Review by Bob Feeser

Update: As Corel stated I finally was able to load Corel X8 on top of Corel X7 that I had purchased previously. However I just loaded X7 and it required me logging into my Corel account to do so. It accepted my username, and password and initialized the program. So all is well here now. It was frustrating, but I have loved Coreldraw, and the other suite of programs in the graphics suite, and will now be able to enjoy them.nFor what it is worth, below is my original review and some of the frustration I experienced. It is entirely possible that Corel was having a problem with their servers on this day, making functionality difficult to say the least. I really do love the program. Below is my original review.

The thing I love about Corel Draw is the ease of use. I have several expensive Adobe products and the learning curve is radical. Corel has built in several different levels of sophistication. They have simplified ways of doing everything so anyone can get professional results. As far as another comment that they have zero support that is inaccurate. You can Google Corel support and they have a huge contact us page with three options: 1) Chat Online 2) Submit a ticket to support and get an answer within 24 hours 3) Call them with the listed 800 number Mon-Thurs 9am -10pm, and Friday 9am 7pm EST. I used the chat feature and was instantly connected to a representative at get a load of this 7:01 am on a Tuesday EST. When you get into a chat they answer all of your questions, and they automatically send you an email notifying you that a support ticket with number has been created for you so you can use that feature as well, and they have a copy of your chat session to bring them up to date. Now that is what you call first class support.nSo what I learned from my chat session is that you can install this software into up to 3 machines (that you own) and only use it in one machine at a time. The software is licensed per household or per single address. According to their EULA (End User License Agreement) you are leasing the software not buying it. As they say in the EULA The below agreement gives you permission to install and Use one copy of this product on one computer or electronic device at any given time as set out in the details in the EULA. That is what it says but the chat person said you can install it in up to 3 but only one usage at any given time. Also on the X7 sale page here at Amazon the Corel factory representative responded to the Q&A the same way with install of up to 3 machines with one use at a time.nAlso the EULA says this is a license, not a sale. The software is licensed to you, not sold to you. You may not sell, rent, lease, resell, or loan the software. That is a bit of a disappointment to me because I purchased X7 and was hoping to be able to sell it. Not! It aint going to happen. However my brother lives with me and Corel said him using it is no problem. Same household, and not more than one person using it at the same time. Corel X8 installs right on top of X7 and you can have both of them installed at the same time. So if you are unsure about compatibility it is advisable to install X8 first before, if you decide to uninstall X7. That way you won’t go through any hassles reloading X7 for any reason. I cant see why you would need both; X8 does it all and then some.nThis is a bit disheartening. When you open any part of the software it is precluded with a sing in box and when trying to sign in I get an unexpected server error. Then I try the second email address I have registered with Corel it says incorrect user name or password. So after many frustrating attempts to be able to use the software I unchecked the box that said I already have an account. Then clicked on continue and it says this email address is already in use. So I did a chat after logging into my account using the same email address and password that was refused as a server error when trying to use the program and they wanted me to do a screen capture of the error message. Then the screen capture function in my successful install of X7 before didn’t work right. So the support person said I had to reinstall the program. So I thought first I would reboot after the X8 install and I did. Up came the same error message not letting me get into the program. So I took the chat reps advice and tried to uninstall so I could reinstall. He told me to use Control Panel to uninstall. When I went into Control Panel and selected the program the message came up to wait while the program finishes the install first. Something was going on because my entire machine was running at a snails crawl. So I waited, and after a while the control panel screen came up and gave me options so I tried using the repair feature instead of removal and see how that goes. That is running now. It is taking forever. Its been several minutes and it is 6% complete. I will spend hours getting this sorted out. X7 loaded without a catch before. For now I have to give this experience 2 stars. Hopefully when it is all said and done I can move the ratings up.nI must say that even though the support chat told me that I can install X8 right alongside X7 I am suspect that it could be the cause of the problem. Only time will tell. Both programs show up as separate apps in Win 10. I can load X7 programs fine. But then again if I uninstall X7 and X8 turns out to be the problem, then I will have to find the X7 disc which is buried in a box somewhere because I have been remodeling my house. Will come back after I get this sorted out. So far I am not impressed.