Workspace tour

Welcome to CorelDRAW®, a comprehensive vector-based drawing and graphic-design program for the graphics
professional.

In this tutorial, you will become familiar with the terminology and workspace of CorelDRAW.

What you will learn

In this tutorial, you will learn
• to understand CorelDRAW terminology and concepts
• to navigate the application window
• to identify the workspace tools

Understanding the terminology

Before you get started with CorelDRAW, you should be familiar with the following terms.

Term Description

object An element in a drawing, such as an image, shape,

line, text, curve, or symbol

graphic The work you create in CorelDRAW: for example,

custom artwork, logos, posters, and newsletters

bitmap An image composed of grids of pixels or dots

vector graphic An image generated from mathematical descriptions

that determine the position, length, and direction in
which lines are drawn

docker A window containing commands and settings

relevant to a specific tool or task

flyout A button that opens a group of related tools or

commands

artistic text A type of text to which you can apply special effects,
such as perspective or drop shadows

paragraph text Text that flows in a text frame, which you can wrap
around an object, artistic text, or a paragraph text
frame, apply formatting options, or edit in large
blocks

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Using the application window
When you launch CorelDRAW, the application window opens containing a drawing window. The rectangle in the
center of the drawing window is the drawing page where you create your drawing. Although more than one
drawing window can be opened, you can apply commands to the active drawing window only.

The CorelDRAW application window appears below.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13

Circled numbers correspond to the numbers in the following table, which describes the main components
of the application window.

Part Description

1. Toolbox A floating bar with tools for creating, filling, and modifying
objects in the drawing

2. Title bar The area displaying the title of the currently open drawing

3. Menu bar The area containing pull-down menu options

4. Toolbar A detachable bar that contains shortcuts to menu and other

commands

5. Drawing window The area outside the drawing page bordered by the scroll bars
and application controls

6. Property bar A detachable bar with commands that relate to the active tool or
object. For example, when the text tool is active, the text
property bar displays commands that create and edit text.

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Part Description

7. Docker A window containing available commands and settings relevant

to a specific tool or task

8. Rulers Horizontal and vertical borders that are used to determine the
size and position of objects in a drawing

9. Document navigator The area at the bottom left of the application window that
contains controls for moving between pages and adding pages

10. Drawing page The rectangular area inside the drawing window. It is the
printable area of your work area.

11. Status bar An area at the bottom of the application window that contains
information about object properties such as type, size, color, fill,
and resolution. The status bar also shows the current mouse
position.

12. Navigator A button at the lower-right corner that opens a smaller display to
help you move around a drawing

13. Color palette A dockable bar that contains color swatches

Identifying workspace tools

Application commands are accessible through the menu bar, toolbars, property bar, dockers, and toolbox. The
property bar and dockers provide access to commands that correspond to the active tool or current task. The
property bar, dockers, toolbars, and toolbox can be opened, closed, and moved around your screen at any time.

Toolbars
Toolbars consist of buttons that are shortcuts to menu commands. The standard toolbar, which appears by default,
consists of commonly used commands. The following table explains the buttons on the standard toolbar.

Click this button To

Start a new graphic

Open a graphic

Save a graphic

Print a graphic

Cut selected objects and copy them to the Clipboard

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Click this button To

Copy selected objects to place on the Clipboard

Paste the Clipboard contents into a graphic

Undo an action

Redo an action that was undone

Import an element into the current graphic

Export a drawing to another file format

Start other Corel applications

Open the Welcome screen

Set or enter a zoom level

Enable or disable automatic alignment for the grid,

guidelines, objects, and dynamic guides

Open the Options dialog box

CorelDRAW also has toolbars for specific kinds of tasks. For example, the Text toolbar contains commands relevant
to using the Text tool. If you use a toolbar frequently, you can display it in the workspace at all times.

The following table describes toolbars other than the standard toolbar.

