You may not use other applications. The rest of us might.

So what do you use that looks inside the new corel file structure and how does it save you time?

Not everyone has disk space to throw around.

I'm not asking for mandatory no-compression - just an option that we used to have and that is now gone. X3 had a checkbox that would allow you to either compress or not compress raster data. I would leave it off while working with files actively and then turn it on for a final save (as well as embedding fonts) for a final archival version. X4 still has the checkbox, but it does nothing as the save routine always packs the contents into a compressed zip as the final step. If you like this, great. For all vector files I find it fine. But it would have been much better if they provided an option for a package that didn't have to compress and compress again and compress again for those who don't want to wait and have plenty of disk space. When working on collages, layouts with embedded bitmaps, etc. the new save routine is definitely slower for me, in minutes, than the old option. And it seems an area that could easily be better with little programming effort on the developers part.

X4 is routinely using all 4 cores of  my Quad.

I would pay good money to have it utilize the multiple cores of my quadcore E5472 running 32-bit vista. Here is what I get while saving with X4 while I wait:

The OS rotates the thread among cores, but the utilization never hits close to 100% or even 50% of the 4 cores.

So most of the computer's processing power is idle, unused, while corel does it's new mandatory slow zip routine and I wait for it to save whlie X3 saved in seconds with the compression option off. Granted it's not a huge amount of time, but I figure each project I save around 90 to 110 times. Multiply that by a couple minutes extra lost time each time and you have a loss of productivity from the new version.

It would be the best of all worlds if corel could make X4 fully utilize all the available cpu cores to do the new mandatory zip routine. I don't mind tossing in another CPU to give it 8 cores and would then have no complaints. But with a routine that is only using 1/4 of my available resources and 1/8 of the resources I would gladly provide for it, while I wait, while before it was nearly instant, is less than ideal in my book. It could be much better.

If it can't be multithreaded, why is the compression of the zip necessary for the new structure? Can't the new struture easily exist just fine in an uncompressed or super-fast low compressed format, optionally, to provide options so everyone can have the best of all options?

I seem to remember that the save time increases because a temp file is created from page contents. Then that file is compressed into X4's zip format. Before it was compressed on the fly from Draw's page using different algorithm (I think). So, an extra step is created instead of streaming directly into a zip somehow. It may not be possible to stream from X4 into ZIP...

for me... if there is greater reliability in the ZIP format to prevent corrupt Draw files I can live with it. But in 10 years or so I think I've only had 2 files go bad in old format, and I recovered reasonably from Draw's "backup_of".

One idea is to always save as ver 13 from X4 using macro for this, but you lose X4 layer functions, tables, etc. But for many jobs the save time can be much faster.

Island:

I still greatly dislike the much slower save (compared to X3 and before) when working on files that contain large raster images.

In more than 10 years I do not have any broken file in save to uncompressed cdr file in all Draw versions. So, this worked good.

Now I do not moved to X4 only due save time problem. Small illustrations I doing in X4, of course, but all serious big works in X3 only. When I saving generally every 3-5 min. increasing save time in X4 more than 3 times (up to 2 minuts insted 25-30 seconds) is very very serious problem.

 

This definitely is in need of a fix. Someone already mentioned it, but I wanted to echo this... Drop shadows on artistic text when the outline is "behind fill" results in an erroneous shadow.
http://coreldraw.com/forums/t/6989.aspx

I don't know if this is a "bug" or merely a "change" but .cdr files imported now don't come in grouped by default. There are a few workarounds, but figured I'd mention it.
http://coreldraw.com/forums/t/7216.aspx

And I don't expect this one to ever be fixed, but I'll throw it out there... It's probably at least a decade-old bug, and with each version I always hope to see it fixed... Editing drop shadows over power clips sometimes distorts the shadow.
http://coreldraw.com/forums/t/6565.aspx

 

 Arrange, align and distrube, align to page vertically does not work properly - it arranges to page horizontally. Likewise, the arrange to page horizontally feature instead arranges to page vertically.

Also, I can't find the scrapbook docker. Does it exist?

JK

 Scrap Book Docker: Windows - Dockers - Scrap Book - Browse

Align and Distribute - Center to Page horizontally and vertically works exactly as the icon in the dialog tells you it will- at least it does on my machines.

Horizontally - moving the object only horizontally, move to center of page.

Vertically- moving the object only vertically, move to the center of page.

P moves both horizontally and vertically.

Fonts failing to embed in PDF documents

I don't trust X4's PDF export now. I never had a problem with previuos versions of CorelDraw, but when I use the Publish to PDF in X4 with Embed Fonts checked and send the PDF to people, I'm getting reports of weird font substitutions occuring on their end. I then savce the CorelDraw file back to X3 and Publish to PDF using X3's Publish to PDF feature and the fonts are all embedded correctly and reliably.

This issue has caused me some major grief with X4 until I figured out it must be X4 causing the issue. If there is a licensing change, etc. that does not allow X4 to embed fonts the same as previuos versions, it's absolutely critical that X4 alert the user visbily that something has gone wrong and the fonts have not been embedded.

 There is no scrap book docker.

 See attached:

There is no scrapbook option in my docker list and no results when I search for "scrapbook" in help. It's so frustrating. I tried to attach an image of the drop down list but it seems I can only attach a web page image. Please advise.

 

 If you can't see it, try resetting your workspace by launching the program with the F8 key held down. Overwrite your workspace when prompted. Make sure it isn't just disappearing off the bottom of the screen too. It is pretty far down the dockers menu. I am in 1900x1200 mode on my screen.

 Resetting the workspace did the trick! Thank you so much, Rikk.

JWJK,

The scrapbook docker was not in the default menu set when X4 was released,
but it was still in the program. You just had to use customization to add it
back. Personally I don't know why it wasn't part of the default set, but
then again I find it completely useless anyways (more on that in a second).
With SP1, Corel did add it back to the default workspace and that's why
resetting your workspace brought it back.

So why do I find it useless? Most people use it to find clip art or photos.
I don't need a poorly implemented Docker to do that. I use ROMCat (it's free
and downloadable from http://www.unleash.com/articles/romcat/) . For Photos,
there are plenty of other good tools for cataloging photos, including some
free ones.

I open the Scrapbook Docker in each version of CorelDRAW twice. The first
time is to take a screen shot for my books. The second time is to film a
movie about it for the book. After that, I won't see it again until the next
version.

X4 renders text with aliased (jagged) edges when it is being placed on top of a Photopaint image.  X3 does NOT do this. What have the programmers done. X4 is a giant step backwards in this aspect.

 Here are my complaint's with X4....

 

1)  "Save As" any previous version of coreldraw does not work and infact blows up the file and bombs you completely out of the program!  I can't believe the programmers and beta testers didn't see that one!

2) On some computers the moving of any objetcs with text strings is slow and choppy... like the progrm is trying to redraw the object along the drag. 

3) Preview window is very slow when opening a file, and even with the preview button unchecked the file retrieval time is much slower than X3.

4) Service pack 1 page doesn'rt link me to any download at all!

5) The layers change per page making it hard to keep track of what layer you are working in.  Why did this change from the way it was in X3?

 

We decided to no longer use X4 until everything is fixed.  Let me know when that is please.  By the way Designer X4 has the same problem with the save as previous versions of coreldraw too!!!!

 

I'm OUT!!!