The Toolbox - Curve Category

Hi again.

This time I'll explain more detail about the toolbox. As I stated before, toolbox serves as a means to create, manage and modify objects. Toolbox can be said as a main component that can be utilized to create designs. On toolbox there are various kinds of tools which can be categorized according to their unique functionality. They are, for example, curve-category tools, shape-category tools, dimension-category tools and so on. I will start with curve-category tools.

CURVE CATEGORY
Curve-category tools consists of tools to draw line and curve. You can also use Artistic Media tool to create a spray object, arabic-style line, or brush line.

1. Freehand Tool
Freehand tool is used to draw a free-line, or to shape object without boundaries (read: rules). The steps to use freehand tool are as follows:
a. Click on Freehand tool or press F5

b. Then do the following steps:

• To draw a straight line, click on any random point then move your mouse-pointer to another random point, and give another click.  
• To draw a free line, press and hold your mouse button at the starting point and move your mouse-pointer to wherever you like to shape the line.

• Meanwhile to close a free line, left-click on one tipping-point (node) of a free line and move your mouse to another tipping-point (node) and give another click.

2.Draw with Bezier
A little bit different with Freehand tool, Bezier is a tool to make both straigth and curve line. This tool also has its unique characteristic in which you must determine the next tipping-point to draw a line instead of drawing the line from the beginning..To use bezier tool do the following steps:

• Click Bezier tool

• To draw straight line, left-click on one random point then left-click on another random point to create a line. If you give subsequent left-click on another random point, the line will continues. To end the drawing process, simply click pick tool on the toolbox or press Enter.
• To draw a curve line, left-click on first random point then press and hold your mouse-button immediately at the second/other random point. The next step is to move your mouse-pointer to the opposite direction to where you want the curve line take shape and give another click.

• You can also draw a combination of straight and curve line.

3. Draw with Artistic Media
Artistic Media is a tool which distinctly unique compared to other tools on curve category in which it provides you with many interesting effects, and allows you to draw more than a common line. It produces a line with artistic flavor rather than a simple one. To use artistic media, do the following steps:

• Press and hold artistic media tool or press I.
• Move the brush freely to draw an object:

• There are five tipes of artistic media tool you can utilize. To switch between them, highlight the property bar and choose one of the tools below:
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • preset tool, to draw a ribbon-like closed-line
  • brush tool, to draw a brush line with various color and shape
  • sprayer tool, to draw a sprayed objects
  •   calligraphic tool, to draw an arabic-style or caligraphic letter
  •   pressure tool, do draw a trapezoid-like closed line

• Finally, you can adjust the shape and size of an artistic object on the property bar, by changing its value or simply choosing another variance:

Below are some example of artistic media variances:

 

 

4. Pen
Pen's utillity is akin to that of Bezier. The difference is that pen will provides you with a "visible" line as you move your mouse pointer acrross the worksheet. To use pen, do the following steps:

• Click pen tool   
• To draw a straight line, click on one random point then move your mouse-pointer to another random point and give another click. 
• To draw a curve line, click on one random point and move your mouse pointer to the second random point. While at the second random point, give another press and hold your mouse  button simultaneously, then begin shaping the curve line

To end the drawing process, press Enter.

5. Polyline
Polyline is very similar to Pen tool, at first you may find no difference between the two. Yet the difference will emerge when you draw a curve line. To use polyline tool, do the following steps:

• Click polyline tool  
• To draw a straight line, click on one random point and move your mouse pointer to another random point then give another click. 
• To draw a curve line, press and hold your mouse button then move the mouse pointer as freely as you want and try to shape a curve line.
• You can also combine between straight and free line.
• To end the drawing process, press Enter.

IMO, there is a downside of polyline tool compared to pen tool in which you can't undo the drawing process by pressing Ctrl + Z.

6. 3-Point Curve
3-Point Curve is a tool used to draw a curve line with 3-steps drawing process. To use 3-point curve:

• Click 3-Point Curve tool  
• To start drawing an object, press and hold your mouse-button at one random point and move the mouse pointer to another random point then release the mouse-button (these two points/coordinates act as the basis of the curve line). Next step is to move your mouse-pointer to the direction where you want the curve line take shape and give another click.
• Finish

Parts of The CorelDRAW Worksheet

In this second part of the introduction, I will try to elaborate the parts of CorelDRAW worksheet. It consists of Menu Bar, Tool Bar, Property Bar, Ruler, Page Navigator, Palet Color, and Toolbox.

I will explain them according to that previous order:

1. Menu Bar

Menu Bar is a line of menus which encapsulates commands/instructions to adjust worksheet appearance dan modify objects. For example: to put-on or hide grid, ruler, guidelines or give effects to an object and so on. Inside the main menu there are submenus, and in the submenu there are another subsequent submenus. To activate Menu Bar do the following step:

1.  Highlight and click on the menu-name (using mouse) or,

2. Press Alt button on the keyboard, followed by pressing the first letter of the menu-name. For example, if you want to open the Edit menu the you have to press Alt+E. If the main menu consists of submenus, you just have to do the same way. For example, to open the Edit menu > Select All > Text, you have to press Alt + E > A > T.

2. Tool Bar

Tool bar is a set of iconic tools which functions are related to managing documents and pages. Some of the tools on the tool bar are:
a. New ,to create a new document
b. Copy, to multiply an object
c. Import, to import an object

d. , Snap to, to snap object against page

and so on...

3. Property Bar
Property Bar is an auxiliary tool to object processing mechanism. Its appearance will also changed according to which tool you are using. For example, if you try to make a star object then the program will pop-up a distinct Star Property Bar like the example below:

4. Ruler
Ruler can help you to position object with precise. You can make appear or hide horizontal or vertical Ruler through View menu > Ruler.

icon is meant to show you that Ruler is in active position or currently in use. By default, the coordinate (0,0) of the Ruler laid in the left-most bottom of the worksheet.

5. Page Navigator

Page navigator serves to add, delete or rename a document, and so does to change the orientation of worksheet whether vertically or horizonally.

The button on the left and right side of page navigator serves to add one worksheet to the left or to the right of current active worksheet. Meanwhile the box is meant to show you that you are now on the first page of the whole one document.

The left-arrow button serves to shift worksheet to the first one while the right arrow button is to shift worksheet to the last one. These two arrows will active when you have more than two sheets.

 

On the other hand, the button serves to shift one step to the left of current worksheet and the would serve the other way.

You can also add a worksheet or page by right clicking on one of a page you're working on, so as to display these 2 commands:

• Click Insert Page After to slip in new worksheet on the right side of current active worksheet
• Otherwise clik Insert Page Before to slip in new worksheet on the left side of current active worksheet

6. Color Pallete

Color Pallete is located on the right side of worksheet. This feature embodies many color that you can use to paint objects. CorelDRAW has many different color system, like CMYK and RGB. To use this feature, pick an object then click your color of choice on the collor pallete. Conversely, press cross button to erase color from objects. You can also look for another color by pressing down button or up button . Meanwhile, to display all the colors available, click button. 

           

7. Toolbox
Toolbox is a group of buttons which is used to create and modify objects. Naturally, the toolbox reside on the left side of worksheet. Using this feature, you can do an object modifying process like changing shape, distorting and painting objects, giving effect to objects and so on.

Furthermore, there are some buttons which have a flyout button, marked with a tiny arrow on their right-bottom corner, meaning that they have derivative buttons. To display the derivatives, click and hold the main button for a moment: