Did you hear the one about the chicken and the road...

[Not Ziggy]

As noted elsewhere, I've only just a few days ago upgraded to Draw 10, so I apologize to anyone who may have been using the following feature(s) for many months. I'm in the habit of wondering whether software can do something and trying it, just in case it can. Just now, I tried something wonderful and it worked.

Suddenly, if you triple-click on a paragraph, you thereby select the entire paragraph, just like in every other illustration or page layout program on Earth. And if you drag after tripel-clicking, you select numerous paragraphs. This is new to version 10.

I plan to use this thread to reveal similar "hidden" features of Draw (that probably everyone but me has discovered by now).

[Not Ziggy]

As noted elsewhere, I've only just a few days ago upgraded to Draw 10, so I apologize to anyone who may have been using the following feature(s) for many months. I'm in the habit of wondering whether software can do something and trying it, just in case it can. Just now, I tried something wonderful and it worked.

Suddenly, if you triple-click on a paragraph, you thereby select the entire paragraph, just like in every other illustration or page layout program on Earth. And if you drag after tripel-clicking, you select numerous paragraphs. This is new to version 10.

I plan to use this thread to reveal similar "hidden" features of Draw (that probably everyone but me has discovered by now).

[inphoenix]

Keep 'em coming Ziggy. Your posts are always appreciated, and I'm sure by many. Now if I can only remember that when I get ver 10. LOL
Marie

[garvoon]

Hi Ziggy,

How's it going ... been a while!

I see that you're experiencing a touch of dysfunction with Corel 10. I've been slumming over at the newsgroup for CD10 over on the Corel site and there's somewhat of a range war going on whether or not CD10 really works. We have the "haves" who think it's just fine and brush the "have nots" off as chronic complainers. The "have nots" grossly outnumber the "haves". We also have one turkey who feels anything below Win2K is amateur and those who use less than that should be banished from the kingdom.

I'm periodically trying to post Ward Cleaver "can't we all just get along" letters, but some still deem me the troublemaker for doing that as well.

Anyway, what are your major gripes with CD10 ... other than the fact you're recommended to install the 6-months-in-coming patch through Window's Safe Mode and "Gee ... go out and buy another video card!"

BTW, on the three machines I use CD10 on, it's like the Three Bears ... it works, kind of works and thirdly, is really lame. So, I guess I'm a semi-have not!!!

Talk to me ... talk to me!

Gary Garvin

[Not Ziggy]

As noted elsewhere, I use Draw/PP in the capacity of a typesetter, which is not the way most people use it. So some of the features I find most useful aren't to most people. But here's another thing new to version 10 that will save me considerable time, and many people may not have noticed it:

The status bar (unique to Draw, anyway) now tells the resolution of bitmaps, freeing us of the need to right-click, go to Properties and then to the Bitmap tab to discover the resolution.

Gary, just to get philosophical for a moment, one of the classic dynamics of social discourse is honesty vs. optimism. You're known for your strong preference for the latter, although it seems to me not at the expense of the former. Those on the other end of that spectrum are to be expected to balk at your approach, and I say, to hell with them (and that's a destination they won't find unfamiliar, anyway).

As to the backsliding in version 10, here's what I've discovered so far, none of it serious (and I'm not including any of the flaws in 9 that have been ignored):

1) The right-button menus in PP10 are not customizable like they are in PP9, CD9 and CD10. The program will hang if you try.

2) Toolbar icons are a little bigger so that on my 21-inch monitor I can only get 29 icons down the side instead of the previous 31.

3) There used to be a percentage slider that you could add to a toolbar allowing Pantone tints to be adjusted live. It's gone, as far as I can tell.

4) The stand-alone node edit button no longer works. If you create a custom toolbox, as I have, you need to use the one that's part of the multi-purpose button instead, which keeps changing each time I select elsewhere any of the other tools on it.

5) Draw is the only program on Earth in which you have to go into a dialog box to adjust leading in points. You can adjust it in percentage or in millimeters by adding an input window to a toolbar, but not in points. New to 10 is the way millimeters is no longer an option in the dialog box, but if you select points in there, you'll actually get millimeters when you go out to the toolbar. Someone appears to be aware of the problem but they're moderately insane.

