Export For Office cannot export multiple pages; it only works with the page you have active at the time you opened the dialog. If you have a multi-page document that you want to export, you’ll need to do this page by page. And unlike with the Export dialog, there is no Selected Only check box; however, you can, indeed, export a selected object only. In the Export For Office process, if you have any object(s) selected before you open the dialog, only the objects you had selected appear in the preview window. On the other hand, if you have nothing selected, everything you have on the page and partially on the page is what is saved by the Export For Office process. The gray checkerboard background to the preview area corresponds to areas of transparency. Vector objects and text have no background, but any bitmaps you created from vector objects will have a white background around them unless you explicitly checked the Transparent Background check box in the Convert To Bitmap dialog when converting the object for export. Bitmaps you imported into your original document that contained transparent backgrounds will retain the transparent areas. The drop-down lists at the top of the dialog are where you make some preparations for the intended use of the exported graphic. To make good choices here, you really need to know what your customer is likely to do with the file. First, you need to know which Office suite they will be using the graphics file with: Corel’s or Microsoft’s. The answer to this question determines which file format you choose in the Export To drop-down list. Also, ask yourself (and your coworker receiving the file): Will you edit this file using the Office suite’s tools, or will you just place it in their document as finished work? You also should know what the final destination for their document will be: an onscreen presentation or on the Web, printing to a low-resolution desktop printer or to a professional, commercial printer. If your customer is using Corel WordPerfect Office, choose that in the Export To drop- down list, and all other options gray out. Your exported file will be saved as a WordPerfect Graphics (WPG) file. The Estimated File Size of the saved WPG file appears at the bottom of the dialog. Click OK and the now-familiar Save As dialog appears with Corel WordPerfect Graphic already selected in the Save As Type drop-down. Navigate to where you want to save your file, give it a name in the File Name field, click Save, and you are done. If your customer uses Microsoft Office, choose that in the Export To drop-down. Next, choose either Compatibility or Editing in the Graphic Should Be Best Suited For drop-down. If you choose Compatibility, your exported file will be saved as a bitmap in the PNG file format. As a bitmap your graphic will look just like you see it onscreen, but it can no longer be edited using vector tools. If you choose Editing, the file will be saved in the Extended Metafile Format (EMF), which can retain some (but not all) vector information and some CorelDRAW effects. EMF files can be easily edited in Microsoft Office, but fancy effects such as Distort may not travel well or at all, so you will want to open the document yourself in Microsoft Office to see how it looks. As a measure to ensure that the export looks like the original does in CorelDRAW, 84 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide you can make a copy of the graphic, particularly if it has dynamic effects such as envelopes or extrude. Then use Arrange | Break Apart and similar commands on the Arrange menu to “genericize” the vector information, adding to the saved file size, but also adding to your chances that an elegant graphic displays in a Word document as you intend it to. If you choose Compatibility, which will save your work as a bitmap, the Optimized For drop-down needs your attention. If you choose Editing, the Optimized For drop-down will be grayed out. Here your choices are Presentation, which basically means it will be displayed on a monitor and not printed, or one of the two print options on the list—Desktop Printing or Commercial Printing. The PNG format bitmap file saved with the Presentation setting saves at 96 dpi; the Desktop Printing setting saves at 150 dpi; and Commercial Printing saves at 300 dpi. As you make your choices, you will notice that the Estimated File Size changes. As when you selected WordPerfect Office as your export option, click OK to open the Save As dialog where the file type is already selected in the Save As Type drop-down. Navigate to where you want to save your file, give it a name in the File Name field, click Save, deliver the goods, and ask for a (large) check! Saving, importing, and exporting might not be as exciting as the headlines on supermarket tabloids, but they’re essential skills that are a prerequisite to reaping your rewards as a CorelDRAW designer. Compare it to the ennui of learning how to use a knife and fork— they’re essential to being able to savor the meal that comes after learning Silverware 101! If you’ve read Chapter 2, you now know where a lot of the Good Stuff is in CorelDRAW’s interface, and how to save anything you’ve created using the Good Stuff. Now it’s time to get a handle on navigating this interface in Chapter 4. You know how to bring stuff in and copy stuff out of CorelDRAW; it’d be nice if you first had the best view of these objects, on layers and on multiple pages you’re soon going to be cranking out. CHAPTER 3: CorelDRAW’s Ins and Outs: Importing, Exporting, and Saving Design Work 85 3 This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 4 Navigation and Page Setup 87 A rtists who have embraced digital media enjoy not only new tools, but also new ways to look at our artwork. Because your CorelDRAW designs can be extremely large, intricate, and composed on several different layers, now’s the time to discover the ways you can look at