Corel DESIGNER Help | Corel DESIGNER 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 elements to suit your needs. For more information, see Customizing Corel DESIGNER.

The standard toolbar contains buttons that are shortcuts to many of the menu commands.

The standard toolbar is displayed by default. 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
	Export a drawing
	Set a zoom level
	Start Corel applications
	Open the Welcome screen
	Enable or disable automatic alignment for the grid, guidelines, objects, and dynamic guides
	Open the Options dialog box

In addition to the standard toolbar, Corel DESIGNER 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.

Toolbar	Description
Text	Contains commands for formatting and aligning text
Zoom	Contains commands for zooming in and out of a drawing page
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, using 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
Layout	Contains commands related to the layout of your document, including PowerClip frames, text frames, columns, and alignment guides.
Drawing plane	Contains commands for choosing a drawing plane and a drawing profile, and lets you access the Projected axes docker. This toolbar is displayed by default.

The Corel DESIGNER toolbox shows the active tool and the available categories of tools in the upper area. The options symbol

indicates that there are additional tools or options.

When you choose a tool, any additional tools or options appear in the options area at the bottom of the toolbox. When you choose a tool in the options area, it becomes the active tool.

For example, if you click the Curve tools button in the upper area, you see its associated tools in the options area. If you click the 2-point line tool in the options area, it becomes the active tool, and its icon appears on the Curve tools button in the upper area.

The following table provides descriptions of the tools in the Corel DESIGNER toolbox.


