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Lets see if we can compile "the big @$$ list of Corel tricks" list yours here, and I'll try to put together a webpage listing them all. I'll go first with a couple I just learned. 1. To make a circle or square with equal dimensions, (height and width) hold the control button while draging the tool to draw your object. 2. To duplicate an object such as a circle, and have the object be smaller, and centered in the original: hold the shift key and pull one of the size handles as if you were going to make the object smaller. Pull the handle in until the new one is the desired size. before you let go of the shift key or the left mouse button, right click the mouse once. this will place the new one in the middle without bothering the original. ( I hope these make sense.) lets here some of yours!
-------------------- Dave Utter D-utterguy on chat Sign Designs Beardstown, Il. signdesigns@casscomm.com Posts: 777 | From: beardstown, illinois, usa | Registered: Mar 1999
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I've been using corel since version 1. Probably fifteen years now.
Here's one of the best links I've found and I got it from some other posts on letterville. Still, it will take you a couple of days to commit them all to memory.
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One I just learned from someone else around here (can't remember who) : If you hold the Ctrl key down while moving an object, it will move on a straight horizontal or vertical line. Very handy.
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Bob, you cheated, not fair! hahaha. I think it was Dave Grundy, the Corel Guru who had the hold control while moving stuff one. I learned it in the same post you did. This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Simple, but makes life MUCH easier. I've got a lot of Corel sites but I thought I'd leave them alone so that what we'll get here will be mostly sign related. If you have a link post it though. I'll post mine later on.
-------------------- Dave Utter D-utterguy on chat Sign Designs Beardstown, Il. signdesigns@casscomm.com Posts: 777 | From: beardstown, illinois, usa | Registered: Mar 1999
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Mine is that if you want to select a number of objects quickly and you don't want to zoom out or the total amount of objects gets in the way of selecting what you want then pressing 'alt' while dragging a box across the desired objects will select them. anything that is touched by the dragged box will be selected.
-------------------- Miles Cullinane, Cork, Ireland.
From the sometimes sunny south of Ireland, Posts: 914 | From: Cork, Ireland | Registered: Jul 1999
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I learned that trick from the corel book and again from some corel 9 training cd's i bought.
And if u want to use the left wrok panel really fast you can use teh F2 thru F 12 keys.... Try em. They work really faster than the mouse.
Then push the control key and see some more stuff..
if u get lost in soem strange config, You can restore CORELDRAW TO default factory settings. Iif you lost a toolbar or CorelDRAW is messed up or not displaying as it use to... You can By Holding your finger on the F8 key as you start CorelDRAW, you will engage the factory default's. A dialogue box will appear asking if you wish to restore to default values. but it will remove any settings you have made under" tools- options".
One more.
Hitting the Space Bar will alternate between the tool you select and the PICK TOOL.
To make this work with the TEXT TOOL, hold the Control key down and press the space Bar.
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5278 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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Speaking of Corel... I have a question that I have posted here a few times, that I really haven't had answered thoroughly, and I would love to put it to bed. I am using Version 9.0. When I try to erase something with the eraser tool, I am left with a "path", or "trail" of where the eraser tool went, and a ton of nodes. The item I erased is gone, but I am left with the "path", or "trail". Some people have responded "sounds like it's working to me", or "what seems to be the problem", or "Corel will do everything, so why do you need to erase"... but I dont want anything left behind, hence the word "eraser". Pleeeeeease help. Thanks in advance, Bob
-------------------- "The 3-4 minute mark of "Freewill" by Rush.
Bob Kaschak Artisan Sign And Design Peru New York Posts: 1901 | From: Upstate NY | Registered: Jul 2002
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Bob, I don't use it much, but I believe it is made to create an inside contour or irregular shape, sort of like trimming an item. In this case it will create a path. Corel Paint on the other hand, uses a bitmap eraser which just deletes or changes active pixels which is I'm pretty sure what you want or have been expecting.
-------------------- "Don't change horses in midstream, unless you spot one with longer legs" bronzeo oti Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 www.imagemakerart.com jack@imagemakerart.com Posts: 1549 | From: Joplin, MO | Registered: Mar 2000
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Two points Bob...In version 11 when I use the eraser tool (which is only to see what you are experienceing, otherwise I never have seen any practical use for it) I wind up with a whole trail of round circles even if I don't hold down the left mouse key to activate the eraser feature. These trails look bad but by hitting F9 to activate full screen preview they dissapear.
The reason I never use the eraser tool is that if I want to remove a portion of an object I draw a straight line or a curved line and use it to "trim" the object, then break the object apart and delete what i don't want. This gives me a manageable line, not a wiggly line that has tons of nodes.
Hope this helps.
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
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Okay one of my tips but I doubt anyone but me would use it.
I use the powerclip feature a lot. When Im trying to enclose an irregular shaped bitmap within a vector trace there are times when the line art isnt precise enough.
In that case you would use the edit powerclip feature but instead you can simply click on the vector outline, hit F10 key and edit without having to extract your bitmap..
So now that you are all confused as hell why not give it a try!
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
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I remember that post (eraser). I never used the eraser tool either in draw. I'd usually do what DG does. But I also never used the knife tool before. If you're only deleting straight line portions I think the knife works best. So if you never asked about the eraser tool, I probably wouldn't have found the knife. It's become a favorite. It's easier to use in wireframe mode. Click & release it on a line where you want to begin the cut & again where you want to stop. It does a nice clean job. Great for chopping off corners too.
