INFORMATION SHEET NO.
1
Introduction to CorelDRAW
Learning Outcomes:
After reading this Information Sheet, you must be able to:
1. Understand CorelDRAW terminologies and concepts;
2. Navigate the application window;
3. Identify the workspace tools; and
4. Design commercial artworks using CorelDRAW.
Understanding the terminologies
Before you get started with CorelDRAW, you should be familiar with the
following terms.
Object - An element in a document, such as an image, shape, line, text, curve, or
symbol
Document - 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.
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 document. Although more than one drawing window can
be opened, you can apply commands to the active drawing window only.
1. Toolbox - A bar with tools for creating, filling, and modifying objects in the
document
2. Title bar - The area displaying the title of the currently open document
3. Menu bar - The area containing pull-down menu options
4. Toolbar - A 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 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.
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 document
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.
There are two flyouts on the status bar: one that lets you choose between
information related to the current tool or color information, and another that
lets you choose between current cursor position or object details. By default,
the flyouts display cursor position and color information.
12.Document palette - A palette that lets you add color from a variety of sources.
The colors added to the Document palette are saved with your document.
13.Navigator - A button at the lower-right corner that opens a smaller display to
help you move around a document
14.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. Tooltips provide information about
the icons and buttons found in the program. To view a tooltip, position the pointer
over an icon, button, or other application control.
The property bar, toolbars, and toolbox are locked in place by default. You can
unlock them and reposition them on your screen at any time. In addition, dockers can
be open, 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
To
button
Start a new document
Open a document
Save a document
Print a document
Move selected objects to the Clipboard
Copy selected objects to the Clipboard
Paste the Clipboard contents into a document
Undo the last action
Redo the last undone action
Import an element into the current document
Export a document 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, page, pixels, and
dynamic guides
Open the Options dialog box
Text Contains commands for formatting and aligning
text
Text Contains commands for formatting and aligning
text
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.
Contains commands for zooming in and out of the
drawing page by specifying a percentage of the
Zoom
original view, clicking the Zoom tool, or selecting a
page view
Contains commands for Web-related tools for
Internet
creating rollovers and publishing to the Internet
Contains commands for print merge items that
combine text with a drawing, such as creating and
Print Merge
loading data files, creating data fields for variable
text, and inserting print merge fields
Transform Contains commands for skewing, rotating, and
mirroring objects
Contains commands for editing, testing, and
Macros
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, and relevant commands. The status bar contains two
flyouts: one to choose whether to display cursor position or object details, and
one to choose whether to display information about the currently selected tool
or color information.
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 default 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 Click a color swatch.
object
Choose an outline color for a selected Right-click a color swatch.
object
Choose from different shades of a Click and hold a color swatch to
color display neighborhood colors, and
click a color.
View more colors in the default color Click the arrow at the bottom of the
palette color palette to expand it.
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.
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 Free Transform tool lets you transform an object by
using the Free angle reflection, Free scale, and Free skew
options 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.
The Pan 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 2-point line tool lets you draw a straight two - point
line segment.
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 B-spline tool lets you draw curved lines by setting
control points that shape the curve without breaking it
into segments.
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 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.
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 Parallel dimension tool lets you draw slanted
dimension lines.
The Horizontal or vertical dimension tool lets you draw
horizontal or vertical dimension lines.
The Angular dimension tool lets you draw angular
dimension lines.
The Segment dimension tool lets you display the
distance between end nodes on single or multiple
segments.
The 3-point callout tool lets you draw a callout with a
two-segment leading line.
The Straight-line connector tool lets you draw a straight
line between two objects to connect them.
The Right-angle connector tool lets you draw a right
angle to connect two objects.
The Right-angle round connector tool lets you draw a
right angle with a rounded corner to connect two objects.
The Edit anchor tool lets you modify the connector line
anchor points of objects.
The Blend tool lets you blend two objects.
The Contour tool lets you apply a contour to an object.
The Distortion tool lets you apply a Push or Pull
distortion, a Zipper distortion, or a Twister distortion to
an object.
The Drop shadow tool lets you apply a drop shadow to
an object.
The Envelope tool lets you distort an object by dragging
the nodes of the envelope.
The Extrude tool lets you apply the illusion of depth to
objects.
The Transparency tool lets you apply transparencies to
objects.
The Color eyedropper tool lets sample colors, and apply
them to objects.
The Attributes eyedropper tool lets you copy object
attributes, such as fill, outline, size, and effects, and
apply them to other objects.
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 Mesh Fill tool lets you apply a mesh grid to a vector
object. Each node in the grid can include a unique color.