Toolbar Description

Text Contains commands for formatting and aligning text

Zoom Contains commands for zooming in and out of the

drawing page by specifying a percentage of the
original view, clicking the Zoom tool, or selecting a
page view

Internet Contains commands for Web-related tools for

creating rollovers and publishing to the Internet

Print merge Contains commands for print merge items that

combine text with a drawing, such as creating and
loading data files, creating data fields for variable
text, and inserting print merge fields

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Toolbar Description

Transform Contains commands for skewing, rotating, and

mirroring objects

Macros Contains commands for editing, testing, and running

macros

Property bar
The property bar displays controls that are commonly used with the active tool or for the task you’re performing.
Although it looks like a toolbar, the property bar has content that changes depending on the tool or task. For
example, when you click the Text tool in the toolbox, the property bar displays only text-related commands. In the
example below, the property bar displays text formatting, alignment, and editing tools.

Dockers
Dockers display the same types of controls as a dialog box, such as command buttons, options, and list boxes. You
can attach, or dock, dockers to either side of the application window, or you can float, or undock, them so you
can move them as you work in the application window. Unlike most dialog boxes, you can keep dockers open
while working on a document, so you can readily access the commands to experiment with different effects.
Dockers have features similar to palettes in other graphics programs. To access a docker, click Window `
Dockers, and click a docker.

An example of a docker
is the Object manager
docker. When this
docker is open, you can
add, edit, group, or
remove objects from
graphics and layers. You
can also add, move, and
view the properties of
layers.

Dockers can be either docked or floating. Docking a docker attaches it to the edge of the application window.
Undocking a docker detaches it from the edge of the application window, so it can be easily moved around. You
can also collapse dockers to save screen space.

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If you open several dockers, they usually appear nested, with only one docker fully displayed. You can quickly
display a docker hidden from view by clicking the docker’s tab.

Left: Docked and nested dockers. Right: A floating docker. To dock a floating docker, click the docker’s
title bar, and drag to position the pointer on the edge of the drawing window. To close a docker, click
the X button at the upper-right corner; to collapse or expand a docker, click the arrow button at the
upper-right corner.

Status bar
The status bar displays information about selected objects, such as color, fill type, outline, cursor position, and
relevant commands.

Color palette
A color palette is a collection of color swatches. You can choose fill and outline colors by using the default color
palette, which contains 99 colors from the CMYK color model. The selected fill and outline colors appear in the
color swatches on the status bar.

The following table describes how to choose a color from the default color palette.

To Do the following

Choose a fill color for a selected object Click a color swatch.

Choose an outline color for a selected object Right-click a color swatch.

Choose from different shades of a color Click and hold a color swatch to display
neighborhood colors, and click a color.

View more colors in the default color palette Click the flyout in the color palette.

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Toolbox
The toolbox contains tools for drawing and editing images. Some of the tools are visible by default, while others
are grouped in flyouts. Flyouts open to display a set of related CorelDRAW tools. A small flyout arrow in the lower-
right corner of a toolbox button indicates a flyout. You can access the tools in a flyout by clicking the flyout arrow.
After you open a flyout, you can easily scan the contents of other flyouts by hovering over any of the toolbox
buttons which have flyout arrows. Flyouts function like toolbars when you drag them away from the toolbox. This
lets you view all the related tools while you work.

Flyout arrow

Toolbox

Flyout

In the default workspace, clicking the flyout arrow on the Shape tool opens the Shape edit flyout.

The following table provides descriptions of the tools in the CorelDRAW toolbox.

Tool Description

The Pick tool lets you select and size, skew, and
rotate objects.

The Shape tool lets you edit the shape of objects.

The Smudge brush tool lets you distort a vector

object by dragging along its outline.

The Roughen brush tool lets you distort the outline

of a vector object by dragging along the outline.

The Transform tool lets you transform an object by

using the Free rotation, Free angle rotation, Free
scale, and Free skew tools on the Property bar.

