Corel rant

[Sam Gardner]

Is it just me or are there others not happy with recent changes in coreldraw x7. I'm getting frustrated with text handling eg in previous versions text copied from notepad say and pasted into cdr would remain text and if one wanted paragraph, dragging a box and pasting woulld do it. Now all text is pasted as paragraph and i have to take 3 extra steps to make it normal test again. Why oh why try to fix something not broke??!! I've gone through all options and i cannot find how to go back to 'normal', if anyone has a solution please chime in.
Also corel still does not like pasting text from other software, i have crashed cdr numerous times. Hope these issues get better in future versions

[John Coloccia]

I'm about getting ready to at least give Adobe a try. I don't do engraving, but I've mostly had it with their interface. It feels like it was designed and implemented by a bunch of college students. It's ridiculous that I have to leave CorelDraw and go into another program because I can't select the brush size I want, for example.

[Gary Hair]

This doesn't solve the problem but will make it easier to fix - press CTRL-F8 and the selected text changes from Paragraph to Artistic (and vice versa)

[Jason Hilton]

In my opinion Adobe Illustrator is a much more powerful and user friendly tool. It's also cheaper out of pocket and long term because it's subscription based.

[Dave Sheldrake]

don't like corel at all, or illustrator part of that is likely my own lack of experience with it though, I just never had the desire to learn it. For me it looks like a package to design Christmas cards but that's just me I guess.

cheers

Dave

[David Somers]

Dave,

Would you mind sharing what you are using other than Corel or Illustrator?

Dave
(the other dave....in case you were confused)

[Scott Shepherd]

A CAD package for sure.

[Dave Sheldrake]

For Vector work depending on if it's 2d or 3d

Solidworks for the initial model designs and collision detection,
Rhino 4 to unroll surfaces from the 3d models to 2d flats,
AutoCAD to make any modifications or basic 2d drawings for cutting,

For raster work,

Usually AutoCAD to do the dxf work and Photoshop to do any artistic stuff that I have to add to it (although I'll usually do any artistic stuff in AutoCAD as a DXF where possible)

I don't have the need for anything in greyscale or suchlike (only 2 of the lasers I have can read it) so don't really do much in that way (Hence I don't really use art packages)

I can appreciate not everybody can run to $30,000 worth of software so when free alternatives are asked about I generally recommend Draftsite from Dassult Systems (the makers of solidworks) as it's DXF algorythm is the exact same as autocad as are many of it's named command line functions / shortcuts (Purge/Overkill etc etc)
Free 3D wise I'd probably say Sketchup if anybody needed to do anything as a 3d view.

cheers

Dave

ps: I'm sure some people get on very well with corel or illustrator, it just doesn't work for me personally.

[Kev Williams]

As to copy/pasting text into Corel- my newest Corel is x4, but I have found an interesting difference in how text is copied in--

If I copy text from somewhere, then just go to Corel and hit 'paste', I'll usually get framed text..

But, if I start a text cursor as if getting ready to type, then click the paste button on the top toolbar (it must be that button, no other paste options seem to work), then I'll get unframed text.

Something else everyone probably knows but I just recently discovered-- I have a few jobs where for example, a 4 line poem changes each job, which is replaced by a new poem via email. I used to just copy & paste the new poem into Corel then change it to the correct size and font. I found if you just copy the new text, group all the old text then hit the paste button, the new text replaces the old text in the same font and size.

[Martin Boekers]

In my opinion Adobe Illustrator is a much more powerful and user friendly tool. It's also cheaper out of pocket and long term because it's subscription based.

I believe Corel is available as a subscription also, but they kept the option to buy the software too.

[Brian Leavitt]

If I copy text from somewhere, then just go to Corel and hit 'paste', I'll usually get framed text..

But, if I start a text cursor as if getting ready to type, then click the paste button on the top toolbar (it must be that button, no other paste options seem to work), then I'll get unframed text.

Right - I use X6 and it's the same way. I always hit the text tool first and click somewhere on the page so it comes in as artistic text. For me, hitting Ctrl+V works fine for pasting. I don't have to hit a paste button. I also have it set to ignore the formatting of the original text and take on the default formatting I have set up in Corel.

[Jason Hilton]

Oh so they do. Nice to see that option. Given that I'd personally still go with Illustrator for general design. There are a ton of different tools out there and which you use is really up to your own needs and preferences. I see many people who use CAD. I use Lightwave 3d to do 3d and even some flat design work. It's just a tool, you have it in the box and pull it out when you need it.

I believe Corel is available as a subscription also, but they kept the option to buy the software too.

[Steve Morris]

Right - I use X6 and it's the same way. I always hit the text tool first and click somewhere on the page so it comes in as artistic text. For me, hitting Ctrl+V works fine for pasting. I don't have to hit a paste button. I also have it set to ignore the formatting of the original text and take on the default formatting I have set up in Corel.

snap keep it simple