It's very difficult to write a review about something that you use all of the time. This is not to slight the other professional graphics programs as they all
have special functions that work better for certain projects than anything else. On the other hand, everyone has a program they consider their "Work Horse." This is the program that they rely on most or keep
going back to in order to make something work right for another program. This is the case with CorelDRAW! 8. No, it is not the perfect program. Yes, there is certainly room for improvement. Just as everyone has a
toolbox at there home, however, Corel DRAW! 8 is what I consider the hammer and screwdriver of every graphic toolbox.Despite that praise at the beginning, let me move immediately to the problems I have with this
latest release. I have owned versions 3 and 5 before getting 8. There are things in 5 I liked better. For example, I don't like how the tool bars are arranged and there is something about the look of the screen that is
too industrial. Yes, you can customize all of those things, but I don't like the idea of having to read through the instructions and spending a bunch of time fixing something that wasn't broken before.
I also really
want to talk to the person who decided how to make inserting graphics in to projects such a hassle. In version 5 there was an extra program, similar to loading the font navigator the comes with 8. It made finding and
inserting the clipart and pictures so much easier. For some reason they switched to the irritating way they use in Corel Print Office where the folders show up down the side. The folders are too small and difficult to
work with.
I also would like to see more presets and other enhancements to the tools that are already in the program rather than trying to make the product all things to all people by adding the Java and other web
page tools. Write a separate program for making web pages just like Ventura which Corel has for publishing long documents, newsletters and such.
My day job entails doing the news for several radio stations. I was at a
seminar several years ago and the speaker said, "Remember, you don't win by removing the negatives, you win by giving people a reason to listen." Those words of wisdom have been applied by Corel. Although
there are the shortcomings that I listed above, 8 would not be the workhorse it is without greatly overcoming those negatives.
First of all, I haven't found a program that so smoothly loads almost any graphic or
picture. Sometimes people will e-mail me things or I will save things in another program without the proper .tif, .wmf, .eps, etc. on it. Corel will always load it. Then after you have used the super array of tools, you
can save and export to virtually any format you will ever need. That may seem like pretty elementary stuff, but when your Mac buddy or friend, who doesn't have Corel 8, needs a file made to work on their machine; it's
nice to not have to worry whether or not you can format it properly for them.
Other nice elements that Corel carried through to this version of Draw! are the incredible clipart and font collections. As I said earlier,
there are some programs that have special tricks and functions that Corel doesn't have, but no other program comes with the fonts and clipart that Draw! does and that adds a lot of value to the product. In addition, the
fonts are not some generically renamed versions of the real fonts. In cases where possible, they have licensed the real Truetype and Type 1 fonts and they even list the other names of a font which makes it easy to make
sure you are using the right one. They also included the Bitstream Font Navigator so you don't have to install all of the over 1000 fonts that would greatly bog down your system. If you have a set of 25 of your favorite
fonts, you can set up folders and just install that folder and then switch back to the one you were using before.
Besides being hard to locate and insert, the clipart is second to none. This is not the stuff that is
OK for your club newsletter or greeting cards your kids might make. There are thousands of pieces of clipart and photos that are on the professional level of books you buy at the store. They have also included buttons,
bars and lots of other artwork to add a professional look to your Web page. The full-color book of fonts and graphics has lots of wear on the cover and corners from all of my flipping through.
