Corel X8 Thoughts

[John Bion]

Does anyone see anything particularly revolutionary in CorelDraw X8?
The Font filter looks useful.

[Brian Leavitt]

I have it, but so far I can't use it. Every time I attempt to open a file which was created in a previous version, the program locks up. I can create a file in X8, save it, and re-open it just fine, but opening "older" files doesn't work for me.

I do like being able to change the color scheme to "dark", which is what I prefer. Also, the new "Corel Font Manager" is better than using Bitstream to manage fonts, in my opinion. Other than that, there's not much new which is of any use to me.

I always get the new versions of Corel when they come out - mainly to be able to open newer Illustrator files, which is what most of my customers send for logos.

[John Bion]

I am having no problems (so far....) with opening previous files, but I do wish they would not change the “look” of icons just for the sake of it. Fonts system is a plus for me. It is a pity that it does not update with all your previous settings/preferences/macros etc “in tow” instead of having to re-do them.

[Brian Leavitt]

It is a pity that it does not update with all your previous settings/preferences/macros etc “in tow” instead of having to re-do them.
Agreed. I have to spend a half hour redoing everything every time I upgrade. I did get a file to open, but it took 5 minutes to load. I'm trying to open another file now. So far it's been "opening" for 23 minutes... I think I'm going to wipe the program out and re-install.

[David Somers]

John,

Just my personal take on a new version like this. Don't be on the bleeding edge. Let others find the problems and get them fixed before committing to it.

Hope all is well with you!!!!!

Dave

[John Bion]

HI Dave, Thanks for those words of wisdom. I usually follow just that plan, but for some reason I jumped right in this time ...... although I must say that it seems fine so far :) I still have the X7 to fall back on if there is a problem.

All well here, thanks.

Kind Regards, John

[John Bion]

Ok, opened X8 up this morning, and there are a few problems:

1) It thinks I am opening it up for the first time (wanting to give me a “tour” & there is no box to check to stop this happening again at start-up)
2) It has forgotten most of the dockers etc that I had set up
3) It has forgotten my “recent files”.
4) It was taking ages even to bring up the menu to select a file to open

Not the best start. Dave Somers was right on this one (his comment above) :) :(

John

[Keith Winter]

1 is weird, however 2 and 3 happen with most new software versions, regardless of the software. New software typically installs into a new directory or a new sub directory under the old so it loose the dockers etc that you setup and and the most recent files. That's pretty normal. You might be able to reimport macros or other things that you had setup on the old version.

[John Bion]

Hi Keith, The problem here (3), which hopefully will not be the case tomorrow (vain thought), is that I set it all up yesterday with my dockers etc but it was back to square one this morning, as if it is a brand new install (as I think you were describing). I guess a bug Corel needs to clear up.
Kind Regards, John

[Nicolas Silva]

My X5 stopped working inexplicably with release of X8. Corel wouldn't help since it is 'obsolete'. So I was forced to purchase to upgrade
to X8. so far I don't see anything different about it.

[Mike Null]

Nicolas

I don't understand your statement. I don't believe one thing had anything to do with the other. Mine is working as it always has.

BTW, way back it was said that odd numbered versions of Corel were always superior. I could never prove or disprove that but I have used odd versions since 11. I am a big fan of Corel as it has served me well for nearly 20 years.

[David Somers]

John,

Regarding your problem with their welcome video firing up every time you load Corel.
I don't have Corel 8, but in 7 that is controlled in the Tools menu, under options, then workspace, then general, then set "On Corel Startup" to "nothing" in the pull down box. Or to one of the other options listed there. Then hit OK at the bottom of the dialogue box.
Like Keith said, I would expect problems 2 and 3 with a new version that isnt actually upgrading the old version. It is essentially a new install. If you have any plugins in X7 I expect you will need to acknowledge those in X8 as well before they are recognized.

The issue with slow loading of folders will probably resolve after the software has run a bit. Not sure if Corel uses the Windows folder system fully or if it creates its own catalogue of acceptable files. If the latter is true then it will take some time to go through all the files on the disk locating what is compatible and indexing it. After that it will speed up considerably. I think.......maybe??? <grin>

[Keith Winter]

Hi Keith, The problem here (3), which hopefully will not be the case tomorrow (vain thought), is that I set it all up yesterday with my dockers etc but it was back to square one this morning, as if it is a brand new install (as I think you were describing). I guess a bug Corel needs to clear up.
Kind Regards, John

Ahh! Now that is an issue!

