Klaus Vossen
Wed, Apr 29 2009
In Corel DESIGNER you can apply a lot of different settings to graphical shapes. No matter what kind of shape (curve, rectangle, ellipse, polygon) you're creating, you might want to apply the same fill and/ or outline style to different shapes. For this type of task an efficient way is to create and use Outline/Fill presets that are listed in the dynamic Property Bar whenever a shape or corresponding tool is selected.

This tip describes how to create custom presets for outline and fill attributes of shapes and how these presets can be shared with other users.

NOTE: The steps below are described for Corel DESIGNER X4 on Windows Vista. Presets can be stored in a similar way with Corel DESIGNER 12 and on Windows XP (folder names and structure needs to be changed corresponding to product and OS version).

1) Create a graphics shape (i.e. rectangle), then apply desired outline and fill attributes to it via Property Bar (including Advanced Outline Pen and Fill settings):

2) Select + on the Property Bar to Add a new Preset to the current user profile:

 Give it a useful name (in this sample it's called "Dashed01") and save the *.pst (preset) file with that name.

 3) The new preset will show up in the list of presets for all vector objects (lines & curves, rectangles, ellipses, polygons).

Note: The preview that is shown in that preset list is created from the selected object when the new Preset is saved as pst file.

Dimension objects and Callouts have their own presets and preset lists that can be customized in the same way as the Outline/Fill presets.

4) To make a preset available to all users (the *.pst file is stored in the current user profile only when being saved) move the file from the user specific folder C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Corel\Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4\Designer\Presets\FillOutline to the Application installation folder: C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite X4\Languages\EN\Designer\Presets\FillOutline .

The preset files are stored in language specific folders. In order to access a preset in any application UI language of Corel DESIGNER you need to copy the pst file(s) to the corresponding "Languages" sub folders.

Tip: Outline/Fill presets contain outline AND fill properties. By applying an Outline/Fill preset you will always set/ overwrite both object attributes to the settings stored with the preset. For copying single attributes from one object to another you can use the Eyedropper tool (in the toolbox) instead.

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