Workspace tools

Application commands are accessible through the menu bar, toolbars, toolbox, property bar, and dockers. The property bar and dockers provide access to commands that relate 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.

You can customize many of these workspace tools to suit your needs. For more information, see “Customizing CorelDRAW.”


Standard toolbar

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Workspace tools

The standard toolbar, which appears by default, contains buttons and controls that are shortcuts to many of the menu commands. For information about customizing the position, contents, and appearance of toolbars, see “Customizing toolbars.”

Click this button
To
CorelDRAW pgx w new button Workspace tools
Start a new drawing
CorelDRAW pgx w open button Workspace tools
Open a drawing
CorelDRAW pgx w save button Workspace tools
Save a drawing
CorelDRAW pgx w print button Workspace tools
Print a drawing
CorelDRAW pgx w cut button Workspace tools
Cut selected objects to the Clipboard
CorelDRAW pgx w copy button Workspace tools
Copy selected objects to the Clipboard
CorelDRAW pgx w paste button Workspace tools
Paste the Clipboard contents into a drawing
CorelDRAW pgx w undo button Workspace tools
Undo an action
CorelDRAW pgx w redo button Workspace tools
Restore an action that was undone
CorelDRAW pgx w import button Workspace tools
Import a drawing
CorelDRAW pgx w export button Workspace tools
Export a drawing
CorelDRAW pgx w corelprgms button Workspace tools
Start Corel applications
CorelDRAW pgx w welcome button Workspace tools
Open the Welcome screen
CorelDRAW pgx w zoom level Workspace tools
Set a zoom level
CorelDRAW loc pgx w snap to button Workspace tools
Enable or disable automatic alignment for the grid, guidelines, objects, and dynamic guides
CorelDRAW pgx w options button Workspace tools
Open the Options dialog box

More about toolbars

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Workspace tools

In addition to the standard toolbar, CorelDRAW 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.

For information about customizing the position, contents, and appearance of toolbars, see “Customizing toolbars.”

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 a drawing page by specifying percentage of original view, clicking the Zoom tool, and 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
Transform
Contains commands for skewing, rotating, and mirroring objects
Macros
Contains commands for editing, testing, and running macros

CorelDRAW note Workspace tools

 
To toggle between displaying and hiding a toolbar, click Window CorelDRAW onestep Workspace tools Toolbars, and click the command with the toolbar name.

Exploring the toolbox

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Workspace tools

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.

CorelDRAW loc wksp toolbox flyout40 Workspace tools

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.


Tools

Pick tool
 
CorelDRAW pgx w pick tool Workspace tools
The Pick tool lets you select, size, skew, and rotate objects.
Shape Edit tools

 
CorelDRAW pgx w shape tool Workspace tools
The Shape tool lets you edit the shape of objects.
CorelDRAW pgx w smudge brush Workspace tools
The Smudge brush tool lets you distort a vector object by dragging along its outline.
CorelDRAW pgx w roughen brush Workspace tools
The Roughen brush tool lets you distort the outline of a vector object by dragging along the outline.
CorelDRAW pgx w free transform Workspace tools
The Transform tool lets you transform an object by using the Free rotation, Free angle reflection, Free scale, and Free skew tools.
Crop tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w crop tool Workspace tools
The Crop tool lets you remove unwanted areas in objects.
CorelDRAW pgx w knife tool Workspace tools
The Knife tool lets you cut through objects.
CorelDRAW pgx w eraser tool Workspace tools
The Eraser tool lets you remove areas of your drawing.
CorelDRAW pgx w virtual segment delete tool Workspace tools
The Virtual segment delete tool lets you delete portions of objects that are between intersections.
Zoom tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w zoom tool Workspace tools
The Zoom tool lets you change the magnification level in the drawing window.
CorelDRAW pgx w pan tool Workspace tools
The Hand tool lets you control which part of the drawing is visible in the drawing window.
Curve tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w freehand tool Workspace tools
The Freehand tool lets you draw single line segments and curves.
CorelDRAW pgx w bezier tool Workspace tools
The Bézier tool lets you draw curves one segment at a time.
CorelDRAW pgx w artisticmedia tool Workspace tools
The Artistic media tool provides access to the Brush, Sprayer, Calligraphic, and Pressure tools.
CorelDRAW pgx w pen tool Workspace tools
The Pen tool lets you draw curves one segment at a time.
CorelDRAW pgx w polyline tool Workspace tools
The Polyline tool lets you draw lines and curves in preview mode.
CorelDRAW pgx w 3point curve Workspace tools
The 3-point curve tool lets you draw a curve by defining the start, end, and center points.
CorelDRAW pgx w interact con tool Workspace tools
The Connector tool lets you join two objects with a line.
CorelDRAW pgx w dimension tool Workspace tools
The Dimension tool lets you draw vertical, horizontal, slanted, or angular dimension lines.
Smart tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w smart fill tool Workspace tools
The Smart fill tool lets you create objects from enclosed areas and then apply a fill to those objects.
CorelDRAW pgx w smart drawing tool Workspace tools
The Smart drawing tool converts your freehand strokes to basic shapes and smoothed curves.
Rectangle tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w rectangle tool Workspace tools
The Rectangle tool lets you draw rectangles and squares.
CorelDRAW pgx w 3point rectangle Workspace tools
The 3-point rectangle tool lets you draw rectangles at an angle.
Ellipse tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w ellipse tool Workspace tools
The Ellipse tool lets you draw ellipses and circles.
CorelDRAW pgx w 3point ellipse Workspace tools
The 3-point ellipse tool lets you draw ellipses at an angle.
Object tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w polygon tool Workspace tools
The Polygon tool lets you draw symmetrical polygons and stars.
CorelDRAW pgx w star tool Workspace tools
The Star tool lets you draw perfect stars.
CorelDRAW pgx w complex star tool Workspace tools
The Complex star tool lets you draw complex stars that have intersecting sides.
CorelDRAW pgx w graph tool Workspace tools
The Graph paper tool lets you draw a grid of lines similar to that on graph paper.
CorelDRAW pgx w spiral tool Workspace tools
The Spiral tool lets you draw symmetrical and logarithmic spirals.
Perfect Shapes tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w basic shapes tool Workspace tools
The Basic shapes tool lets you choose from a full set of shapes, including hexagram, a smiley face, and a right-angle triangle.
CorelDRAW pgx w arrows tool Workspace tools
The Arrow shapes tool lets you draw arrows of various shape, direction, and number of heads.
CorelDRAW pgx w flowchart tool Workspace tools
The Flowchart shapes tool lets you draw flowchart symbols.
CorelDRAW pgx w banner sh tool Workspace tools
The Banner shapes tool lets you draw ribbon objects and explosion shapes.
CorelDRAW pgx w callouts tool Workspace tools
The Callout shapes tool lets you draw callouts and labels.
Text tool
 
