Photo Paint 9 view changes

[inphoenix]

I had to reinstall CD9 suite and now when I use PP my changes do not appear as they are being executed. IE: when erasing I used to be able to see the erased portion as I was dragging the eraser. Now I have to let go of the mouse button to see the result. This is really frustrating for not only erasing but masking functions etc.

I hope I'm explaing correctly
Thanks,

[sallybode]

It could be several things. For one thing programs when you reinstall them look for available space on your disk. If you have a fragmented hard drive you and install a program in that condition you may have problems resulting.

Many people have found that with Windows the more empty your C:\ drive is, the better your programs run. And it is the way my work computer is configured and it is the way I run things at my home. I have a external backup hard drive and I save all my files to it. So nothing except what need to be installed is on C:\. Even at that, I defrag every Sunday evening.

If you have reinstalled, it could be that there are other things affecting your overall performance. You should use a font manager, but CorelDRAW 9 did not include one. 12 comes with Bitstream Font Manager and it is excellent. There are other font managers on the market as well, I's sure others are good as well. But I do like Bitstream. The whole idea is to keep C:\ less cluttered, and it decreases boot-up time significantly. Fonts act like a TSR. The way font managers work is that they place a copy in your font folder of your font, your font libraries are stored elsewhere, mine are on my backup drive. When Windows sees a copy, it does not load it into memory, therefore you have more memory available to you. It is tempting to have way too many fonts installed. A font manager lets you have your cake and eat it too.

The default for CoreDRAW for reconfiguring your program to factory default for both DRAW itself and PhotoPaint is to hold down the F8 key on boot up. Of course if you are going to PP from Draw directly, you can't do this, so boot it up on its own using F8, then it will remember your factory defaults and when you next time go from DRAW to PP your problem will hopefully be gone.
DRAW and PP let you specify how much RAM your program will use. If you have a lot of RAM, I have 1 Gig, I specify 60% of my resources. I find I get fewer crashes. But it is totally a personal thing. You can set your prefernces under options but must save on exit or you will not have the changes this time or the next time with the memory changes. You have to go back to Document and check to save changes on exit.

I have bought some of the tutorials at Unleash.com on the use of DRAW, and they were worth every penny of what I spent.

There are less expensive ways to upgrade DRAW, many people who have a student in the family, get software via the academicsuperstore.com and you get a full version, just no manual. It is a legit copy too, but not full tech support. But you usually can find a DRAW forum to help you there.

EBay also is a good place to find cheaper copies of DRAW but you may not be getting what you think. I'd stay with the academicsuperstore.com. You have to wait a week or so for shipping, but you save.

[inphoenix]

Dear Sally,
I hope people visiting or regulars to this discussion group realize what a valuable assest you are to us.
I've recommended Talk Graphics for years now to newbies and oldbies. Always something to learn. I'll bet even Foster still learns.
Thank you so much for being here helping us.

Marie
BTW: CD9 does come with Bitstream Font Navigator as did WordPerfect 9.

[sallybode]

My copy of nine, then is incomplete or I didn't install it from the other disc because I didn't realize the value of it. I think, Bitstream is there, I just didn't know what to do with it.

Anyway, if you set it up, it will work for all programs immediately when you add a font without restarting your graphics program.

Once you get your fonts set up, you have to tell Bitstream where to find your fonts. Then it is just a matter of dragging fonts in and out. The left hand window shows all your installed fonts in your external fonts folder and also those in your Windows font folder. The only fonts you really need to keep in your Windows font folder is anything Microsoft, and all the fonts that are used on the web like Arial, Impact, Comic Sans MS, Verdana, Times New Roman, and Tahoma and all of their varieties for bold and Italic and Italic bold.

Every now and then you get extra fonts in your folder because programs coming with fonts, install to the default folder, but copy and paste. Safest way and then delete when you are sure they are really transferred. Nothing worse than having something disappear because you got called away from your computer in the middle of something or the phone rang.

Thanks for the appreciation.