Corel Font Size/Location question

[Scott Shepherd]

Okay, I'm totally baffled by something quite simple in CorelDraw V12.

I have a thin strip that I'm drawing that has text in it. The text needs to be centered top to bottom and a specific height as well.

I'm totally lost on how to generate a .500" tall letter. I can easily make a text box that's .500" high, but can't seem to figure out how to specify a decimal dimension for the height of the actual letter.

That's question one.

Question 2 is similar, on the location, from the edge, how do I get it exactly, say, 2.125" from the left hand edge, other than eyeballing it on the ruler on the screen?

Question 3 (and last for this topic), is a problem I ran into with the text. I drew a text box, put the text in, and then aligned it all top to bottom. The text box itself is centered, but the text is stuck up at the top of the text box.

I'm clearly doing something the hard, or wrong way.

Any advice?

I really appreciate the help. It's T-17 hours and counting until the laser arrives!

[David Friedman]

Scott:

First of all, stop dragging a window for your text. Just click (and release) where you want to start your text, and begin typing the desired text. The difference between these two methods is that dragging a window will create "paragraph text" and clicking will create "artistic text". Using only artistic text for your artwork will eliminate most of the problems that you are experiencing.

For the size and location, highlight the text with the pick tool and notice the boxes just under the menu also become highlighted. The boxes labeled X and Y are the location of the centerpoint of your text (you can see a little 'x' in the middlle of your highlighted text) and you can enter values here to control the position of the text. The boxes immediately to the right of the position boxes are the length and height of the text. You can control the size of the text with these values. You may need to lock or unlock the "nonproportional scaling" switch (just a little more to the right on the screen) to control the length and height individually or together, as you desire.

Again, paragraph text has advantages when you are doing a newspaper or newsletter type document, but artistic text is the way to go for almost everything else.

[Rick Hutcheson]

I just tried it in version 9, 12, and X3. In 9 and X3 the text gives the size options. In ver 12 the only way I can get the size box to show up is after I convert the text to curves. Anyway size the text as stated above from there.

Then to set it from the left. You would have your box made you want to put the text into. Marque select the box and the text. Type on the keyboard " L ( not a capital just did that to make the "l " look like an L)" "e ". The L will put the text to the left side of the box, the e will center the elevation of the text. Now with the transformation tool move the text over the 2.125 inches you wanted it set over from the left.

[Scott Shepherd]

Super! I'm heading to the office in a few minutes, armed with my newfound understanding of it all thanks to you two.

In reading it, it makes perfect sense. I'll give it a shot in the next hour or two.

Thanks so much, you've been very helpful and saved me countless hours of "fiddling" around with it.

Have a great day!
Scott

[Mitchell Andrus]

Buy "CorelDraw X3 Unleashed", the CD version. For a newbie at Corel, it was the best 50 bucks I could have spent, in spite of 10 years with Paint Shop Pro. The demo videos alone are worth it.

http://www.unleash.com/coreldrawx3unleashed/index.asp

[Mike Null]

You might also find guidelines to be helpful in positioning. When you highlight a guideline you can move it to any setting you want using the x and y positioning boxes. You can also set them at any angle you want.

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks for the information on the Corel training information. I'll certainly be looking into getting a copy of that shortly.

I did watch the guy today and after reading your posts and watching him, I'm about 1000% better off than I was yesterday. I have a MUCH better understanding now. I've used various programs over the years, spent many years programming CNC machines, etc, and there always seems to be the same process :

1) Nothing makes sense
2) You try and figure it out based on previous experience
3) You think things make some sense
4) You realize nothing makes sense again and everything you thought was right was wrong.
5) You finally get an understanding of what it's looking for or needs and the nomenclature of that particular package.
6) The light bulb comes on.

Today was a light bulb moment.

Text instead of text boxes (never dealt with that issue before), and finding out the needed dialog boxes for all the important dimensions were turned off (put that toolbar on), and then the guidelines and setting a new zero (never seen guidelines, and couldn't figure out how to reset zero).

Now, with those things in my head, I was rolling right along, engraving rotary items, making fixtures, etc.

Thanks guys. If this were a bar, I'd be buying you all a round.

Thanks-
Scott

[Rick Hutcheson]

Scott I have some video clips on my web site about using Corel. They might help you in understanding a lot of the things it can do with it. They were made for version 9 but the same tools are still there in the newer versions.

[Dave Jones]

If you won't need to edit what the text says, then after placing it convert it to curves. That gets rid of the extra space around the text that the font spacing includes, and leaves you with just the letters. The height of that is then the actual height and easy to adjust.

[Mike Null]

Scott:

The Epilog web site has some very useful tutorials that will quickly show you how to use some of the many "tools" that come with Corel.

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks guys, I've just about got my arms around it now. Don't seem to be looking for things any more, nor do I seem to be saying "Well, there's GOT to be a way" any more. Just needed a little push over the top and you guys did it.

I still have a lot to learn, but I'm able to do things in minutes now instead of measuring my progress in hours.


Thanks again-

[Brian Robison]

Rick, thanks for the videos on using Corel! I've been a student of yours all day. I may have to send you an apple!