Corel DESIGNER Help | Work faster and more efficiently

Work faster and more efficiently

Become more efficient and productive by taking advantage of a wide array of new and enhanced features — from fills, and transparencies to improved multiple document and automation workflows.

New! Accessing eBooks

Premium feature

The Corel DESIGNER X7 User Guide, CorelDRAW X7 User Guide, and Corel PHOTO-PAINT X7 User Guide are now available as eBooks. Published to the EPUB and MOBI file format, the eBooks bring the most comprehensive and up-to-date information about product features to your eBook reader.

The Corel DESIGNER User Guide X7 is now available in EPUB and MOBI file format.

New! Workspaces

A variety of tailor-made, workflow-specific workspaces have been introduced in Corel DESIGNER X7. We’ve worked with experts from a variety of industries who use the suite routinely to arrange tools and features for specific tasks, such as diagramming and technical illustration. There are also CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator workspaces, which will help new users get up to speed within a familiar environment. Another option for new users is the Lite workspaces, which provide exploration-friendly, scaled-down options in the toolboxes and property bars. And for longtime users, there’s a Micrografx Designer workspace containing legacy menu commands and toolbar settings. For more information, see Choosing a workspace.

You can choose from a variety of workspaces.

New! Instant customization

The toolbox, dockers, and property bars contain handy new Quick customize buttons which will help you tailor the interface to suit your workflow. These buttons offer a faster and more convenient way to add dockers to your workspace, add or remove tools from the toolbox, and add or remove items from a property bar. For more information, see Customizing the toolbox, Dockers, and To add or remove a toolbar item on the property bar.

New! Multiple document interface

You can now work with multiple documents in a tabbed view, which helps you stay organized and quickly switch between several active documents.

New! Vector pattern fills

You can efficiently preview, apply, and interactively transform vector pattern fills by using the enhanced controls in the Property manager docker. You can also save personal vector pattern fills and share them in the new Content Exchange, an online repository of community content that can be downloaded and is accessible to anyone with a corel.com account.

New! Overflow buttons

For tablet and mobile device users, new overflow buttons have been added to the toolbox, property bar, dockers, and color palettes to indicate the presence of additional controls that do not fit within the workspace. You simply click an overflow button to instantly access the hidden tools or controls.

New! Changing the desktop color

Premium feature

You can change the color of the desktop, the area surrounding the drawing page in Corel DESIGNER and CorelDRAW or the image in Corel PHOTO-PAINT, to suit your documents. For more information, see Changing the desktop color.

Custom desktop color in Corel DESIGNER

New! Undocking documents

When working with multiple documents, you can now drag a document outside of the application window to undock it, which is especially useful for dual-monitor workflows.

New! Changing the color of window borders

You can customize the application window and dialog boxes by changing the color of their borders (Tools Customization). To choose the color you want, you can quickly sample any onscreen color; or you can use color sliders, color viewers, or color palettes. For more information, see Changing the color of window borders.

New! Support for high resolution monitors

Corel DESIGNER X7 has been optimized for high DPI resolutions, ensuring that user interface elements appear crisp and legible when displayed on high resolution monitors. And for those who work with multiple monitors, you can drag a document out of the application window and place it within a second screen, dedicating one monitor to the illustration and the other to frequently used dockers and toolbars.

New! Transparency

You can now apply transparency to individual color nodes within a fountain fill, allowing you to adjust an object’s transparency so that all objects beneath it are partially visible.

In addition, transparency settings have been added to the Property manager docker in Corel DESIGNER X7, making it faster and easier to apply and adjust object transparency. New options help you to quickly specify whether transparency is applied to an object’s outline, fill, or both. Plus, you can instantly save transparency settings as a style to enable effortless reuse of the effects you use most often.

It is faster and easier to apply and adjust object transparency.

New! Welcome Screen — Workspace selection

The revamped Welcome Screen now includes a Workspace tab, which lets you choose from a variety of workspaces that were designed for different proficiency levels and specific tasks. For example, there are Diagramming and Technical Illustration workspaces, a Micrografx Designer 9 option for longtime users, as well as a Lite option for new users.

New! Welcome Screen navigation

The Welcome Screen has been completely redesigned, making it easier to navigate and discover the abundance of available resources, including Workspace selection, What’s New, application updates, Tips & Tricks, CorelDRAW.com, as well as Membership & Subscription information.

New! Welcome Screen docking

You can now keep the Welcome Screen open as a docked tab in the workspace or as a separate floating window, providing constant access to its wealth of versatile resources.

New! Welcome Screen — content notification

The redesigned Welcome Screen now provides update notifications directly in the navigation pane, so that you will be immediately informed of any available new content. This makes it easier to stay current with CorelDRAW Technical Suite application updates, content, learning resources, and more.

New! Fill creation

You can now instantly create new bitmap and vector fills from selected objects in your workspace by using the New from document button in the Property manager docker. For more information, see Saving and sharing fills and transparencies.

New! Edit Fill dialog box

In Corel DESIGNER X7, the new Edit fill dialog box gives you more efficient access to all available controls for uniform, fountain, vector pattern, bitmap pattern, two-color pattern, texture, PostScript, and vector hatch fills. The Edit fill dialog box also provides a real-time preview as you make adjustments.

New! Fill saving

Accessible from both the Property manager docker and the Edit fill dialog box, the new Save as new button makes it easy to save personally modified fills. Plus, the new .FILL format preserves and exposes all fill settings, making it quick and simple to modify both saved fills and fills downloaded from the Content Exchange.

New! Font Playground

The new Font playground docker introduces an easier way to browse, experiment with, and choose the perfect font. You can easily add sample text to view its appearance in different fonts, and a handy Zoom slider lets you quickly adjust the size of sample text. With a single click, you can also choose whether the sample text appears as a single line, multiple lines, or a cascading series of increased sizes.

The Font playground docker also provides access to advanced features within OpenType fonts. If a text sample uses an OpenType font, you simply select the text to display the Interactive OpenType arrow and then choose which features to apply. For more information, see Choosing fonts with Font Playground.

Choosing fonts with Font Playground

New! Microsoft Visual Studio for Applications

The inclusion of Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications provides access to the latest development tools, making it easy for developers to create VSTA automations for all applications in the suite.

New! Multi-Seat license

You can now purchase a single serial number for use by several registered users, which includes access to Corel membership benefits such as online content and application updates.

New! Font list box

With the new Font list box in Corel DESIGNER, CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT, you can view, filter, and find fonts easily. In addition to the font filters available before, you can filter fonts based on weight, width, supported scripts, and more. Font search has also been enhanced, allowing you to use keywords to search for fonts.

New! Drop shadows with Gaussian Blur feathering

Drop shadows in Corel DESIGNER now look more realistic because they use Gaussian Blur feathering. You can change the feathering of drop shadows from the Feathering direction button on the property bar.

New! Support for Real-Time Stylus (RTS)

You can now take full advantage of the pressure and tilt of your RTS-compatible pen tablet or device to control your brushstrokes in Corel DESIGNER, CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTOPAINT. Update 4 includes support for the Real-Time Stylus (RTS) interface, which was introduced with Windows 7.

New! AfterShot, CorelDRAW Edition

AfterShot, CorelDRAW Edition is a RAW converter, non-destructive photo editor and high-speed photo manager in one. It gives you the tools to control every aspect of your photo workflow whether you are making detailed adjustments to a single photo or batch processing multiple RAW images.

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