About DSF & DES file format

Have a look at this discussion thread: http://community.coreldraw.com/forums/p/11183/45476.aspx#45476

You can open *.dsf files with Corel DESIGNER X5, but you won't be able to save them back as *.dsf in the current Corel DESIGNER version.

Designer 9 cannot read *.des (Corel DESIGNER 10 - X5) files as this file format didn't even exist at the time that version was released.

Of course the best option would be to get your co-workers to work with an up-to-date Corel DESIGNER (X5) as well to have full support for all the content you're creating with the current version. There have been many new features that also result in enhancements in the file format. So older versions of the application cannot understand all the content properly which means you're loosing some of the object structure and/or attributes when saving back to older versions of the *.des file format, and even more when using a different file format for exchanging with other applications.

For exchanging files between Corel DESIGNER (X5) and Micrografx Designer (9) I can only suggest using CGM as exchange file format. You will loose certain aspects/ features from the original *.des file as CGM does not fully support the advanced feature set of Corel DESIGNER (i.e. callouts will be interpreted as groups of lines, text and masks for the halo).

In Corel DESIGNER (X5) the focus on exporting files to other file formats lies on visual integrity. So the file should look same as how it was created in Corel DESIGNER - however this is done at the cost of changing the object structure and in some cases making the individual objects less editable with features not supported in the target file (exchange) format.

Regards,
Klaus.