Can you help me cause i'm too lazy to put a subject!

[KKG]

symbols in Corel 12. It appears that symbols have partially negated the clone tools power. As far as I can see, you can only clone 'effects' now, rather than 'objects'.


I used to use cloning a lot for various geological symbols. The symbol tool appears just as effective except on 2 counts.



1. The lesser inconvenience is now ot being able to 'create bitmap' from within CorelDraw itself. Corel does not recognise the symbols as objects and will not include them. However that can be overcome by 'exporting as bitmap'



2. I have not been able to globally 'find' (find objects that match currently selected object) batches of symbols based on their attributes, as you could with a clone. Again, corel does not recognise a symbol as an object. I realise ofcourse that I can globally change any symbols attributes, however at times I need to separate groups of objects to do 'stuff' with them as far as positions goes.



Breacher pleeeeeaaaassse dont tell me to use layers cos I MUCH prefer not to, due to usually I end up getting quite 'tangled' when I inadvertadly forget to change layers. I have over the years found it far more efficient to group and chuck stuff across my page by 400mm or so, then bring it back when required. I find the advantages of layering far outweigh the disadvantages.



regards kk

Post Edited By Moderator (defjoe) : 11/23/2004 1:34:45 PM GMT

[Broacher]

>>I find the advantages of layering far outweigh the disadvantages.<<

Judging by your preamble, I think maybe you meant that the other way around?

I'm kinda like you in that I don't use layers as much as others do. I attribute most of that due to the fact that Corel's default selection action of 'total boundary inclusion' does away with the need to use layers to separate objects and sets. I mean... compared to AI, where everything the marquee glances gets added to the selection, making layers a necessity to navigate complex drawings.

I haven't been able to play with the new symbol function much--I have to confess that I wondered what they were doing with this because I've always thought of clones (which must go back over a decade, right?) adequate for whatever I wanted to achieve with this kind of thing. My guess is that they're trying to keep up with the Adobe/MM 'Standard' of nomenclature (to avoid one of those dreaded 'does not support' ticks in the feature comparison list-- which never included cloning in the first place!).

I don't have CDraw12 here at work yet as I'm still hobbling along on W98 (next week: the long-awaited upgrade!!!). I have it at home, and I'll try to confirm what you're talking about. The bad news is that I have heard, that while many longtime Corel users are applauding ver. 12, there is a growing realization that yes, some of the good stuff was thrown out with the bath. This might be one of those. I'll see if I can confirm it for you later.

And speaking of selection... have you ever been to the Oberon CorelDraw Scripting gallery? Alex V. has developed some excellent scripts for so many tasks (crop marks, tiling, etc.)-- and there is an improved Find/Replace Fill/Outline type of VBA script there I'm pretty sure, that might interest you.

http://www.oberonplace.com/

[KKG]

fantastic site Broacher (my apologies for the typo in your name previously).....thankyou very much.
Had a quick look, some great goodies in there.

By the way, (and off topic).........I have ordered the new monitor. A LaCie 22' with integrated colour software and a LaCie Blue Eyes 2 colour calibrator. A weighty devil at 67.25lb, but surprisingly smaller in dimensions than my current 21' Samsung. Hoping it goes a good deal further in giving me better calibrations.

[KKG]

and to whom it may concern........my slackness is barely outweighed by my appreciation of a good laugh at myself........VERY FUNNY

[Broacher]

KKG, glad you liked Oberon (I've used CropMarks and BoundaryGuidelines as Macro toolbar buttons for years now).

More good news: clones are NOT dead. They're hiding. Discovered that they are still in v12, only you have to go into Customize to put them back in (I presume you know how to do that?).

It's an interesting debate-- clones vs. symbols. For me, the big advantage of clones is that you don't have to leave the main drawing to edit them. And cloning is just so much faster than creating/maintaining symbols and there library. Now symbols do have some neat features-- like nesting, but I'm not sure when I would really need this. I'm hoping that Corel will add transparency and find/replace to the symbol support in v13. But all in all, I'm just glad that the clone baby wasn't thrown out with the bathwater.

[KKG]

EXCELLENT STUFF Broacher!!!! I never would have looked that deep for the cloning, just assumed they gave it the boot. Sooooo good to have it back too.