Course Description

Get up and running with CorelDRAW 12 while creating fun images and practical text layout projects. You will learn the user interface, all the basic tools and options and some of the many uses for this versatile graphics program. We'll cover some of the exciting tools in version 12 of CorelDRAW. By the end of the course, you'll be shaping text and objects with node editing and creating multi-page documents with ease. This course is geared for the absolute beginner, but just as applicable to those who have upgraded to version 12. Whatever your experience level, you are sure to find something new in this jam-packed set of lessons. Students using Corel Designer Techical Suite 12 will also benefit from this class. While no specific Designer topics are covered, most of the CorelDRAW 12 instructions also apply to Corel Designer Techical Suite 12. Notes and any extra files will be provided where needed to adapt where the two programs differ. View more images This is a 6 week, self-paced, online course. If you need additional help understanding the material presented, you can communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. The instructor will monitor and track your progress throughout the class. LVS Online offers many wonderful learning tools to help you get the most out of your online course, including an online portfolio service that manages all your course registrations, certificate of completion option, a class discussion board to interact with your instructor and fellow classmates, free hosting account, and a student upload area. 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. While some of the material presented may be applicable to previous versions of CorelDRAW or Corel DESIGNER, it is assumed that students will be using version 12 as help will not be available for earlier versions. Corel DESIGNER students must be able to recieve emails with attachments since the notes for that program will be sent as email attachments. You may download a trial version of Corel DESIGNER Technical 12 Suite which includes Corel DESIGNER® 12, but be aware that it is only good for 30 days. LVS is a Corel Training Partner. Enrolled students are eligible to purchase selected Corel products directly from Corel at the educational discounted rate: Corel Education Store. Follow this link for details: www.lvsonline.com/news.shtml#discount Homework must be reviewed by the instructor in order to earn a certificate. Students have the option of using the Student Upload Area or free web hosting made available for LVS students. Details are provided in the classroom. If you prefer to use your own web space, you must know how to upload your files to a server. 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 - Intro None

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1 Concepts and General Information The CorelDRAW Welcome screen and work area Setting up Rulers and basic page settings Working with the Color Palette Working with Property Bars Introduction to the Toolbox Reshaping and Rounding Rectangles and Converting Shapes to Curves Setting the center of rotation Working with Other Perfect Shapes Introduction to Fill and Outline properties Grouping and aligning objects Saving files Exporting files to GIF format Tools Covered Basic Rectangle and Ellipse Tools Perfect Shape Tool Lesson 2 Concepts and General Information Bitmaps and Vectors Drawing and Editing Curves Introduction to Node Editing Open vs. Closed Curves Drawing straight lines and arrows Working with Gradient Fills GIF vs. JPG formats Exporting to JPG format Tools Covered The Freehand tool The Polyline Tool The Pen Tool The Bezier Tool The Three Point Curve Tool Polygon and Star Tools Virtual Segment Delete Tool Paint can Tools Lesson 3 Concepts and General Information The Object Properties Docker Working with Text Artistic Text vs. Paragraph Text Artistic Text on a path Paragraph Text in a shape Printing Converting to the PDF format Tools Covered The Artistic Media Tools Brush, Sprayer, and Calligraphic Pen Tools The Interactive Drop Shadow Tool The Smart Drawing Tool Text tool Lesson 4 Concepts and General Information The Object Manager Docker Working with Master Pages Working with Labels A bit more about Text Guidelines and Snapping Align and Distribute Combining Objects Back minus front cutouts Converting outlines to objects Templates Tools Covered Interactive Fill Tool Interactive Transparency Tool Interactive Extrude Tool Eraser Tool Knife Tool Smudge Brush and Rake Free Transform Tool Lesson 5 Concepts and General Information Three methods to create text columns Flowing text from frame to frame Using shapes as guidelines The Shaping Docker Formatting text Using bitmaps and bitmap effects Blends on a path Tools Covered Three Point Rectangle Tool Three Point Ellipse Tool Arcs, Pies, and Wedges with the Ellipse Tools Interactive Blend Tool Spiral Tool Lesson 6 Concepts and General Information Power Clips Document Information Find and Replace Wizard Undo Docker Symbols and the Symbol Manager The CorelTRACE program Symbol Fonts Tools Covered The Graph Paper Tool Interactive Envelope Tool Using the Shape tool on Bitmaps Interactive Contour Tool Interactive Distortion Tool Interactive Connector and Dimension Lines Tools Interactive Mesh Fill Tool

Course Excerpt

LESSON 1 Introducing the Toolbox Obviously we can't cover everything in the first lesson, so here's what we'll look at to start out with: The Rectangle tool The rectangle property bar Positioning Stretching Scaling Rotating Mirroring Rounding corners Changing the outline width Using the Pick and Shape tools with rectangles Selecting more than one object Moving objects in front and behind other objects Converting a rectangle to another shape The Ellipse flyout Using color wells The Basic shapes flyout Don't worry. We'll pretty much cover everything in this toolbox in the course of the six lessons.If some of your icons don't look like mine, they are probably in the same place in the toolbox but hiding in a flyout. Once you use a tool from a flyout, it stays as the icon that shows for that flyout until you pick a different tool from the flyout. Getting Started with Basic Rectangles and Circles Start with a new blank canvas by clicking on the New icon or using (Ctrl+N) or choosing New from the File menu. The Save As... Dialog Box Save your new drawing document as rectangle.cdr. You should be familiar with saving files and creating folders, but I'll walk you through the process once since there may be options in the DRAW Save As dialog box that are peculiar to the program. Click File/ Save as... to get the dialog box. Navigate to My Documents, or wherever you save your lesson assignment files, if it is not the current folder. Right click on a blank spot on the main files area and choose New.../Folder or click the New Folder icon at the top to the right of the Save in drop down box. Give your folder a name like Corel_Class. Double click on your new folder to open it. All your work for this class can go in this folder. In the File name field type rectangle.cdr. In the Save as type field, choose CDR - CorelDRAW. In the Version box, make sure Version 12.0 is showing. (If you wanted to make a drawing compatible with an older version of CorelDRAW, you could set the version number lower. No need for that right now!) Setting the Thumbnail field on 10k will cause a small colored thumbnail of your work to be saved along with the main file. This thumbnail will show in your directories. You can also choose a less detailed 5k colored thumbnail, a black and white (mono) 1k thumbnail, or no thumbnail. If you have plenty of hard drive space, leave it at 10k and you'll be glad you did because it'll be easy to find the files you are looking for. Leave all the check boxes blank for now. 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 use the basic tools of the CorelDRAW toolbox in their default configurations. Students will be able to produce several different types of documents and export graphics files in JPG, GIF, and PDF formats from within the CorelDRAW program.

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...