, it’s really quite straightforward

to use and to set up a page that reflects your intended output Here is a brief explanation of

the fields and what you choose depending on your printing and export needs:

● Name You don’t have to wait until you save a file to name it By default, a new document is named “Untitled-1,” using a sequential naming pattern—your next document in a session of CorelDRAW is named “Untitled-2,” and so on It’s fine to accept the default name, but it’s a better idea to name the file now if you know what you’re going to create

● Preset Destination “Destination” refers to where the file is ultimately going: to commercial printing, to the Web as an HTML page or graphic…you have five choices here in addition to Custom If you want to set up a Rendering Resolution

or Color Settings entirely of your own choosing, Preset Destination will automatically

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call your settings “Custom.” If you want to keep and reuse the existing page setup, click the Save button (the diskette icon) to the right of the drop-down list and name the preset The next time you create a new document, you can choose your preset from the drop-down list and spare yourself defining any other field in this dialog

● Size Define the page size you need by choosing from the large selection of preset page sizes, or set your own custom size by typing values into the Height and Width fields below it Also, next to the Height field, click an orientation icon—portrait or landscape—for your new document

● Primary Color Mode You have your choice of RGB or CMYK If you choose CMYK, the Color Palette’s color wells will look duller than you’d expect, because

CMYK color mode is print legal—CorelDRAW simulates what the colors you use for object fills will look like when printed, because certain colors you see onscreen

cannot be faithfully reproduced using printing inks and other pigments If you are

designing for the Web, choose RGB from the drop-down list Also, if you are

designing for a personal home inkjet printer, choose RGB Although inkjet printers use cyan, magenta, yellow, and black pigments, today’s inkjets have conversion circuitry that takes—and actually expects—RGB data and automatically converts it

to fairly closely matching CMYK-equivalent colors

● Rendering Resolution Although CorelDRAW is a vector-drawing program, and

as such produces resolution-independent vector shapes, you will want to choose a

Rendering Resolution that is best for any CorelDRAW effect that is rendered as a bitmap when you print or export your file to a format other than CorelDRAW’s native CDR file format For example, if you’ve created a drop shadow on an object and intend to print your file to a high-resolution image-setting device, image setters

at commercial print houses usually expect 266 to 300 ppi (pixels per inch, frequently called dpi, dots per inch)—so you’d specify 300 dpi to ensure a smooth rendered drop shadow If you’re printing to a home inkjet, effects can look good at lower resolution settings such as 225 to 260 dpi Rendering Resolution has no bearing on files you export to bitmap format via File | Export; the resolution for exporting to JPEG, TIFF, and other image formats is set in their Export dialogs

● Preview Mode There is little reason to specify anything other than Enhanced for previews If you choose Draft or Wireframe by accident, this is easily changed by choosing Enhanced from the View menu when your document is open

● Color Settings If you’re concerned about color consistency while you work (hint:

you should be!), this is one of the new features in version X5 (By default, this area

is “rolled up.”) Windows offers color management in the form of ICC profiles that

are located in your Windows | System32 | spool | drivers | color folder Color

profiling is a method by which you can increase your odds that what you see on your

monitor is represented in a color print you make Three components use color management: your monitor (which you calibrate using third-party software, hardware you can buy, or Windows Control Panel settings for your video card); your application (which is CorelDRAW, and here is where you tell CorelDRAW which color profile to use when it imports and how to tag images when it exports); and your printer (most printers today understand color management and have settings you manage through a proprietary control panel or through Windows Printer options) If you’re a home-printing or Web-designer sort of person, note that most users access one or two RGB color profiles sRGB is used by many home inkjet printers and digital cameras, so sRGB is a safe color setting to ensure consistent color output from what you see onscreen, what your photos look like when you import them to CorelDRAW, and when you print your work Many designers own

more than one application, and as a result, it’s hard not to accumulate color profiles

that other applications installed, perhaps without your realizing it Scroll down the list of color profiles in the color folder: if you see CIE RGB or Adobe RGB, you might want to use it as your color setting Adobe RGB is an optimized version of

CIE RGB—color profiles “live” in something called a color space—an area of the

visible spectrum within which certain colors can be expressed while those outside this area cannot CIE RGB color occupies a greater color space than sRGB If you deal with delicate shades of color and you need great control of a precise color, such

as in fashion design and corporate logos, CIE RGB gives your document a much larger color space than sRGB

Rendering Intent is used when importing and exporting an image or other bitmap graphic that has been tagged with a color profile: CorelDRAW X5 can both read and write information into the header of a bitmap that tells the application importing it how to handle color data Often, the color space of a bitmap you import to a page either doesn’t have a compatible color profile, or the image is not tagged with a color profile at all Relative Colorimetric is the default option for reassigning imported images the color space of the file you’re working on, and it’s probably the best choice for most images Relative Colorimetric compares the brightest areas in the imported image’s color space to those of the destination color space (your document) and shifts all colors to fit within the color space Out-of-gamut colors, colors that cannot be expressed in your CorelDRAW document’s assigned color space, are shifted to the closest color in the destination color space, thus preserving more of the original colors in an image than the Perceptual option, which would be a good second choice if the colors in the imported or exported image look wrong.

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Working with Multiple Documents

Like many graphics applications, CorelDRAW can keep more than one document open in the interface Each open document, whether it is new or is a previously created document,

is listed at the bottom of the Window menu If you’ve opened several documents, you might notice that each document window is maximized, but only the most recently opened document appears in view, indicated by the document default name in CorelDRAW’s application title bar This is because while document windows are maximized, only the document in the forefront is visible Any other opened documents are hidden from view To navigate between

document windows in the maximized state, choose Window | Filename, as shown here.

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To see all open document windows and automatically arrange them in your CorelDRAW application window, choose Cascade, Tile Horizontally, or Tile Vertically from the Window command menu.

Opening Document Files

To open an existing document, choose from one of these three actions: click the Open Other button from the Welcome screen, click the Open button in the standard toolbar, or choose File | Open (CTRL+O) In any case, the Open Drawing dialog appears, as shown in Figure 3-2 The Open Drawing dialog is mostly a standard Windows 7 configuration with some interesting and useful CorelDRAW additions You can choose different-sized icon views

of documents, and CorelDRAW files do indeed display graphical thumbnails of your saved

work Also, an application identifier tick at the bottom right of the icons lets you instantly

tell that a folder contains either CorelDRAW files or Corel Presentation Exchange (CMX)

documents Additionally, if you click the All File Formats drop-down arrow, a comprehensive

list of all the file types CorelDRAW can open appears; this is a handy way to filter out file

types when you’ve opened a folder containing CorelDRAW files, video, and audio files, for

example To open a file, click its title or icon, and then choose Open If you’ve recently

opened a CorelDRAW-supported file type, you can click the down arrow to the right of the

selected File Name, and you can choose from a list of CorelDRAW files from all over your

hard drive

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FIGURE 3-2 The Open Drawing dialog in CorelDRAW is an enhanced version of the standard

Windows Open dialog

Windows view File list

Selected file

List of recently opened files

Filter for file types CorelDRAW can open Code page