The Evolution of Trim, Intersect, and Weld
You probably are already aware of this triad of commands that looks at
overlapping objects and causes one object to affect another. In the past,
these three commands would only work on individual objects; now you can
trim into, find the intersection of, and weld together groups of objects.
Chapter 11 is devoted to these three tools.
Select All Grows Up, Too
We hope this will be seen as an improvement. The command Edit Ø
Select All gives you three choices: Objects (i.e., truly all), Text (all
text objects), or Guidelines (which are now treated as objects). This
is very handy in special circumstances; otherwise, it costs you an extra
keystroke or mouse action to choose Objects. Advanced users ran right
to Customize to create a hotkey or special icon for the traditional Select
All command; in DRAW 9, Select All inherits Ctrl+A, and a fourth choice
is added to Select All to select all nodes in an object.
Objects Can Be Locked
Mentioned earlier with reference to guidelines, any selected object can
be made untouchable, even if the layer it resides on is editable. You
lock an object from the Object Managers context menu, or from the
Arrange menu.
Witnessing the Move
If you want more detail as you move objects, version 8 can supply it.
Click on an object and move it quicklythe action is the same as
with previous versions. Click, pause, and then move, and the object displays
in full color as it moves. You can disable the moving display of complex
objects (textures, bitmaps, lenses, blends with many steps, etc.) from
the Properties sheet of the Pick tool.
Filling Open Paths
With version 8, you can fill the interior of an object that is not closed.
Why would you want to do this? We havent a clue, but were
sure that somewhere, there is someone who has found some reason to do
this. Figure 2.9 shows two examples of this, one plain and one dramatic.
The top-left object is a square that is missing one of its corners. By
all known laws of DRAW, this object cannot be filled...unless you first
visit an impossible-to-find option (buried in Tools Ø
Options Ø Document Ø
General Ø Fill Open Curves) and check
it. Once done, you can produce the top-right graphican object that
is filled, even though not closed.
The lower image is even more logic-defying, as it is not at all clear
which is the inside and which is the outside.
FIGURE
2.9 Dont stop the presses, but DRAW 8
can fill an object that isnt closed.
Text Features
Improvements and additions to DRAWs text handling abilities are
few but significant. We count five new features, all but one of them likely
to be helpful to your creative abilities or your workflow. See Chapters
8, 9, and 10 for our lengthy discussions on text creation, formatting,
and manipulation.
In-Line Graphics
Your desktop publishing software can take a graphic and attach it to
the flow of text; now DRAW can, too. Anything that is in the Clipboard
can be pasted to the current cursor position. Figure 2.10 shows one light-hearted
application for it, and youll notice that this isnt just single-color
line art. Full-color graphics and even photos can be inserted into artistic
text strings and paragraph text frames. Once done, the graphic can be
selected, sized, and even kerned, just like text.
FIGURE
2.10 In version 8, anything can be inserted
into the flow of the text, even full-color graphics and photos.
Automatic Text-Fitting
Another text feature that promises to be one of our favorites, this new
command will resize the text within a frame so that all of the text fits.
Figure 2.11 shows the simple dynamic, as the frame on the left does not
contain all of the text that has been flowed into it (as evidenced by
the little downward-pointing triangle at the bottom selection handle).
But the one on the right has been set to Fit Text to Frame, and has had
its text automatically sized down.
Two points of interest with this feature: (1) if you type more text into
a fitted frame, you will have to reissue the Fit Text to Frame command;
and (2) you can use this command in the opposite direction and instruct
the text to be expanded to fill out the frame.
Easier Cursor Placement
One small but annoying flaw was corrected in version 8 that seems to
make all the difference in the world to the text-editing process. To begin
typing into a frame or string of text, you can double-click to place an
editing cursor. You no longer have to press F8 or click the Text tool
in the toolbox.
FIGURE
2.11 No more copy-fitting with DRAW 8. You can
instruct a frame to force-fit its text.
