Not very happy with Corel X-8

[enewbold]

I, too, am a long-time Corel user and really don't wish to invest the time to learn/use AI. However, I feel I'm being pushed to it by Corel Corp! When I "upgraded" from x6 to x8, I was immediately put off by the relocation of some of the most commonly used tools, forcing me to slow down and search for the tool I need. But that freaking Font Manager they've switched to is a horrible disaster! I have both x6 and x8 installed now, and I still use x6 version for 95% of my work! A damned shame! And NO, I will NOT upgrade to their 2017 version!

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I use FontExpert. In corel X6. Always leary of upgrading to quickly. Like to stay 2 versions behind!! Less headaches!

Typically in a lot of production environments, that's the case.

Upgrades and updates bring about instability. It's just the very nature of having the latest and greatest.

Now, not updating/upgrading period can be a problem, there is a fine balance between the two.

 

[Bobby H]

I, too, am a long-time Corel user and really don't wish to invest the time to learn/use AI. However, I feel I'm being pushed to it by Corel Corp! When I "upgraded" from x6 to x8, I was immediately put off by the relocation of some of the most commonly used tools, forcing me to slow down and search for the tool I need. But that freaking Font Manager they've switched to is a horrible disaster! I have both x6 and x8 installed now, and I still use x6 version for 95% of my work! A damned shame! And NO, I will NOT upgrade to their 2017 version!

I've been using both Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW since the early 1990's. I used Macromedia Freehand for a few years as an alternative to Illustrator (particularly in the mid to late 1990's period when Adobe offered v5, v5.5 and v6 upgrades of Illustrator only for Mac). In the early days it was all about having vector-drawing tools that were far better integrated with Adobe Photoshop. To this day CorelDRAW still has no ability to paste AICB paths on the clipboard to use in Photoshop or offer any other way to get paths into Photoshop (both Illustrator & Freehand could copy/paste paths, vector masks, etc. into Photoshop).

These days I use Illustrator alongside CorelDRAW due to vast differences in how object fills are treated between the two programs. CorelDRAW has finally started getting a little better at version X8, but it still has a way to go. If I receive customer-provided art files that were generated in .AI and the fills are complex at all then it's very likely they'll get fouled up when imported into CorelDRAW. Latest personal experience: a sign project for Surf City Squeeze. The logo has a lot of transparency effects, lots of gradients and all sorts of clipped effects. CorelDRAW lost its mind trying to import it. It's just easier having Illustrator around for artwork with very Illustrator-dependent details. I'm just thankful Roland VersaWorks and Onyx Thrive know how to deal with EPS files from Illustrator CC properly.

As to Corel and how it locates tools, I agree it's a pain. Every time I upgrade or do a clean re-install of CorelDRAW I have to re-build the interface in the way I like. That involves bringing up some extra zoom and view options on the upper tool bar and bringing out various dockers I use frequently.

 

[GoatScrote]

I upgraded from X-5 to X-8 a few months ago and I thought at first it was just me getting used to the differences between the two versions so I gave myself some time to learn to use it!

The amount of times the program just seems to freeze up and won't doing anything other then give a message that say's X-8 has stopped working is getting very old and at this point I am really missing my old X-5 which worked great.

I have been receiving updates to the program right along but it's hard to work 8 hours a day with X-8 not acting up and my have to reboot it over and over.

So much for upgrading to what should have been a better version of CorelDraw!

If anyone knows what's wrong I welcome your advice because right now I am not a happy customer after using Corel products for years I am not sure I would recommend X-8 to anyone.

