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
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.
I think Gerarad replied here that you need to let Windows index your hard drive for .cdt files. Then they will appear in the New From Template dialog. I can't confirm this myself since I am on Win XP still.
I think this New From Template dialog is a drag. It should at least remember your last folder where you accessed a template, but it doesn't.
Ok.. here is where we stand with this..
Today, I went over to my friend's house to install this X4 suite on her Windows 7 notebook.. and guess what? NO templates either! I kinda suspect that since I can see some (and very few at that) templates on my Vista machine, this has to be Windows 7 related.
Oh and yeah - I spent 5 or 6 hours last night rebulding the Windows search index, and guess what? Made absolutely no difference.
On a sort of related topic.. since rebuildng the windows search index, I can no longer find ANY of the templates I had before, nor can I find the templates folder that corel had put them into after installation. Either the indexing really screwed up the search function, or what few templates I had are now gone along with their parent folder. Can someone please tell me the path this folder was supposed to be in?
Not that I really care that much anymore, but it is now a matter of principle.
Lastly Foster, please tell me a bit about Scrapbook.. I can find no reference to it in the Corel Help. Thanks.
(btw.. please have a little patience with me.. I used to use CorelDraw many years ago, and am just coming back to it - I have forgotten a lot, and it has changed a lot)
Ok, I solved the issue of not being able to find CDT files or the Templates folder with Windows Search: it seems that by default, the Program Files folder is NOT included in the seach indexing... you need to manually modify the indexing to include this folder because.. wait for it.. the stupid Templates folder is in the Program Files directory! (actual file path = c:\Program Files\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4\Languages\EN\Draw\Templates IMHO, this is the most illogical place to put templates! Arrrgh! (he says, as he pulls out what remains of his hair!)
Paul said: Ok, I solved the issue of not being able to find CDT files or the Templates folder with Windows Search: it seems that by default, the Program Files folder is NOT included in the seach indexing... you need to manually modify the indexing to include this folder because.. wait for it.. the stupid Templates folder is in the Program Files directory! (actual file path = c:\Program Files\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4\Languages\EN\Draw\Templates IMHO, this is the most illogical place to put templates! Arrrgh! (he says, as he pulls out what remains of his hair!)
In X5 the templates are located in C:\Program\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5\Languages\EN\Custom Data\Templates Not much better.
Back in version 9 Draw created a Corel User Files directory in My Documents. I still use it and I think it would be fine if Draw used it for all user custom data and maybe also for templates.