Does anyone else HATE Corel 12?

[neato]

It is the most unstable program I have ever worked on. It is crashing constantly, and when I go through the steps in the Corel A.R.M, it never works. I was just working on a file, it crashed, I tried to save the file, and completely lost it.

Arrghhh! I'm about ready to go back to ver. 9. This is terrible.

 

[xtremegraphics]

I don't have any of those issues ,everything seems to work fine, it may be you computer not corel thats giving trouble, are you running any anti virus sortware in the back ground. Try turning it off, if you are..

 

[timmay]

What operating system are you using? How much memory and available hard disk space do you have?

 

[neato]

This is a brand new dell. Windows XP, 80 gig drive, 1 gig RAM. But it's not just this computer, it's also the one I have at home. Same issues. It's a constant fight. I have to save my file every move I make just to be sure. Even then, it often crashes during a save.

 

[Colin]

Mine is solid as a rock. Never had it crash. There's something else going on there.

 

[timmay]

How about spyware/adware? Have you scanned for that? That's one of the first things I do when a user is complaining of an application crashing constantly - but usually that affects the entire PC - not just one app.

 

[PureSportsDesigns]

We use Corel 12 daily on two machines. I never shut them down. There have been times that the program is open for months at a time. Have you installed updates? Maybe it is a Fen Shui problem, try moving your computer to the other side of the room. :Big Laugh

 

[signage]

I also use it and do not have any problems! Must be something in your configuration or your computers.

 

[neato]

Could it be font overload? I realized I have 2000 fonts installed. I'm deleting every one that I don't use right now.

 

[Bobby H]

CorelDRAW 12 is a pig.

I have seen and duplicated at will those irritating Corel A.R.M. issues on a variety of Windows 2000 and XP-based machines. Considering the number of machines I have tried, I really have to wonder about claims from others stating, "My Corel 12 installation is rock solid."

One way I'm always able to make CorelDRAW 12 fail is by simply nudging objects around using the arrow keys. If I nudge one too many times, or simply hold down an arrow key to continuously nudge the Corel A.R.M. screen will always appear. Once that stupid A.R.M. notice starts appearing, it will always pop up and keep popping up and popping up again and again and again -even when CorelDRAW 12 is closed down completely- until you fully reboot the computer system.

CorelDRAW 12 has a number of other aggravations. I hate not having the "one shot" zoom tool from CorelDRAW 9. It's bad enough that, to this day, Corel has never properly adopted the extremely superior Ctrl-Alt-Spacebar keyboard shortcut system for toggling on zooming and hand panning functions used by apps like Photoshop, Freehand, Illustrator and a number of other professional level graphics applications. The one shot zoom tool at least made things somewhat tolerable. With CorelDRAW 12, you're stuck with a persistent zoom tool -which equals a lot more trips back and forth to a tool bar just to get some simple things accomplished.

I have a CorelDRAW X3 upgrade box sitting on the desk next to me. Later on I'll try that out to see if Corel has hopefully made some improvements -particularly in application stability. I have been seriously disappointed with Corel in recent years. If they can't get their act together, Adobe is eventually going to steamroll them right out of the marketplace. Illustrator has to add only a couple more tools for me to ditch Corel completely.

 

[2NinerNiner2]

Same here as with Jerry VanHorn... my 12 doesn't get shut down for days on end; have never had it crash or otherwise hiccup. The other suggestions here are quite valid as well and the 2K fonts probably aren't helping, as you suspect.

Bobby H - I use the nudge all day, everyday and have never once gotten the app to misbehave; and I do hold it down for a while to make a 'large' nudge, as well as the SHIFT-Arrow. As for zooming, that can be a problem but I have never found it to be all that bothersome ...F3 and Shift-F4 plus the scroll wheel zoom works for me too

Perhaps it's because I am in Canada but I have never seen this A.R.M. thing that is discussed here.

