CorelDRAW Help | 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.

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
	Start a new drawing
	Open a drawing
	Save a drawing
	Print a drawing
	Cut selected objects to the Clipboard
	Copy selected objects to the Clipboard
	Paste the Clipboard contents into a drawing
	Undo an action
	Restore an action that was undone
	Display the Connect docker and search for content such as clipart, photos, fonts, and more
	Import a drawing
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	Start Corel applications
	Open the Welcome screen
	Set a zoom level
	Enable or disable automatic alignment for the pixels, document grid, baseline grid, guidelines, objects, and page
	Open the Options dialog box

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.


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

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.

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.


	The Pick tool lets you select, size, skew, and rotate objects.
	The Freehand pick tool lets you select objects by using a freehand selection marquee.


	The Shape tool lets you edit the shape of objects.
	The Smudge brush tool lets you distort a vector object by dragging along its outline.
	The Roughen brush tool lets you distort the outline of a vector object by dragging along the outline.
	The Free Transform tool lets you transform an object by using the Free rotation, Free angle reflection, Free scale, and Free skew tools.
	The Smear tool lets you shape an object by pulling extensions or making indents along its outline.
	The Twirl tool lets you create swirl effects by dragging along the edge of objects.
	The Attract tool lets you shape objects by attracting nodes to the cursor.
	The Repel tool lets you shape objects by pushing away nodes from the cursor.


	The Crop tool lets you remove unwanted areas in objects.
	The Knife tool lets you cut through objects.
	The Eraser tool lets you remove areas of your drawing.
	The Virtual segment delete tool lets you delete portions of objects that are between intersections.


	The Zoom tool lets you change the magnification level in the drawing window.
	The Pan tool lets you control which part of the drawing is visible in the drawing window.


	The Freehand tool lets you draw single line segments and curves.
	The 2-point line tool lets you draw a straight two-point line segment.
	The Bézier tool lets you draw curves one segment at a time.
	The Artistic media tool provides access to the Brush, Sprayer, Calligraphic, and Pressure tools.
	The Pen tool lets you draw curves one segment at a time.
	The B-spline tool lets you draw curved lines by setting control points that shape the curve without breaking it into segments.
	The Polyline tool lets you draw lines and curves in preview mode.
	The 3-point curve tool lets you draw a curve by defining the start, end, and center points.


	The Smart fill tool lets you create objects from enclosed areas and then apply a fill to those objects.
	The Smart drawing tool converts your freehand strokes to basic shapes and smoothed curves.


	The Rectangle tool lets you draw rectangles and squares.
	The 3-point rectangle tool lets you draw rectangles at an angle.


	The Ellipse tool lets you draw ellipses and circles.
	The 3-point ellipse tool lets you draw ellipses at an angle.


	The Polygon tool lets you draw symmetrical polygons and stars.
	The Star tool lets you draw perfect stars.
	The Complex star tool lets you draw complex stars that have intersecting sides.
	The Graph paper tool lets you draw a grid of lines similar to that on graph paper.
	The Spiral tool lets you draw symmetrical and logarithmic spirals.


	The Basic shapes tool lets you choose from a full set of shapes, including hexagram, a smiley face, and a right-angle triangle.
	The Arrow shapes tool lets you draw arrows of various shape, direction, and number of heads.
	The Flowchart shapes tool lets you draw flowchart symbols.
	The Banner shapes tool lets you draw ribbon objects and explosion shapes.
	The Callout shapes tool lets you draw callouts and labels.


	The Parallel dimension tool lets you draw slanted dimension lines.
	The Horizontal or vertical dimension tool lets you draw horizontal or vertical dimension lines.
	The Angular dimension tool lets you draw angular dimension lines.
	The Segment dimension tool lets you display the distance between end nodes in single or multiple segments.
	The 3-point callout tool lets you draw a callout with a two-segment leader line.


	The Straight-line connector tool lets you draw a straight connector line.
	The Right-angle connector tool lets you draw a right angle connector line.
	The Right-angle round connector tool lets you draw a right-angle connector line with curved corners.
	The Edit anchor tool lets you modify connector line anchor points.


	The Blend tool lets you blend two objects.
	The Contour tool lets you apply a contour to an object.
	The Distort tool lets you apply a Push or Pull distortion, a Zipper distortion, or a Twister distortion to an object.
	The Drop shadow tool lets you apply a drop shadow to an object.
	The Envelope tool lets you shape an object by dragging the nodes of the envelope.
	The Extrude tool lets you apply the illusion of depth to objects.
	The Transparency tool lets you apply transparencies to objects.


	The Color eyedropper tool lets you select and copy a color from an object on the drawing window or the desktop.
	The Attributes eyedropper tool lets you select and copy object properties, such as line thickness, size and effects, from an object on the drawing window.


	The Interactive fill tool lets you apply various fills.
	The Mesh fill tool lets you apply a mesh grid to an object.

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.

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

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

Dockers, and click a docker.

An example is the Object properties docker. When this docker is open, you can click an object in the drawing window to access various options for modifying object properties.

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.

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.

The status bar displays information about selected objects (such as color, fill type, and outline, cursor position, and relevant commands). It also displays document color information, such as the document color profile and color proofing status.

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