Jim

Hey guys, long-time Corel user here (since Corel 7 at least). Currently running Corel X7, haven't upgraded to Corel X8 yet but I usually like to wait at least a year to let em iron out the kinks! lol...anyway I just wanted to let you folks know that I run my Corel X7 on the shop PC with low specs - 4 gb ram and a 2.4 GHz processor with Win 7. I have zero crashes and rarely run into any issues with Font Nav etc. I'm also a part time computer tech and I believe the reason my Corel runs so smoothly as opposed to others I've read about is UPDATES! I cannot stress this enough. Everything needs to be updated regularly in order for your PC to run smoothly at all times. Not just your graphic software, but your Java runtimes, Windows updates, graphics cards etc. If you want to update most of your software all at once, go to Ninite.com and just check off everything that you already have for software and download. It will install all the latest version of everything all at once. Look for updates for your graphic software as you may have to do it manually. Secondly, you have to do some housekeeping on your PC regularly as well. Malware is rampant these days and you can get hit from all sides. Install a few free programs like Glary utilities and CCleaner. Do a daily or weekly scan using these two free tools and they will basically suck the farts out of your computer. If it's a little jacked up you may need to run stronger tools like RogueKiller and AdwCleaner. If anyone has any questions or would like a hand, I am more than willing to help. Maybe you just wanna pick my brain about a certain re-occurring issue? Just my two cents.

 

[myront]

...Currently running Corel X7... I have zero crashes and rarely run into any issues with Font Nav etc.

I too, run X7 with no problems. Well, except the ones I cause myself. A lot of problems lately point to a particular Microsoft update. I think that's getting worked out too. I don't run any of the cleaners but I do have a batch file that will dump all temp files. I also use a macro that deletes the clipboard whenever closing documents. I have another batch file I use whenever Corel gets squirrelly. It does a kill task then dumps temp files then restarts Corel all with one click.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I too, run X7 with no problems. Well, except the ones I cause myself. A lot of problems lately point to a particular Microsoft update. I think that's getting worked out too. I don't run any of the cleaners but I do have a batch file that will dump all temp files. I also use a macro that deletes the clipboard whenever closing documents. I have another batch file I use whenever Corel gets squirrelly. It does a kill task then dumps temp files then restarts Corel all with one click.

I would also delete your log files and your shadow copies as well (if not needed). That can be up to gigs of storage taken if you have never deleted them. MS does have a nice little utility to handle all that stuff as well.

Updates are a double edge sword. They inherently bring instability into the equation. With Windows computers, that's understandable due to all the variables with software and hardware. However, if Mac has their hiccups every now and again with updates and I have far less sympathy for them since they have a lock down on hardware as well, it isn't all that surprising that MS would have their issues as well, especially more so.

However, there is a significant difference between being updated and patched and being bleeding edge. I think with some things, people tend to be more bleeding edge, they may not even realize that, and that is different then being updated and stable.

While my VMs are isolated, I'm running OSs and programs (within the VMs) that haven't received any of their updates at all and they run smooth as silk. Now, my host OS is updated regularly (update Sunday I believe that it is for Linux rigs) and I do run protection software on that before it gets to any VMs, so don't think I don't keep updated. They are a double edge sword, especially with MS and their update history.

 

[Big Rice Field]

I use FontExpert. In corel X6. Always leary of upgrading to quickly. Like to stay 2 versions behind!! Less headaches!

But if you stay two versions behind you run into troulble trying to import files from the latest versions of Illustrator and AutoCAD.

 

[Bobby H]

Heck, even if you have the latest version of CorelDRAW you're still going to run into issues importing artwork generated by Adobe Illustrator. FWIW, problems occur going the other way as well. Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW do not get along together very well at all.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

But if you stay two versions behind you run into troulble trying to import files from the latest versions of Illustrator and AutoCAD.

I have never known the latest version of one program opening the latest version of the competitor's program. Especially now that Ai and DRAW seem to be coming out yearly with a new version.

Typically the general rule of thumb was that the latest version of one could open up to 1 generation behind the latest version of the other. Even that wasn't always a good experience.

I actually have far better luck opening latest versions of CDR and Ai with something like Document Viewer (included with the Linux Gnome DE) then I have with Ai when getting CDR files. Why that is, I have no idea, I find it strange, but I do have better experience with that little open source program then commercial programs.