your work. This chapter covers the different ways you can view dimensions of the drawing page and the level of detail displayed on your screen as you preview and work. You’ll work smarter and more efficiently—regardless of your skill level—when you understand how wide, tall, and deep your drawings can be, and how to view the details you need at any given second. Learning the ins and outs of CorelDRAW document navigation might just be your ticket to better artwork in less time! Download and extract all the files from the Chapter04.zip archive to follow the tutorials in this chapter. Setting View Mode Because the type of artwork you usually design in CorelDRAW is vector artwork, the objects you create need to be written to screen from moment to moment: the process is called rasterizing. With today’s video cards and computer processors, the response time between changing an element in a file and seeing the change can usually be measured in a fraction of a second. CorelDRAW has always supported different levels of detail with which you view your CorelDRAW work. They’re accessed through the View menu, and these view modes can help you find an object and draw an object when your design becomes intricate and the page gets cluttered. View modes are used to specify how your drawing appears onscreen. Modes offer feedback as to how a design will print or export, and lower-quality view modes can help you locate an object hidden by other objects. You switch between view modes by using the View menu and through keyboard shortcuts. The View menu itself indicates the current view using a button indicator to the left of each menu item. You have the option of choosing from one of six display qualities: Simple Wireframe, Wireframe, Draft, Normal, Enhanced, and Pixels. The default mode is Enhanced, and this is the best proofing quality for working and displaying your work to others. Additionally, you can check or uncheck Simulate Overprints and Rasterize Complex Effects when viewing in Enhanced mode. The following section explains how these display modes render to screen paths and objects that have different fills and effects. Here you can see the list of View commands: Ill 4-1 88 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Viewing quality modes Button indicator Wireframe and Simple Wireframe The views listed make a top-to-bottom progression from low to high detail. At the top, Simple Wireframe and Wireframe provide the least detail and refresh onscreen almost immediately when you make edits or change the zoom level of your document. In Simple Wireframe viewing mode, all you see is the silhouette of vector objects: a thin black outline with no fill. This is a very useful view mode for locating a shape on the page when you don’t have the time to perform a search in CorelDRAW (covered in Chapter 14). Simple Wireframe mode provides no view of object fills, but it does reveal the structure of effects objects such as extrudes and blends. Figure 4-1 is a visual comparison of Simple Wireframe, Wireframe, Pixels view, and the default viewing mode in CorelDRAW, Enhanced. Clearly, you’re not going to apply fills to objects in Wireframe mode while you work; however, these different modes indeed provide user information about objects you don’t usually see, and you can edit paths, copy objects, and perform most other necessary design tasks in any of these view modes. Getting a Draft View Draft view is the middle-ground of view quality between Wireframe and Enhanced modes. In Draft viewing mode, the objects in your drawing are rendered with color fills, but only Uniform fills are displayed with any accuracy. Outline properties such as dashed lines, width, CHAPTER 4: Navigation and Page Setup 89 4 FIGURE 4-1 View modes can help you see the structure of complex objects and provide you with “unseen” clues where editing might be desired. Wireframe Simple Wireframe Pixels Enhanced (default view) and color are displayed. The two greatest visual differences between Draft and Enhanced views are that there is no anti-aliasing in Draft mode (so object edges look harsh and jaggy), and bitmaps and Fountain fills do not display as you’d expect them to. Figure 4-2 shows a Fountain fill, a Bitmap fill, and a PostScript fill viewed in (the default) Enhanced view at the top and then at bottom in Draft mode. There is a subtle visual indication that you can use to tell the difference between a Bitmap fill and a Fountain fill in this mode, but it’s hardly worth the challenge. Draft mode is best used to evaluate basic color schemes in a vector drawing and for quickly navigating incredibly dense and complex illustrations such as CAD architecture designs and a single page containing 45,000 Extrude effect objects. Using Normal View Normal view displays all object properties—Bitmap fills, Fountain fills, and PostScript fills— correctly, unlike Draft and Wireframe views. The only difference between Enhanced and Normal view modes is that Normal mode does not anti-alias the edges of objects. Anti-aliasing is part of the rasterization process because visual data is written to the screen that creates a smooth transition, whereas image areas have very different colors and brightness. This is usually done by adding pixels to the color edge of an object whose color is a blend between the neighboring, contrasting areas. The effect of anti-aliasing is particularly evident along edges of objects that travel diagonally across the page, and in curved areas such as circles and ellipses. Without anti-aliasing, the Normal view might remind you of Microsoft Paint back in 1991, when the best monitor you could buy was a VGA and you ran Windows 3.x. 90 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 4-2 Draft view provides Uniform color fill views and outline colors, but not more elaborate object fills. Fountain fill Bitmap fill PostScript fill Enhanced view Draft view Normal view mode will appeal