6) Starting in version 8 (I think) you could adjust the brightness, contrast, hue, etc. of bitmaps right in Draw, rather than having to open Photopaint. Well, it's gone. All gone.

These are the only ones that come to mind right now, and none of them are serious, but thanks for asking!

[This message was edited by Ziggy on July 18, 2001 at 12:47.]

[garvoon]

Hi Ziggy,

You're lucky! I'm still trying to get rid of CARM bouncing up every time I access a Zip or floppy drive, I'm still experiencing memory leaks, pattern filled shapes still default to hairline outlines, etc., etc. By the way, for any of you out there that have RealTime Preview enabled in OPTIONS/GENERAL, disable it and things will run better.

Optimistic ... kind of. I only say that because I expected more from SP1. BUT, when it is now recommended that you install SP1 through Windows Safe Mode (if you're experiencing installation problems), not only update video drivers, but in some cases, recommendations of BUYING a NEW CARD(!?!? - for an upgrade), well ... I could go on. In summary, after waiting 6 months for SP1, I sure did expect more than what we were given.

Now, on the other side, there is so much VENOM over at the Corel Newsgroup between the HAVE's and HAVE NOT'S at times ("mine works ... yours doesn't ... you must be an amateur"), and me being a new card carrying member of AARP, I feel it is my duty, in Ward Cleaver fashion, to try and smooth things over a bit. The poor C-Techs are doing their absolute best, the Techs from Corel have been very helpful and honestly concerned, but, they can only do so much with what they've been given.

My goal there is to TRY and calm everyone down, be as HONEST as possible without starting another RANGE WAR, and, to let the techies get on with it without all of the abuse they've been facing. Chris Dickman showed me the light a few years back on how "bashing" really impedes progress.

Venting frustration towards Corel marketers and the decision makers might be a more accurate approach ... don't listen to the beta testers, just get it on the shelf at Best Buy ... and by the way, let's cut the technical staff some more ... well, personally, I feel that those individuals are responsible for any negatives.

Now that I have all of that off of my chest, I'll play around with your list, and let me try and forward your list to my "friend" on the Corel Tech staff in Ottawa. She listens and does follow-up on problems. I do agree with you concerning Corel's attempt to always try and fix the UNBROKEN wheel. Never could figure that out.

Illustrator, as an alternative really scares me, so I can put up with SOME software craziness from Corel. I hope that they're not planning on releasing Corel 11 any time soon!

Oh yes, I have Corel 10 on three machines ... a PII-450, a Celeron 700 and a PIII-1000. I do experience many of the same problems across the board. Ironically, my Celeron 700, the junkiest of the lot (overloaded and in dire need of a good gutting), works the best with CD10!!! Go figure!

Well, there'll be a pop-quiz concerning this letter at noon!

Party on, Garth!

Gary

[Not Ziggy]

Gary, it's hard for me to "vent frustration toward Corel marketers" except mildly, because in my line of work (with all the customer files I need to be able to process) I can't help but compare them to Adobe's marketers, who resemble an apocolyptic plague by comparison. Likewise, when people criticise Bill Gates, I imagine what the world would be like if he'd lost his battles many years ago with Apple or with IBM. Life would be Hell in either case, judging by the arrogant ineptness with which those other operating systems are run.

If you want a good laugh (or a good scare), read any of the last three issues of Macworld magazine, in which the editors rave about being able, in the new Unix-based incarnation of the Mac operating system, to enter command-line instructions. Beleive it or not, they rave about being able to create macros this way (as if simply recording a series of actions was not an option) and also about being able to delete files that are otherwise undeletable in Unix (as if having an arcane solution made the arcane nature of the problem irrelevant). It's truly the sound of one hand clapping. It's as if the horrible retro thing that's happened recently to music and fine art and architecture has happened to graphic artists' minds, this wistfulness for a world less intuitive, less elegant, less demanding on the clods among us.

Long live Corel and Microsoft.