Complex Text Linking
When Corel demo-meisters showed this feature, everyone oohed and aahed...while
we shrugged our shoulders. You be the judge: Figure 2.12 shows two new
capabilities of DRAW 8. The first is that the middle text looks like a
conventional string of artistic text being fitted to a line. Actually,
it is paragraph text. The second new item is that all three pieces of
text are linked and flowing dynamically between the normal frame at the
top, the text fitted to the line in the middle, and the frame shaped like
an ellipse.
We are impressed with the technology, but wheres the beef? Last
edition we asked, Please tell us, is this a feature that you think
you might ever use? We received exactly zero responses.
Internet-Specific
Features
No question that DRAW 8 was developed with one eye on the World Wide
Web. Entire DRAW pages can now be exported as HTML pages, there is a more
robust JPEG export, better downsampling of 24-bit images to GIF format,
and built-in FTP access from within DRAW itself. Also, PHOTO-PAINT is
much more mature in its facility for creating animated GIF images.
FIGURE
2.12 These three strings of text are all linked.
Impressive? Definitely. Useful? Doubt it.
These features will be covered in depth in Part V with three chapters
dedicated to the creation of graphics for the World Wide Web.
Font Navigator
Veteran DRAW users will remember a version of FontMinder that shipped
with DRAW 5, much to the delight of all typeface enthusiasts. But Ares
sold its fine typeface management program to Adobe the following year,
and DRAW users had a lean season in the typeface management department.
Meanwhile, the original developers of FontMinder went to work for Bitstream
and produced FontNavigator, an evolution of FontMinder, a copy of which
is included with the program. You would be hard-pressed to find a comparable
typeface management utility.
Backgrounds
When you set up your page, you can ask to include a solid or a bitmap-tiled
background. This is very handy for Web page developers, and you can determine
whether the background will be included in any print jobs or export operations.
When All
Is Said and Done...
The final piece of commentary to be made about DRAW 8 is the timing of
its release. Many users pointed to the 18-month development cycle (stretched
from 12 months) as the primary reason for the success of DRAW 7. The extra
six months gave Corel engineers more time to solidify the product and
it gave users time to prepare. By prepare, we mean emotionallyversions
of DRAW tend to shellshock users with their annual assault. Corel returned
to the 12-month cycle to release DRAW 8 at the end of 1997, and this did
not sit well with many users. Summing up this sentiment was Rebecca Austin,
a user from Chicago and loyal reader of these books. Tell them to
cool their jets, she writes. If Corel really wants to keep
us happy, they should stop making us run around in circles all the time.
I just upgraded from 5 to 7, and Im having a hard enough time getting
all my hardware to adjust to the new version. I certainly dont want
to (and wont) go through all of this again in a few months.
Austin has put her finger on the one point that DRAW users keep coming
back to over and over again: they get overwhelmed with the constant upgrading
and dont feel as if they ever get quality time to truly learn any
one version. Irrespective of the intrinsic value of version 8, Corels
quick trigger-finger might cloud an otherwise positive impression that
the program merits.
Otherwise, DRAW 8 should be seen as an evolutionary step, with some very
significant productivity enhancements and a small handful of new features.
Software continues to become more refined as the market matures, and version
8 is a clear indication of this thinking, with a streamlined interface,
a central location for user settings, and a continual reliance on context-sensitivity
to place the most important tools where they are most accessible.
CorelDRAW 9
If we had to choose one word to describe DRAW 9, it would be refined.
This release is equal parts new features, redesigning, and problem-solving,
and in all three departments, Corel seems to have kept a close focus on
refinement of the finished product. As a result, we hold many aspects
of this version in high regard.
One thing you wont find in DRAW 9: lots of new effects. At least
not in the conventional Oh wow, gee whiz sense. There is no
new Squiggle effect or Node Discombobulator tool, and that suits us just
fine. The improvements to this version are more subtle...and that suits
us fine, too.
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