Review by Colorgirl

The following review is written under the umbrella idea that CorelDraw Suite is one of the best I have ever used and I can not stand going without it. However, it is not without its frustrations. This version is better than previous versions in many ways. I will attempt to list a few of my frustrations here so if you run into them, you are not surprised. Still the program is worth it and I highly recommend it.

I tested the 64bit version, it also comes with 32bit as well.n—————nnCorelDraw- a topic in my household since version 3, which is a very long time ago. I was so excited about checking out the new X7 version that I could hardly stand it.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?nnOkay, so CorelDraw is notorious for having some crazy bugs in it. More than one graphic artist has asked in a variety of ways, what kind of sparkling mind designed some of the things in each new addition. Some use more choice words than others.

I have had pretty good results with most of the newer versions of CorelDraw over time. I have encountered some pretty odd quirks from time to time, including some which have been downright embarrassing if not caught before submitting documents.

However, this time around, I figured with the 64 bit version- WOW this ought to really be FAST.

And it is.

I guess the exciting part is that this time around I can rush more quickly from one ANNOYING BUG TO THE OTHER without having to wait as long as before. I mean, REALLY. I realize that the updates have not been released yet, so please take this review with a grain of salt. I am sure updates will be released that will fix some of this stuff…..I hope.

COREL DRAWnFirst of all, the program is a lot faster. WHEE! At least I can run through things a little more easily. Until the program reboots itself, of course. Do NOT get me started.

CorelDraw has a great amount of features in it. It is a wonderful graphics program and one would hope it will work out well often enough so that you don’t have to get too frustrated and don’t slow your work load down too much.

This time around, well, to begin with, I was editing some documents that I did in a previous version- CorelDraw X5. It was not THAT long ago that the program was out, so I didn’t think I should run into too many problems.

Guess again, sucker!nnHere is a list of my first exciting day with this new version:nnOutline Tool:nWhere did it go? I looked everywhere for it. I went to the help files. I went everywhere and the places it was listed did not tell how to install outlines or change the color- very basic tool. After a half hour of looking and experimenting- I found it. It is a bit random and didn’t make any sense to me, but once I got the hang of it, I was good to go.

Printer bugs:nI have two printers on my system. I have an HP Envy 4300 and a Officejet K550. I have not had any issues with these printers on any other program or system- except CorelDraw. The program will suddenly cause an issue and then shut down the complete program. If you plan to use this program until there are updates, PLEASE SAVE YOUR WORK CONSTANTLY in case it decides to shut down BEFORE it backs up your file as you work.

OUTLINE TOOL- AGAINnIt used to be if you highlighted any text - either artistic or paragraph that ONLY THAT TEXT would change color, but not any more. Outlines and text color will not only change on the word you highlight, but on the entire document contained in that box. TALK ABOUT ANNOYING. Then you have to go change the other text BACK where you want it. ARGH!nnJust when I was about to give up on the whole thing, I tried one more time- and VOILA! It worked. I got confident that all was well, and BAM back to random again. It seems that there is a bug when you access the fill for text from the tool bar vs the text properties dock on the right side. I plan to explore this further. Since I am not allowed a lot of time to test this extensively, I am just giving you what I have discovered in the few weeks of using it.

PREVIOUS FILESnWhen I have chosen some files that I have previous worked on in CorelDraw X5, get ready for a fun ride. First of all you have to have the files converted to the new font/text engine in X7. If you don’t you will get some odd performance from the file if you try to edit or print.

Then if you try to print the files after working on them a bit- or not- even if used as is- sometimes a page will randomly print really really tiny and then no other pages in the document will print that way- even though they all print fine on previous versions. So here you are with a document that suddenly goes into micro mode. It took a lot of effort to get it to print normally again. Better to start that page over, but again, TIME CONSUMING.

PHOTO PAINTnThis is where the 64bit improvements really start to become interesting. In past versions, sometimes when I wanted to do some photo work, I would open quite a few photos and work between them. It was clunky and frustrating at times. Also at times, I found that the system would choke and I might have to restart the program.

This time around, the program is much easier to work with. The photos are all laid out in a much nicer manner. Each photo is like a file folder which has a tab at the top. Moving between photos is much easier and quicker. I LOVE that feature.

Also, I have opened photos which were adjusted with previous versions of Corel Photopaint and was very surprised at how much nicer they turned out. I find that the tools are more efficient and end up with much nicer results than in some previous versions.

I have been working extensively with CorelDraw and am still very pleased with this version. Despite some frustrating bugs, the 64bit version is faster and seems to be more efficient especially when dealing with photos.

FINAL COMMENTSnThere is so much I can comment on with this program and so much that I would like to talk about. However, Amazon only wants limited review space, so I will stop there.

Despite the frustrations, I expect some of them to be corrected with future updates.

I have seen better performance in the photo area but also the options for the Draw area as well. The documentation and training videos available are helpful and extensive if you want to take the time to use them. It is also intuitive for learners who like to dive in, but some things can be hard to locate and figure out without looking it up.

I highly recommend CorelDraw Graphics Suite X7. The improvements are worth any frustrations.

MY SYSTEMnWindows 7n3.20 GHz i5 CPU (64bit)nRAM- 6GBnGRAPHICS Radeon HD 5700