Course Description

Continue the adventure we started in the Introduction to CorelDRAW classes! In this class we'll slow down and take few more in depth looks at some things we didn't have time for before. We'll customize our workspace, take a look at several new dockers, take a spin through scripts, do some creative cloning, meander through a few menu items we didn't get to in the first class and even more! Each week there will also be a creative challenge for you to practice your developing skills from the previous classes. View more images This is a 6 week, self-paced, online course. LVS is a Corel Training Partner. LVS students may purchase Corel products at a significant savings. Follow this link for details. LVS students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available by famous software developers such as Andromeda, AV Bros, Extensis, Harry Heim, namesuppressed, Nik Multimedia, and Ulead. Details are provided in the classinfo link found in the confirmation of registration. If you would like to receive more information regarding this course, click on the "Contact Us" link in the Information section and we'll try to answer any of your questions within the day.

Course Requirements

CorelDRAW versions 12, X3, and X4 only LVS is a Corel Training Partner. Enrolled LVS students are eligible to purchase Corel products directly from Corel Education Store at a substantial savings! Enter coupon code CRL10LVS when checking out to get an additional 10% discount on all Corel products! Follow this link for details: www.lvsonline.com/news.shtml#discount Free tutorials are available: Basic HTML page WS_FTP SmartFTP Students should have working knowledge of their operating system: Free Windows Class Here Directory Structure Tutorial Here Zip files may be necessary to complete the exercises provided each week. WinZip, PKZip, Windows Compression or similar program is required to unzip these files. Winzip Tutorial Here Windows Compression All lessons are available in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view/print the lessons. Plan to devote 2 - 4 hours per week on the lesson and assignment.

Course Prerequisites

Class Level - Intermediate Introduction to CorelDRAW 12, Introduction to CorelDRAW X3, OR Part 1 AND Part 2 of Introduction to CorelDRAW X4.

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1 Customizing the Workspace Moving Toolbars Around Creating Toolbars from Toolbox Flyouts Adding Icons to Toolbars Creating New Toolbars Saving and Exporting the Workspace Returning everything to Factory Defaults Introduction to using VBA Scripts The Calendar Wizard Lesson 2 More Mesh Fill and Node Editing Fillet/Scallop/Chamfer Docker Review (X3) Extrude Docker in Depth Using the Print Merge Wizard Lesson 3 Creating a VBA macro from the Undo Docker Cloning, Copying, and Duplicating Explored Copy Effect vs. Clone Effect The Step and Repeat Docker (X3) Page Backgrounds Locked Objects Creating Arrowheads, Characters, and Patterns Lesson 4 Creating Fill Textures and the Texture Fill Dialog Pattern Fills and Creating Your Own Pattern Tiling Editing and Creating Outline Styles The View Manager Docker The Color Palette Browser Creating a New Color Palette The palette Editor The Color Manager Docker Lesson 5 Color Styles and Child Colors The Graphics and Text Styles Docker Embedding objects into paragraph text Linking Objects with Text The Lens Docker Explored Lesson 6 The Scrapbook Docker CorelDRAW and the Internet The Web Connector Docker Creating Web Objects with CorelDRAW Linked vs. Embedded Bitmap Files The Link Manager The Internet Bookmark Manager Create Boundary (X3)

Course Excerpt

LESSON 1 When you first install CorelDRAW, after the welcome screen, it opens with the default workspace – that workspace is just fine for lots of people. It has all the toolbox tools neatly arranged on the left, Dockers are all hidden, but will open docked on the right when you want them, the status bar is at the bottom and the color palette is on the right. At the top, you get the menu bar, the standard toolbar, and the property bar. We talked about a few customizations in the Intro class, but we'll go into more detail in this class. In this part of the lesson, we'll talk about moving toolbars around, adding and deleting icons from toolbars, and creating your own toolbar. We'll discuss further customization as we come to it in the lessons. Moving Toolbars Around If you want, you can leave the workspace in its default configuration forever and work just fine. However, if you do the same kinds of things over and over again, you may want to customize your work area. DRAW allows all sorts of customizations that a lot of other programs don't, and once you've got it customized to your liking, you can save your workspace. You can even save multiple workspaces. You can use one when you're doing page layout and another when you're working with single images – or one for print destined work and one for web destined work. The possibilities are endless. Some customizations are purely up to you and how you prefer to work. You can break off any toolbar and float it either inside the work area or even out on your desktop somewhere. If you've got a double monitor setup, you can put your tools and dockers on one monitor and have the full screen real-estate of the other monitor for your document. You can also move toolbars around to dock on any edge of the workspace. To move a toolbar, grab it with your mouse by the double line area toolbar grab area on one end of the toolbar and drag it to where you want it. If you drag it into the work area or out on your desktop, the toolbar will gain a title bar as if it were a little window. Double click the title bar to re-dock it. If you drag to an edge of your work area or an existing docked toolbar, the toolbar will attach itself to that edge when you let go of the mouse button. Exercise: Try moving the toolbox toolbar to another edge, or float it out away from an edge now. OK, put it back where you got it. If you liked it somewhere other than the default position (docked on the left), put it where you would find it handy for you. The status bar cannot be broken off this way, but you can move the status bar up to the top of the screen instead of the bottom by right clicking on it, choosing Customize/Status Bar/Position then choosing the one you want. While you're there, take a look at some of the other choices you have. I prefer mine set to two lines, bottom, small icons, and image only, but a lot of folks prefer to keep the status bar to one line for more screen real estate for drawing. (The other options don't really seem to do much unless you've added commands to the status bar through the Tools/Options/Customization dialog box.) I find I'm rather dependent on the normal information in the status bar, so leave it as is. I have seen customizations that show even more information and you're free to experiment. There's a Reset to Default option at the top of the context (right click) menu. The Property Bar can be floated or docked at top or bottom, but cannot be docked on either side of the screen. This is probably a remnant from when the Property Bar was part of the Status bar. To temporarily hide a toolbar you no longer want visible, right click in an empty space on any toolbar and uncheck the name of the toolbar. To get it back again, replace the check beside its name in the list. (You can find it by right clicking an empty space in any other toolbar.) Continued... Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.

Course Goals

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to customize much of the CorelDRAW interface to meet their needs and will be able to use many of the more complex tools and features of CorelDRAW.

Course Reviews

Gigi Watson: “I was clueless and anxious to learn this program after 5 years using Photoshop. The instructor Val P., really made me feel comfortable and she answered every question and her instructions where very clear even fun to read because she put her personality in her presentation. Since I am already in business time was very crucial however with Val's help and patience I made it through. A personal thank you to Val and LVS online Rocks.” More...