Here are some shortcut keys I use often. Ctrl+w=refresh. Ctrl+i=import. Ctrl+l=combine. Shift+page up=selected object to top of current layer. Shift+page down=selected object to bottom of current layer. Also, ctrl+d=duplicate & ctrl+r=repeat. How the repeat works is if you want to make a circle of objects, you click it twice to display the center of rotation. Drag the center thing out to where you want the new center. Select a rotation point & drag object to next position. Before releasing the left mouse button, click the right button to produce a duplicate object rotating around the center point. Now just use ctrl+r to make the rest. I guess it's good for something besides the mess it can make.
If you have a bunch of objects drawn close together & find it tough to select the one you want, select one & use the tab key repeatedly to select until you reach intended object.
-------------------- Bill Cosharek Bill Cosharek Signs N.Huntingdon,Pa
bcosharek@juno.com Posts: 704 | From: N.Huntingdon, Pa, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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Here's a really simple one, but I just learned it the other day. To make an exact copy of an object directly over the original, just hit the + key on your numeric keypad.
-------------------- Dave Utter D-utterguy on chat Sign Designs Beardstown, Il. signdesigns@casscomm.com Posts: 777 | From: beardstown, illinois, usa | Registered: Mar 1999
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Here is the best thing that I have done for myself. Customizing under options allows you to re-assign hot keys to whatever you want. I have used up the top 2 rows on the keyboard (F keys and number row) exept the F keys such as F1 that I really wanted to keep. Up there, is room for little tagnotes by the keys like there used to be in older programs. Word Perfect templates could also be redesigned to lay over them. Helps me to remember a lot. I put all the zoom key operations on 1 thru 5, all the grouping and combining keys together. Make up what works for you.
-------------------- "Don't change horses in midstream, unless you spot one with longer legs" bronzeo oti Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 www.imagemakerart.com jack@imagemakerart.com Posts: 1549 | From: Joplin, MO | Registered: Mar 2000
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I have a question which if someone answers would be a tip.
How do you set the "default" scrapbook in corel 10 so that when you open the scrapbook it opens that folder? It worked fine in version 8 but in 10 I'm having to search for the folder evertime I open it.
Thanks, Tony
-------------------- Ace Graphics & Printing Camdenton, MO. USA
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Tony, go to corel tech page and read up. I don't know if your answer is here, but there are some registry edits that may be able to be modified, and used for your purpose. remember, always back up your registry before making any changes, and if you've never done anything like this before, I wouldn't try it. Oh, and ............I'm not responsible for anything you screw up. hehehe
-------------------- Dave Utter D-utterguy on chat Sign Designs Beardstown, Il. signdesigns@casscomm.com Posts: 777 | From: beardstown, illinois, usa | Registered: Mar 1999
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Here's one I use alot for a freehand script in Corel 9. Take the straight line tool and draw a straight line script by going from point to rough in your script. Then give the outline a thickness (it helps to have the outline flyout tool available.) Click on the pen icon and check the rounded corner, the rounded line cap and scale with image boxes. Click O.K. You can adjust the outline width by clicking back onto the pen icon and entering in the line width number until you get the width you want. Select the object and choose the node edit icon from your tool belt. Select all nodes (edit menu) and choose the curve line icon from the node tool belt. You now can adjust the nodes and the curvature of the line by clicking on the individual node handles until your satisfied. Then select "Convert Outline to Object" under the "Arange" menu. You now can take out the fill and select a hairline outline and you should have a vinyl cutable script. I sometimes add an extra down stroke, give it a thickness and "combine" this with the original strokes to get a script with thin and thick strokes. You know--thick down, thin up, etc. The results are unlimited for that 1 of a kind look.
-------------------- Bill Diaz Diaz Sign Art Pontiac IL www.diazsignart.com Posts: 2113 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Dec 2001
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As I was doing this today, it occurred to me to be a useful tip if you don't already know about it...
You can pan around the screen by holding your "alt" key down and tapping on your arrow keys to move around. This is particularly useful if you're zoomed in to a detailed scan or something while manually tracing an image... you can do this without leaving the node editing tool.
Or, you could just hit "n", which brings up a "navigator" window à la Illustrator or Photoshop and then move the mouse around the mini-window to relocate where you are on the page. Try it, you might like it!
-------------------- Bob Darnell London, Ontario, Canada
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Hey, some good stuff I knew, and some new ones I didn't.
Here are two I began using recently;
Drop Shadow and Interactive Transparency - useless for making cut lines, but fantastic for enhancing a presentation drawing to help sell the job.
The Drop Shadow tool hides in a flyout group with the envelope and contour tools. Click on any vector path to give a fast, easily edited, transparent gray shadow under it.
Interactive Transparency is even cooler, and I use it all the time now - easier than gradient fill. (it's the icon that looks like a wine glass). Fill any shape with a solid color, then drag the interactive transparency tool over it in the direction you want the blend to go - makes the color underneath show through. You can also use it for solid transparencies of any percentage, very versatile tool. Gives results like this:
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I've been using CorelDraw for over 10 years and I've got two tips:
1) (Just learned this trick this weekend!) Right-click on the color you want for the outline.
2) After the program crashes for the third time in a row and you were in such a creative "zone" that you kept forgetting to save your work, the best way to calm down is to take out the mouse ball and see if you can thwack any of your co-workers in the back of the head on the first shot.
-------------------- Penny Baugh Lee Edmund Spyro Design Group
Spyro Graphics 3458 Main Street, East Fort Payne, AL 35968
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Bob, you cheated, not fair! hahaha. I think it was Dave Grundy, the Corel Guru who had the hold control while moving stuff one. I learned it in the same post you did. This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Simple, but makes life MUCH easier. 
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