The Crop tool lets you remove unwanted areas in

objects.

The Knife tool lets you cut through objects.

The Eraser tool lets you remove areas of your

drawing.

The Virtual segment delete tool lets you delete

portions of objects that are between intersections.

The Zoom tool lets you change the magnification

level in the drawing window.

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Tool Description

The Hand tool lets you drag areas into view when the
drawing is larger than the drawing window.

The Freehand tool lets you draw single line segments

and curves.

The Bézier tool lets you draw curves one segment at

a time.

The Artistic media tool provides access to the Brush,

Sprayer, Calligraphic, and Pressure tools on the
Property bar.

The Pen tool lets you draw curves one segment at a

time.

The Polyline tool lets you draw lines and curves in

preview mode.

The 3-point curve tool lets you draw a curve by

defining the start, end, and center points.

The Interactive connector tool lets you join two

objects with a line.

The Dimension tool lets you draw dimension lines at

any angle. These controls are available from the
Property bar.

The Smart fill tool lets you create objects from

enclosed areas and then apply a fill to those objects.

The Smart drawing tool converts the freehand

strokes that you draw to basic shapes and smoothed
curves.

The Rectangle tool lets you draw rectangles and

squares.

The 3-point rectangle tool lets you draw rectangles

at an angle.

The Ellipse tool lets you draw ellipses and circles.

The 3-point ellipse tool lets you draw ellipses at an

angle.

The Polygon tool lets you draw symmetrical polygons

and stars.

The Star tool lets you draw perfect stars.

The Complex star tool lets you draw complex stars

that have intersecting sides.

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Tool Description

The Graph paper tool lets you draw a grid of lines

similar to that on graph paper.

The Spiral tool lets you draw symmetrical and

logarithmic spirals.

The Basic shapes tool lets you choose from a full set
of shapes, including a hexagram, a smiley face, and a
right-angle triangle.

The Arrow shapes tool lets you draw arrows of

various shape, direction, and number of heads. These
controls are available from the Property bar.

The Flowchart shapes tool lets you draw flowchart

symbols. These controls are available from the
Property bar.

The Banner shapes tool lets you draw ribbon objects

and explosion shapes. These controls are available
from the Property bar.

The Callout shapes tool lets you draw callouts and

labels. These controls are available from the Property
bar.

The Text tool lets you type words directly on the

screen as artistic or paragraph text.

The Table tool lets you add a table to a drawing, and

modify it by using the Property bar.

The Interactive blend tool lets you blend two

objects.

The Interactive contour tool lets you apply a

contour to an object.

The Interactive distortion tool lets you apply a Push

or Pull distortion, a Zipper distortion, or a Twister
distortion to an object.

The Interactive drop shadow tool lets you apply a

drop shadow to an object.

The Interactive envelope tool lets you distort an

object by dragging the nodes of the envelope.

The Interactive extrude tool lets you apply the

illusion of depth to objects.

The Interactive transparency tool lets you apply

transparencies to objects.

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Tool Description

The Eyedropper tool lets you select and copy object

properties, such as fill, line thickness, size, and effects,
from an object on the drawing window.

The Paintbucket tool lets you apply object

properties, such as fill, line thickness, size, and effects,
to an object in the drawing window after you select
these properties with the Eyedropper tool.

Opens the Outline dialog box, where you can set

outline properties

Opens the Fill dialog box, where you can set the fill
properties

The Interactive fill tool lets you apply various fills to

a vector object.

The Interactive mesh tool lets you apply a mesh grid

to a vector object. Each node in the grid can include a
unique color.

From here ...

You can explore CorelDRAW on your own, or you can learn more by completing other CorelTUTOR™ tutorials.

For more information about the topics and tools discussed in this tutorial, refer to the Help. To access CorelDRAW
Help, click Help ` Help topics.

Copyright © 2007 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks or registered trademarks are the property
of their respective owners.

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