The whole approach of the programming team seems aimed at age around 11 years. Draw is a complex and sophisticated suite and the programmers should remember that the users are likewise, experienced and sophisticated; simply they are not programmers. The new template system is a complete nightmare to manage. How the hell does one get rid of a large selection of not wanted templates from "My Templates" It's wonderful how there are NO instructions in what must be the most often used facility. Come on Corel you can do it a LOT better. You are not selling this program to kindergartens, kids can't afford it. You are selling to professionals who have used it for years and years. Do you understand that ?
I would also like to know how the Template dialog in Draw X4 is supposed to work. The state of it now just leaves me puzzled. Cansomeone please explain? And why don't my own templates appear there even if I have used the "Open other" button. Isn't this dialog supposed to keep track of the templates on the system?
Hello Lars,
a few comments from my perspective. The New from Template dialog box was developed to be able to display both the templates that come with CorelDRAW as well as the files you create (.CDT wherever you save them in your "My Documents" folder).And it is the second part that was the most important. Because we didn't want to force a user to save his templates in a specific folder, we wanted it to search for .CDT files wherever they are.
Instead of re-inventing the wheel, we decided to leverage what comes with the operating system, e.g. we are using the search engine built-in Windows and display the results in that window. On Windows Vista (and Win7 going forward), because is comes with a fast desktop search engine, the results are displayed very quickly. On Windows XP, the normal indexing / search engine is a lot slower, but if you install the "Windows Desktop Search" app (free download from Microsoft.com), you will get the same experience as Windows Vista.
Hope this helps clarify a little.
Gérard
Thank you Gerard,
I looked Templates up in the Help file and it confirms what you say. But what about the built-in indexing in XP? Is that usable? I must say I'm a bit hesitant to use the indexing or the Desktop search, because form my experience they slow your computer down considerably. At one time I used the google desktop search, but unisntalled it since it ate resources.
I tested the Templates dialog by putting "*.cdt" in the search field, and very soon the templates started to show up. But why don't they do that immediately? Why do you have to put in an asterisk in the search field for it to show the templates in the Program files folder? I mean it's hard coded to search there anyway. I feel this is a very clumsy solution and it could have been made more user friendly with just a little bit more effort.
What I would like to see is the templates showing up without you having to put an astersik in the serach field. And also that you could point the app to different drives and folders. That would do it to me, especially if Draw could remember where things were stored. to me it seems like quite a bit of overkill to have to index your entire hard drive just to find a few templates. Especially since the app finds the .cdt-files quickly once you point it to a folder. You could have like a few paths that were stored in some .ini file and then the user just select wich one to search in for that session.
I don't know but maybe if I had had My Documents folder on the C drive it would have found my own templates? But I have moved all my docs onto the D drive for safety/backup reasons (it's a RAID1 volume).
It seems like the app is supposed to remember where your own templates are stored, but nothing happens if I click the My Templates link. Here all that had been needed was that the path to My Documents was stored. Or that it was stored automatically once you had opened your own template once.
Very strange... the CPT files should display automatically without having to put a * or *.cpt. They at least do on my system (yes, I am on Vista).
I feel the Template thing is unfinished and pretty much useless if you are on XP. I don't think it's a good idea to rely on an indexing that taxes your system so much, just for the sake of a few templates.
I too find the templates confusing/missing in X4. I just installed X4 on my Windows 7 system, and to my surprise when I selected 'open from template', I see ZERO templates.
Thinking this might be a compatibility issue with Win 7 and X4, I installed the program on my old Vista system. Surprisingly, some templates show up, but ONLY 6! I find this surprising, since I elected to install all extras - why only 6 templates? When I watch the Video Tutorials on the DVD, they show NUMEROUS templates when he selects 'open from template'. Why do I not see them?
The 6 templates are all for Landscaping and appear to be from Australia (AU). Yet, if I look in the templates folder, I see many more:B&B - NABakery - NABookstore - JPChildcare - UKConsulting - PLCraft Store - NADentist - NAHigh Tech - DEHigh Tech - SALandscaping - AULaw - RUPet Shop - UKPrint Shop - NAPub - DEReal Estate - UKRestaurant - JPRestaurant - LARestaurant - UKSport Club - UKTourism - AU
I am confused why all these non-English templates (JP, RU, LA, etc.) show up in the templates folder, when I chose only to install ENGLISH. Secondly, why do I only see the Landscaping AU templates, and not for example, the Tourism AU templates? Same language. And lastly, why do I see nothing on my Win 7 system?
Thanks
The templates might not have been automatically installed... you need to install the extras from the DVD.
Gerard Metrailler said: The templates might not have been automatically installed... you need to install the extras from the DVD.
Thank you for the reply. I did go back and try to reinstall everything - same result. The extras on the DVD seem to be installed with the main program. The main installer, has 4 tabs at the top of the window.. one of which is called extras, which includes fonts, clipart, templates, etc. During the main program install, I selected everything to be installed. Just in case, I later tried the 'install extras' function from the DVD - the problem is that it appeared that everything was already installed, because it only gave me the options repair, modify, or remove - no option to install. In any case, I selected repair, and it appeared to do nothing.
I still have no templates that I can see. Even browseing the templates folder, there appers to be very few templates.. most of them are other languages that I cannot use. But, still none show up in the window when I select 'open templates'.
Furthermore, it would appear that none of the fonts were installed either - do I have to manually select them and install them myself?
And lastly, none of the clipart or stock photos seem to be installed. When I selected the option, File->Import, I get a standard Window dialog that opens My Pictures folder. There is no place to type any keywords to find clipart (as the product Help suggests), and I have no idea how to work with clipart.
Is this product compatible with Windows 7?
Have you tried the File | New From Template command? That's typically how you access the templates.
Fonts are copied to the hard drive, they are not installed. You the included Bitstream Font Navigator to install them.
File | Import will work if you point it at the folder where the files are stored. It isn't "My Pictures". You might want to get the free ROMCat utility as it makes it easy to search the clip art library via keyword. It also sounds like it would be helpful for you to learn more about many things in regards to CorelDRAW. All of the questions you've asked here are answered in detail in my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book. It will take a small investment of money and an investment of your time, but it will be worth it to you in the long run as you'll be a much more productive user.
FosterCoburn said:Have you tried the File | New From Template command? That's typically how you access the templates.
Yes, I have tried that, and it produces the same result as the opening splash screen selection of opening new, or new from template.
Here is a screen cap of what I am getting:
It does not matter what I select - ALL or any of the individual categories. This seems to be just on my Windows 7 system. I tried this on an older Vista system, and the templates show in the window.. HOWEVER, only a few display. Like I said, there are very few English templates supplied with the program.. like about half a dozen. So, I am sort of wondering about the usefulness of the whole thing. I think what bothered me most, is that I was watching the tutorials supplied on the product DVD, and they specifically show opening from template, and there seems tonnes of them! Why do I not see them? Even if I use Browse and navigate to the templates folder, there seems to be very few English templates. Is this normal?
Thanks for the info on the fonts and clip art, as well as the ROMCat tip and the reference to the Unleashed book. However, I really find it ugly that Corel provides all these clip art and photo images, and provides no easy way to access them (other than going to a 3rd party utility). Just my humble opinion.