CorelDRAW X6 interface overview, and CorelDRAW X6 KEYS to know

Before using any program or application, we first need to learn about the layout / interface of that software first. And with the program CorelDRAW is no exception, we will learn about CorelDRAW first.

I. Quick Start Dialog

When you just start the program, a dialog box called Quick Start appears that allows you to quickly create a new drawing or quickly open an existing drawing on the machine. In addition, the dialog box also allows access to learning tools, checking for program updates, etc.

In this dialog box, the commonly used function is New blank document, which in Vietnamese means a new blank document, and when you select it, the Create a New Document dialog box will appear with the interface as shown below.

In this dialog you can set technical parameters such as the name of the drawing, paper size, number of pages, color mode, resolution, etc.

1. Name: The name of the drawing that you will create by default is named Untitled-1, Untitled-2, Untitled-3…
2. Preset Destination: You can roughly understand where your drawing will appear last like to a website, to a printer or to a photo.
3. Size: The size of the paper you will be working on. You can choose from existing paper sizes or create a new one yourself. By entering values ​​in the Width and Height fields below.
4. Number of pages: Number of pages to create.
5. Primary color mode: The color mode you can choose is RGB tricolor mode or CMYK four color mode.
6. Rendering resolution: The resolution of the drawing can be adjusted as you publish.
7. Review mode: Preview mode.

II. CorelDRAW . main interface

The interface of the CorelDRAW program is similar to other programs including components such as title bar, menu bar, standard toolbar, status bar, etc.

There are also additional properties bar, toolbox, palette, etc. details of the functionality of the components are listed below.

1. Title bar: Displays the title of the drawing.
2. Menu bar: Contains submenus and commands.
3. Standard Toolbar: Contains commonly used commands such as open, save, print, etc.
4. Property Bar: Contains commands related to the currently selected tool and will change according to the tool you are using.
5. Rulers: Horizontal and vertical rulers that you use to define the size and position of objects in the drawing.
6. Toolbox: Contains tools for creating and modifying objects in the drawing.
7. Document Window: A workspace area surrounded by scroll bars including the drawing page and surrounding areas.
8. Drawing Page: It is a rectangle where the objects contained herein will be printed.
9. Color Palette: The palette contains color swatches.
10. Document Navigator: Allows you to add pages to a document or move between pages.
11. Document palette: Contains swatches of the open drawing.
12. Status bar: Displays information about object properties such as type, size, color, etc.

III. Setting and setting parameters for a page

The page properties bar allows you to adjust page settings such as paper size, size, page orientation, spacing units, etc.

To use the page's property bar, press the Space key on the keyboard or select the Picktool tool in the toolbox, in the order of function of each command button as follows:

1. Select the available paper sizes (sizes) such as A0, A1, A2, A3, …
2. Enter the width and height of the page as you like
3. Vertical or horizontal page orientation
4. Apply dimensions to all pages in a drawing
5. Apply size to current page
6. Select the unit of length measurement

You can navigate the pages in the drawing using the navigation bar at the bottom right of the application window, in the order of function of each command button as follows:

1. Go to the first page.
2. Go to previous page.
3. Open the go to page dialog.
4. Go to the next page.
5. Go to the last page.
6. Add new page.
7. Click on any page tab to go to that page.

IV. Shortcut keys and shortcut combinations

In addition to using the mouse to create waterfalls with CorelDRAW, you can use keyboard shortcuts and shortcut combinations to create faster and shorten the time to complete the product. In the beginning you may not know much, but after a while of use, you will certainly know the shortcuts and combinations of these shortcuts listed below.

1. Shortcuts to manipulate files in CorelDRAW

2. Keyboard shortcuts to manipulate EDIT in CorelDRAW

3. Keyboard shortcuts to manipulate VIEW in CorelDRAW

4. Keyboard shortcuts to manipulate Arrange in CorelDRAW

5. Keyboard shortcuts to manipulate Effects in CorelDRAW

6. Keyboard shortcuts to manipulate Text in CorelDRAW

7. Keyboard shortcuts to manipulate Tools in CorelDRAW

8. Help

9. Window

Conclude

OK, so in this tutorial, I have guided you through the overview interface of the CorelDRAW X6 program, and at the same time, I have also summarized the shortcuts commonly used in the CorelDRAW program with you.

I would like to pause my pen here, in the next article I will introduce you to the functions of the tools in the Toolbox toolbox.

Hope the article is useful. See you in the next article.

David Pac

Update 12 July 2021