Pick tools
	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.
Shape tools
	The Shape tool lets you edit a curve object or text character by manipulating nodes.
	The Free transform tool lets you transform an object by using the Free rotation, Free angle reflection, Free scale, and Free skew controls on the property bar.
	The Smudge brush tool lets you distort a vector object by dragging along its outline.
	The Roughen brush tool lets you distort the edge of a vector object by dragging along its outline.
	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 nodes away from the cursor.
Curve tools
	The 2-point line tool lets you draw a straight two-point line segment.
	The Multi-point line tool lets you draw lines and curves one segment at a time, in preview mode.
	The Freehand tool lets you draw single line segments and curves.
	The Bézier curve 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 3-point curve tool lets you draw a curve by defining the starting point, endpoint, and center point.
	The Pen tool lets you draw curves in segments and preview each segment as you draw.
	The Smart drawing tool converts your freehand strokes to basic shapes and smoothed curves.
Rectangle tools
	The 2-point rectangle tool lets you draw a rectangle by dragging diagonally.
	The 3-point rectangle tool lets you draw rectangles at an angle.
	The Graph paper tool lets you draw a grid to simulate graph paper.
Circle tools
	The Center-point circle tool lets you draw a circle by specifying the center point and a point on the circumference.
	The Center-radius circle tool lets you draw a circle by specifying a value for the radius and then clicking where you want the center to be.
	The 3-point circle tool lets you draw a circle by specifying three points on the circumference.
Ellipse tools
	The 2-point ellipse tool lets you draw an ellipse by dragging diagonally.
	The 3-point ellipse tool lets you draw ellipses at an angle.
Center-point polygon tools
	The Center-point polygon tool lets you draw a polygon by dragging from the center to a point (vertex) on the polygon.
	The Star tool lets you draw perfect stars.
	The Complex star tool lets you draw complex stars that have intersecting sides.
Text tool
	The Text tool lets you add text, create a paragraph text frame and type within it, or type text along a path if a curve is selected.
Dimension tools
	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 Radial dimension tool lets you display the radius of a circle or circular arc.
	The Diametric dimension tool lets you display the diameter of a circle or a circular arc.
Callout tools
	The 1-leg callout tool lets you draw a callout with one leading line.
	The 2-leg callout tool lets you draw a callout with a two-segment leading line.
	The 3-leg callout tool lets you draw a callout with a three-segment leading line.
	The Text source button lets you enter callout text interactively, from the Clipboard, from object properties, or incrementally.
Connector tools
	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 B-spline connector tool lets you draw a curved connector line by using control points.
	The Bézier curve connector tool lets you draw a curved connector line one segment at a time.
	The Edit anchor tool lets you modify connector line anchor points.
Projected Shapes tools
	The Thread tool lets you draw threaded shapes in projected view.
	The Well tool lets you draw threaded well shapes in projected view.
	The Cylinder tool lets you draw cylinders in projected view.
	The Prism tool lets you draw prism shapes in projected view.
Table tool
	The Table tool lets you draw and edit tables.
Perfect Shapes tools
	The Basic shapes tool lets you choose from a full set of shapes, including a hexagram, a smiley, and a right-angle triangle.
	The Arrow shapes tool lets you draw arrows while choosing the shape, direction, and number of heads.
	The Flowchart shapes tool lets you draw flowchart symbols. These controls are available on the property bar.
	The Miscellaneous shapes tool lets you draw ribbon objects and explosion shapes. These controls are available on the property bar.
	The Callout shapes tool lets you draw callouts and labels. These controls are available on the property bar.
Linear pattern tools
	The Linear pattern brush tool lets you apply brush strokes to a curve and create sweep arrows and similar objects.
	The Linear pattern sprayer tool lets you draw chains, hoses, pipes, and similar objects.
	The Linear pattern preset tool lets you draw curves by using preset strokes.
	The Calligraphic tool lets you draw lines that vary in thickness according to the direction of the line and the angle of the pen nib.
	The Pressure tool lets you draw lines that vary in thickness according to the pressure of the pen nib.
Interactive tools
	The Extrude tool lets you apply 3D effects to objects to create the illusion of depth.
	The Blend tool lets you transform one object into another through a series of intermediate shapes and colors.
	The Transparency tool lets you apply a transparency to an object to partially reveal image areas underneath.
	The Envelope tool lets you distort the shape of an object by applying an envelope to it and dragging the nodes of the envelope.
	The Drop shadow tool lets you create the illusion of lighting in a two-dimensional drawing by adding a shadow to an object. You can adjust properties such as feathering, opacity, edge style, and color.
	The Contour tool lets you create a series of concentric shapes that radiate into or out of an object.
	The Distort tool lets you transform objects by applying Push and Pull, Zipper, or Twister effects.
Deletion tools
	The Virtual segment delete tool lets you delete portions of objects between intersecting lines.
	The Eraser tool lets you remove unwanted areas in a drawing.
	The Knife tool lets you slice an object into two separate objects.
	The Crop tool lets you remove the areas outside a selection.
Interactive fill tools
	The Fountain fill tool lets you fill an object with a gradient of colors or shades.
	The Smart fill tool lets you create objects from enclosed areas and then apply a fill to those objects.
	The Mesh fill tool lets you fill an object by blending multiple colors or shades arranged over a mesh grid.
Eyedropper tools
	The Color eyedropper tool lets you sample a color from an object in the drawing window or on the desktop and apply it to other objects.
	The Attributes eyedropper tool lets you copy object properties, such as line thickness, size, and effects, from an object in the drawing window and apply them to other objects.
Zoom tool
	The Zoom tool lets you change the magnification level in the drawing window.
Pan tool
	The Pan tool lets you drag hidden areas of a drawing into view without changing the zoom level.

The property bar displays the most commonly used functions that are relevant to the active tool or to the task you’re performing. 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 only text-related commands, such as 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.

Common property bar buttons

Dockers display the same type 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.

	The Add preset button lets you save the current settings for reuse.
	The Delete preset button lets you delete the item selected in the Preset list box.
	The Fill button lets you open a dialog box where you set up a fill to apply to an object.
	The Outline pen button opens a dialog box where you set line properties.
	The Geometric properties button opens the Property manager docker and lets you set coordinates for the selected object.
	The Keep settings button lets you use the current settings as the defaults for new objects.

An example is the Property manager 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.

The status bar displays information about selected objects, such as width and height, cursor position, and relevant commands. While you are drawing a non-freehand line or curve, the segment length and total length for all segments are displayed. 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.