CorelDRAW loc pgx w text tool Workspace tools
The Text tool lets you type words directly on the screen as artistic or paragraph text.
Table tool
 
CorelDRAW pgx w table tool Workspace tools
The Table tool lets you draw and edit tables.
Interactive tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w interact blend tool Workspace tools
The Blend tool lets you blend two objects.
CorelDRAW pgx w interact cont tool Workspace tools
The Contour tool lets you apply a contour to an object.
CorelDRAW pgx w interact dist tool Workspace tools
The Distort tool lets you apply a Push or Pull distortion, a Zipper distortion, or a Twister distortion to an object.
CorelDRAW pgx w dropshadow tool Workspace tools
The Drop shadow tool lets you apply a drop shadow to an object.
CorelDRAW pgx w interact envel tool Workspace tools
The Envelope tool lets you shape an object by dragging the nodes of the envelope.
CorelDRAW pgx w interact extr tool Workspace tools
The Extrude tool lets you apply the illusion of depth to objects.
CorelDRAW pgx w interobj trans tool Workspace tools
The Transparency tool lets you apply transparencies to objects.
Eyedropper tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w eyedropper tool Workspace tools
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.
CorelDRAW pgx w paintbucket tool Workspace tools
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.
Outline tool
 
CorelDRAW pgx w outline tool Workspace tools
The Outline tool opens a flyout that gives you quick access to items such as the Outline pen dialog box and Outline color dialog box.
Fill tool
 
CorelDRAW pgx w fill tool Workspace tools
The Fill tool opens a flyout that gives you quick access to items such as the fill dialog boxes.
Interactive fill tools
 
CorelDRAW pgx w interact fill tool Workspace tools
The Interactive fill tool lets you apply various fills.
CorelDRAW pgx w mesh tool Workspace tools
The Mesh fill tool lets you apply a mesh grid to an object.

Property bar

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Workspace tools

The property bar displays the most commonly used functions that are relevant to the active tool or to the task you’re performing. Although it looks like a toolbar, the property bar content changes depending on the tool or task.

For example, when you click the Text tool in the toolbox, the property bar displays text-related commands. In the example below, the property bar displays text, formatting, alignment, and editing tools.

CorelDRAW loc w wksp propbardr Workspace tools

You can customize the contents and position of the property bar to suit your needs. For more information, see “Customizing the property bar.”

CorelDRAW note Workspace tools

 
To toggle between displaying and hiding the property bar, click Window CorelDRAW onestep Workspace tools Toolbars CorelDRAW onestep Workspace tools Property bar.

Dockers

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Workspace tools

Dockers display the same types of controls as a dialog box, such as command buttons, options, and list boxes. 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 CorelDRAW onestep Workspace tools Dockers, and click a docker.

CorelDRAW loc wksp dock window Workspace tools

An example is the Object properties docker. When this docker is open, you can click an object in the drawing window and view formatting, dimensions, and other properties of the object.

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 other parts of the workspace, 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.

CorelDRAW workspace d38 Workspace tools

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 top corner; to collapse or expand a docker, click the arrow button at the top corner.


Status bar

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Workspace tools

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

CorelDRAW loc w wksp statbardr Workspace tools

See “Customizing the status bar” for information about customizing the contents and appearance of the status bar.

Workspace tools