[Lee DeRaud]

I wonder if Corel has gone to the Microsoft forced-update model, and the usual new-release bug-smashing is causing some of the delays and lost settings people are seeing.

Since I only upgraded to X7 (from X4) about four months ago, I have to admit the schadenfreude is kicking in pretty heavy about now...

[Brian Leavitt]

I've figured out that my problem with opening files has to do with the "Corel Font Service". This service crashes non-stop, every time I open a Corel X8 program. If I restart the service while trying to load the file, the file will actually open. Then the Font Service crashes again. I created a .DMP file and sent it Corel Support. Hopefully they will have some insight into how to fix the problem. I've already tried to re-install the program and reset it to factory defaults, but no dice.

[John Bion]

Positive feedback: All opened spot on this morning, opened “normally” without the un-welcome scream, remembered recent files, dockers etc all correct. I have not had the font issues that Brian has had.

Lee, this version does seem to have been made with Win 10 in mind, perhaps not much else. I would not update to X8 from X6 or X7 if I had to pay extra for it and did not need it to keep up with clients. I am quite happy with X8 right now, but I was trapped into a CorelDraw subscription a while ago, so this has not “cost” me like it would paying cash for a new version as normal. :)

Kind regards, John

[Nicolas Silva]

forced to upgrade from X5 to X8 and I have to say there are things that I don't like.
Closing a drawing changed because they removed the closed button [X] from the drawing window. I keep hitting the [x] at the top but that closes
the program. I use a custom page and set the rulers up in the customization page but it doesn't save it. New drawing, default rulers.
When fitting text to a bottom curve, the letters overlap and jumbo up unless i set the spacing between letters to 60% or more. It use to work at 0% although I
usually set it to 30% so it wouldn't be crowded. I'm sure there are other bugs but these are the ones I run into on a daily basis.

[Lee DeRaud]

Closing a drawing changed because they removed the closed button [X] from the drawing window. I keep hitting the [x] at the top but that closes
the program. I use a custom page and set the rulers up in the customization page but it doesn't save it. New drawing, default rulers.I've noticed both those things in X7, for all I know they occurred in X6 as well. The lack of a document-level 'close' button is indeed annoying, although I suppose I can add one to the default toolbar if I get burned by it often enough..

You can set the custom page configuration as default, but if that causes other problems, I believe you can specify your custom page layout in the 'new document' popup dialog. (Unless of course you inhibited that dialog in your workspace settings...)

[Brian Leavitt]

Do you guys not have the tabs at the top? I just click on the "X" in a particular file's tab to close it.

[Bert Kemp]

Can't you just hit close file under file or am I not understanding what you want to do?

[Lee DeRaud]

Do you guys not have the tabs at the top? I just click on the "X" in a particular file's tab to close it.Ah, got it...not yet used to using tabs in CD.

And unlike IE, the 'x' ('Close') icons on the tabs don't appear unless the cursor is directly over the tab.
[EDIT]At least on my Win7 machine, may be a color-scheme thing.

[Lee DeRaud]

Can't you just hit close file under file or am I not understanding what you want to do?That's what I've been doing, but the move-click-move-click is a lot less intuitive than the (previous) move-click on the document-close 'X'.

As Brian pointed out, they moved those to the tabs, but they're not visible until you go looking for them.

[Brian Leavitt]

I finally got X8 working correctly, but it hasn't been easy and I don't know how long it will last. I'm still pretty much only using X7 for now.

I found a couple of fonts in my uninstalled fonts folder which were corrupted and that appeared to be what was freaking out Font Manager, and subsequently crashing Corel Font Service over and over.

[Gary Hair]

I just installed X8 and so far so good. It opens all my old files fine and actually seems a bit faster than X6. I have done nothing more than to setup the defaults but that all went exactly as it did in X6. If you have troubles with defaults and the program not "remembering" them, you have to go through either "tools-options" or "tools-customization" and make whatever changes you want to make - then you MUST click on "Save Settings As Default" or they will not stick! It's best to start Corel in a new drawing, make the changes, save as defaults, then close Corel without saving a drawing. The next time you go back into Corel the changes you made *should* still be there. In my experience not everything will stay, not sure why, but mostly everything does.

[Nicolas Silva]

Can't you just hit close file under file or am I not understanding what you want to do?
of course, but when you're moving between dozens of drawings per hour it is just less of a pain to simply click the close button - which
btw I thought was an agreed standard from way back in the day when windows was created.