 

[learned the hard way]

I think Windows XP is supposed to be able to handle a lot more fonts than older versions of Windows could, but it is worth a try to get rid of some of them. Don't delete them, though, just uninstall them. Use Bitstream Font Navigator that comes with Corel...Keep them there and just install/uninstall as needed. Never know when you might need one of those off-the wall fonts that you're not using right now.

I don't have any complaints with Corel 12 crashing, either. It has worked very well for me. Bobby H, for zooming in and out, I just use the wheel on the mouse.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

2000 fonts is too much, but instead of deleting use some sort of font organization program to activate/deactivate fonts as you need them. I believe Corel offers a Bitstream font navigator program on the CD - not sure I'm an Illustrator user.

The fewer active fonts the less likely you will see system crashes, I think 300-400 is better.

 

[neato]

I'm uninstalling them now.

On that subject, there's a freeware program out there called The Font Thing. It's a great little font management program for those that don't have one.

 

[lpc]

No problem with 12 here and am now using X3 without problems. I would look at your display settings and maybe even turn your video acceleration down some. If you're using screensavers, shut them off, they're nothing but resource hogs. Also, check your power saving features, I always set mine to 'NEVER'.

Hope you get it going ok.

 

[Bobby H]

I don't think fonts are the issue. The problem lies elsewhere (very likely in badly engineered code). I recently duplicated the same A.R.M. crash on a new custom built PC with a Pentium D 920 CPU, a clean installation of WindowsXP Professional SP2 and a minimal number of fonts. I have produced the same crash on an AMD Athlon X2 machine running Windows2000 Professional. The first places I saw this crash was on a new Dell Dimension 9100 equipped with a Pentium D 840 CPU and with WinXP Pro SP2 installed.

The fact I have been able to reproduce this error on a number of different machines, including my own Dell notebook computer running a completely different kind of Intel CPU, points the problem right back at the application. I know a number of other sign makers who have seen the very same problems.

 

[Checkers]

Another fan of 12 here. I do have an occasional minor problem, but I think I push it too hard.
If you installed Bitstream's Font Navigator, installing and uninstalling fonts is a breeze. Another good thing about the program is that it will search for and install fonts that you have on your machine but not installed. So, if you uninstall a font now, but need it later, it will reinstall the font when you reopen the file.

Checkers

 

[cdsgraphic]

No real problems here with 12... I have had crashed it a few times, but only when I'm really pushing it. I hardly ever turn my design station off and coreldraw is running most of the time, along with flexi photoprint dx and paint shop pro. Keeping your fonts under control using the bitsteam font manager helps a lot.

I will be upgrading to x3 shortly, looking forward to a better trace and contour features.

 

[2NinerNiner2]

Bobby H - just curious as to what it is you are nudging when you get the app to crash and is this the only action that causes it to do so? To try it for myself just now, I opened a new document, created a 1" square and timed it while I nudged it to the right for 60 seconds (zoomed out with the scroll wheel so I could see it ... no probs. So then an imported 5MB AI 10.0 graphic...1 min. with the arrow...nadda...OK..then a 7MB, 892 object, 39,343 points CDR file...1 min....still no problem. How exactly are you able to duplicate this crash on these various machines. I would like to try it to satisfy my own curiosity.

 

[Bobby H]

I can nudge anything and make CorelDRAW 12 spit up that A.R.M. dialog box. It could be a simple rectangle, a type item or just about anything else. Anymore than a few nudges at once always brings up that error box no matter what machine on which I have it installed.

I am using an upgrade version of CorelDRAW 12, build 12.0.0.536. As I stated, I have duplicated the error on several different machines. Most of them are Dell systems, but a couple are custom built units. Some have nVidia graphics chipsets, others have ATI. I have gone through updating various video card drivers, sound card drivers, printer drivers and more. The errors still repeat themselves regardless. The situation with CorelDRAW 12 is bad enough that I have kept CorelDRAW 9 on my computer system and tend to use that more often than 12. And that's in spite of the patches for CorelDRAW 9 refusing to install under XP Pro SP2.

I'm really hoping CorelDRAW X3 cleans up a bunch of this nonsense.