to users whose video card doesn’t have a lot of RAM, and to artists who create thousands of objects on a page. Screen refreshes are quicker, and if you don’t mind the stair-steppy edges of aliased object edges, you can pick up some speed using Normal mode. Bitmaps—whether they’re imported photos or bitmap fills you define using the Interactive fill tool—do not change their screen appearance if you switch from Normal to Enhanced view mode. Bitmaps do not update or refresh in CorelDRAW because the pixel color definitions are set within the image or fill. Using Enhanced View When you use Enhanced view, all vector objects (text is a vector object, too) are anti-aliased around the edges. It’s your best view of your work and is the default setting in CorelDRAW. Previewing with Pixels View New to version X5 is a view option that displays both vector and bitmap data onscreen as though the objects all were constructed from pixels. Pixels view quality depends on the resolution of your document, another new X5 feature. When you open a new document, you’re presented with the Create A New Document screen; there, you set the Rendering Resolution—the factory default setting is 300 dpi (dots, or pixels, per inch). As an example, suppose you’re creating a web graphic. Because CorelDRAW artwork is vector- and resolution-independent in nature, you can’t truly preview what a bitmap version of your vector design will look like on the Web, because every zoom level you choose displays the vector graphic smoothly using Enhanced view. The previewing solution is simple—before you draw, set up your document to 96 dpi in the Create A New Document box, and then use Pixels view mode to preview your artwork before delivering it and getting paid handsomely for it. The higher the resolution of the document, the smoother that Pixels view displays your artwork. To change the resolution of a document, double-click the gray page border to bring up the Page Size tab in Options. Change the Rendering Resolution to suit your current need, and go to town. Simulate Overprints Simulate Overprints is a print production preview mode. Overprinting is part of the standard commercial printing process used to simulate how colors actually will print to a physical page and also is used to check for any gaps between printed objects due to any printing registration problems. If you have no need for commercial printing, Simulate Overprints will CHAPTER 4: Navigation and Page Setup 91 4 be a seldom-used view. However, if you use CorelDRAW for physical commercial output, bear in mind two things: ● You need to check in with Window | Dockers | Color Proof Settings and to ensure that your intended output device is chosen from the Simulate Environment list (shown next). If you don’t find the printing press of your choice, contact the commercial printer and request the drivers or ICM profile they use. By default, SWOP is the color space when proofing, and chances are good that the simulation of a CMYK color space will display colors as accurately as any monitor can. ● “Simulation” means exactly that. It is physically impossible to proof physical pigments rendered to a physical surface with total accuracy by using a monitor that displays virtual artwork. However, CorelDRAW’s color simulation of real-world color output is excellent, and “close” is far better than “none” when it comes to proofing printed material on your screen. Ill 4-2 92 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide To quickly switch between your current view mode and the last-used view mode, press SHIFT+F9. Zooming and Panning Pages There are at least two meanings in CorelDRAW for the term view, and the previous sections have covered only one of them: view quality, the level of detail with which you see your work. Zooming—increasing and decreasing the resolution of a page—and panning (sliding your view without zooming, similar to using the scroll bars on the edge of a document window) are the topics of the sections to follow. In the real world, evaluating the progress of a design from different perspectives is a chore when compared to CorelDRAW’s workspace: you back into a ladder in your artist’s loft, you can’t find your favorite magnifying glass, and you wear the carpet thin moving toward and away from your canvas! One way to work faster (and usually smarter) is through a digital design program such as CorelDRAW. Another good way is to master all the features for zooming your view, covered next. Using the Zoom Tool and Property Bar The Zoom tool is in the fourth group of tools from the top on the toolbox and is marked by its magnifying glass icon. If you see a hand icon and not the magnifying glass, click-hold on the icon to reveal the group. The tool is used to zoom in and zoom out of a page. Ill 4-3 When you’ve chosen the Zoom tool, the property bar displays buttons plus a drop-down list that provides just about every common degree of magnification you could ask for, as shown in Figure 4-3. You therefore have at least two methods for page navigation when you select the Zoom tool: clicking with the tool in the document workspace, and choosing degrees of magnification from the property bar (not including click or click-drag actions with the cursor). CHAPTER 4: Navigation and Page Setup 93 4 . does in CorelDRAW, 84 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide you can make a copy of the graphic, particularly if it has dynamic effects such as envelopes or extrude. Then use Arrange | Break Apart and. list of View commands: Ill 4-1 88 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Viewing quality modes Button indicator Wireframe and Simple Wireframe The views listed make a top-to-bottom progression from low. However, CorelDRAW s color simulation of real-world color output is excellent, and “close” is far better than “none” when it comes to proofing printed material on your screen. Ill 4-2 92 CorelDRAW X5